Avenues for open complaint for poor broadband service?

[cjtune]

Can anybody suggest effective avenues I can write an complaint about a poor experience I had with Singnet? Which local newspaper, magazine that tend to sympathise with consumer greviences? Some Singnet executives without going through the maze of their support structure?

Basically, they disabled my existing Singnet broadband line (which incidentally has been working fine for the past 2 years) for about a week at the inception of a line upgrade and recontract, and had my time wasted by rushing back home for appointments with a 'linesman' that couldn't be bothered to show up. In addition to deductions for next month's bill, I really ought to be charging them for my overtime work (work I have to make up for later by having taken time off to go back home for the appointment) and travel expenses.

Also, I find their 'free' gift (a laptop, in my case) redemption program run by Rewardslink very haphazardly organised. Apparently first-come-first served, and no reservation even for a single day - you could, in theory, call early in the day to find that there is stock but all gone by the time you reach their premises in The Adelphi, wasting your time and trip expense. Should have a queue number system according to date whereby the deal was struck with Singnet, and a 'deliver-by' date - without which, any 'no-stock' status coupled with the poor collection system could mean you can be denied your 'free gift' for an annoyingly long time. The reality is that it isn't actually free (reflected by higher per-month usage fees) and it should be treated as a proper sales proceeding - I doubt any laptop dealer in Sim Lim or Funan can be so sloppy in treating a customer.

I'd appreciate if I could be spared the "It's like that, nothing can be done" comments.

 

[drakon09]

You could jump ship.

Or threaten to do so.

Awww heck, why are you with singtel in the first place?!

 

[Nisa]

you can always try writing to The forum.

BTW u're a better person than me.... :thumbsup:

 

[cjtune]

You could jump ship.

Or threaten to do so.

Awww heck, why are you with singtel in the first place?!

Yeah... in 2.5 years' time once my renewed contract expires...
I was with Singnet before (3Mbps service), and I thought the 10Mbps package they were offering was sooo good until I decided to recontract and upgrade - then idiocy happened.

Anyhow, my service miraculously recovered a few days ago, after the one weeks of exasperating outage. This is after 6-7 operator calls, 2 linesman appointments (only 1 was honoured). But I'm still feeling pissed and want to get to the bottom of it.

 

[cjtune]

you can always try writing to The forum.

BTW u're a better person than me.... :thumbsup:

The Straits Times 'The Forum'? Could try... but I've a strange feeling they'll probably give airtime to more 'pressing social concerns' sort of letters. Mine is more of a commercial/consumer beef with the big red giant.

Not sure what you meant by "a better person than me"... :dunno:

 

[satay16]

sign up starhub now!! got tablet pc.:bsmilie:

 

[Parchiao]

1. You do not need to be at home to reconnect a broadband connection. If there was some upgrade that required the Singnet rep to test the connection, you should do it at your convenience. There is always some give and take in such situations, the Singnet rep is not servicing you and only you, if he encounters problems with an appointment before yours, he will probably be late. If he did not show up, although you will have a reason to make a complaint, you should haved checked and confirmed the appointment on the same day or day before to save yourself the trouble of a no show, it has happenned to me before. Don't expect Singnet to compensate you directly for time off from work, ask for compensation for a few months of subscription, else cancel the contract.

2. Call Singnet and make a complaint about the hassle in which you have to take delivery of your laptop. In my case, I took delivery of a Sony 32" LCD TV. The Sony reps did not call me even after 2 weeks from the date Singnet provided me, I lodged a complaint with Singnet everyday until the Sony rep called. Maybe you can suggest to Singnet to talk to the laptop guys to make a reservation for you due to your special circumstances, press Singnet to do all this for you, tell them that if they fail to honour the part of providing you with a laptop, you will excercise your right to cancel the contract regardless of their threats to charge you a penalty, they cannot charge you a penalty if you did not receive the laptop. Tell them that you will not pay them a single cent when you cancel the contract and on top of that tell Singent that you will tell everybody on the world wide web your experience.

 

[cjtune]

1. You do not need to be at home to reconnect a broadband connection. If there was some upgrade that required the Singnet rep to test the connection, you should do it at your convenience. There is always some give and take in such situations, the Singnet rep is not servicing you and only you, if he encounters problems with an appointment before yours, he will probably be late. If he did not show up, although you will have a reason to make a complaint, you should haved checked and confirmed the appointment on the same day or day before to save yourself the trouble of a no show, it has happenned to me before. Don't expect Singnet to compensate you directly for time off from work, ask for compensation for a few months of subscription, else cancel the contract.

Parchio, wouldn't it be nice to have them tell you in advance that they couldn't make it on that day? Imagine if it's scheduled for working hours and you actually took 1/2 day off. How much does 1/2 day of unpaid leave cost you? Of course, with lots of ppl complaining that they are super underpaid in the MOM salary survey thread maybe it doesn't make a difference to them.... :bsmilie:
Also, in my day job, there are others who rely on what I do. So it's not just the Singnet linesman that has dependants.

Also, why should the consumer be 'giving' to solve a problem that is not of their doing?
Plus, after the first 'linesman' visit on the 2nd day of the problem, we (both the linesman and I) were 101% certain the problem was at the 'backend'. I have repeated this to all future operator calls but for some reason they insisted on a 2nd linesman visit. I agree with you fully I really shouldn't need to come home to have my line up and running, in this respect.

2. Call Singnet and make a complaint about the hassle in which you have to take delivery of your laptop. In my case, I took delivery of a Sony 32" LCD TV. The Sony reps did not call me even after 2 weeks from the date Singnet provided me, I lodged a complaint with Singnet everyday until the Sony rep called. Maybe you can suggest to Singnet to talk to the laptop guys to make a reservation for you due to your special circumstances, press Singnet to do all this for you, tell them that if they fail to honour the part of providing you with a laptop, you will excercise your right to cancel the contract regardless of their threats to charge you a penalty, they cannot charge you a penalty if you did not receive the laptop. Tell them that you will not pay them a single cent when you cancel the contract and on top of that tell Singent that you will tell everybody on the world wide web your experience.

Good one! I think I will try the 'bugger the Singnet rep' tactic. But having an open (ie. public) complaint might trigger a more holistic overhaul of the system. I don't want others to have to experience what we went through. I have a feeling this sloppy delivery system probably breaches some consumer law or two.

 

[D100S]

Nothing like giving them a call and telling them to wake up a bit! My wife was charged $61 for broadband service on her hp a month ago. I called up the hotline and one fella accused my whole family of using the service without me knowing before he hung up on me. Called again and a lady did the same and interrupted me whenI was trying to explain. I GAVE HER HELL! In about 5 minutes or so I told her to be a customer service officer and not try to put the blame all on me and my family. My wife could not even read or send mms... And ridicilous to chalk up such an amount for internet usage!
One email and instant response. A call came and apologised to me and said that the two clowns would be counselled. She then said that investigations would be carried out... just what I wanted to hear. If really I was wrong... I accept.
A week later, an email came and stated that the charges would be cancelled. Sorry for being so long winded...

 

[cjtune]

One email and instant response. A call came and apologised to me and said that the two clowns would be counselled. She then said that investigations would be carried out... just what I wanted to hear. If really I was wrong... I accept.
A week later, an email came and stated that the charges would be cancelled. Sorry for being so long winded...

Thanks for sharing your experience, D100S.

To whom did you direct your email to?

 

[D100S]

Thanks for sharing your experience, D100S.

To whom did you direct your email to?

No Problems. Actually in the singtel site there is a facility to send in your feedback. It has been quite effective for me like twice already.

 

[drakon09]

Nothing like giving them a call and telling them to wake up a bit! My wife was charged $61 for broadband service on her hp a month ago. I called up the hotline and one fella accused my whole family of using the service without me knowing before he hung up on me. Called again and a lady did the same and interrupted me whenI was trying to explain. I GAVE HER HELL! In about 5 minutes or so I told her to be a customer service officer and not try to put the blame all on me and my family. My wife could not even read or send mms... And ridicilous to chalk up such an amount for internet usage!
One email and instant response. A call came and apologised to me and said that the two clowns would be counselled. She then said that investigations would be carried out... just what I wanted to hear. If really I was wrong... I accept.
A week later, an email came and stated that the charges would be cancelled. Sorry for being so long winded...

Reminds me of my brush with them almost a decade ago (Ericsson GH388 anyone?). Seriously overcharged for two straight months, customer service pissed me off, jumped ship to M1, and have been a happy camper ever since.

 

[cjtune]

No Problems. Actually in the singtel site there is a facility to send in your feedback. It has been quite effective for me like twice already.

You mean the online feedback form?
Tried it during the course of my troubles and the reply I got was roughly "we have checked on our site and rebooted the server. Please call us back if you're still having problem".

I think the feedback has to reach someone that knows what to do and is responsible enough to carry through till resolution. Now with my broadband line already functional, what remains is to know what went wrong with the process and for Singnet to prevent such a inefficient and frustrating experience for other users in the future... and of course, adjust my next month's bill accordingly for my satisfaction and undelivered service.