29 December 2004

TMNet Horrors 1.0 - The Saga Begins

Well, after 6 months wrestling with TMNet support, Ive decided to go public with this case to to illustrate how bad a company can get with customer relations.

In November 2004 I was finding logging into my streamyx (broadband) account difficult, many-a-times getting an error saying that my login credentials are bad. I always just attributed this to yet another downtime from TMNet, as I dont expect much from their service. TMNet is good in that they have offered 3 packages for home users. A 60 hour limit per month for RM44 (about USD11), Unlimited at 384kbps for RM66, and Unlimited at 512kbps for RM88.

As Im a very light user of the 'net at home, I opted for the RM44 one, and over the year, I noted that my usage was on average only 30hours a month.

Upon receiving my monthly bill in December 2004 however, I found that I had been charged RM442.21. That is as much as my entire annual bill just for one month! Naturally I emailed my concerns to support@tm.net.my to clarify this anomaly. Here is my email:

From: Yoon Kit Yong <yoonkit@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 19:19:50 +0800
Subject: Outrageous Streamyx bill! RM44 -> RM422 for this month!
To: support@tm.net.my, billing@tm.net.my

Hello there.

I have been using streamyx for almost a year now,
and have never had login problems. Only lately,
about 1-2 months ago, I kept getting problems logging in,
where the system says my password / login is invalid.

I have since learnt how to call your 1300 number,
and getting hold of your support has been easy.
They explained that this problem could occur when I dont log out
properly from my PPoE session. However I havent
changed my procedure from logging in and out,
I just use the WinXP dialer, to log in, and select 'Disconnect' to log out.

The standard procedure of your support staff now is to just kill the session,
and Ill be able to log in again, hapilly.

My account is the RM44 option, as I do not use more than 60 hours per month.
However I just found out about tmbill.tm.net.my and to my horror,
this months bill is RM422 !!! This is ridiculous, because if I were to upgrade
to the RM66 package, its only RM260 extra for the entire YEAR!

Can you please look into this problem,
as its causing me much grief in wondering if my session
is still active or not, and raking my precious hours?!

My streamyx account is: yoonkit@streamyx

Thanks in advance,

Yoon Kit.

===== this is what I found from tmbill for this month!!! =======
Note the 185 hour session, as well as the multiple 40+hr ones. Crazy.

Service
/service/email /service/tmm_streamyx /service/tmm_ichoose
Bill Date
24 Dis 2004

Start (Login) Time POP Name Duration (HH:MM:SS) Amount(RM)
16-Nov-2004 18:28:55 , Tue erxcbj02-home 211:26:32 RM 90.87
25-Nov-2004 13:55:29 , Thu erxcbj02-home 00:18:28 RM 0.18
25-Nov-2004 14:13:59 , Thu erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
25-Nov-2004 14:19:29 , Thu erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
25-Nov-2004 14:24:57 , Thu erxcbj02-home 23:57:29 RM 14.37
26-Nov-2004 14:22:28 , Fri erxcbj02-home 00:17:28 RM 0.17
26-Nov-2004 14:39:58 , Fri erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
26-Nov-2004 14:45:28 , Fri erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
26-Nov-2004 14:50:57 , Fri erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
26-Nov-2004 14:56:27 , Fri erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
26-Nov-2004 15:01:57 , Fri erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
26-Nov-2004 15:07:27 , Fri erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
26-Nov-2004 15:12:57 , Fri erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
26-Nov-2004 15:18:27 , Fri erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
26-Nov-2004 15:23:57 , Fri erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
26-Nov-2004 15:29:26 , Fri erxcbj02-home 00:05:29 RM 0.05
26-Nov-2004 15:34:57 , Fri erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
26-Nov-2004 15:40:28 , Fri erxcbj02-home 24:28:26 RM 14.68
27-Nov-2004 16:08:56 , Sat erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
27-Nov-2004 16:14:26 , Sat erxcbj02-home 00:08:28 RM 0.08
27-Nov-2004 16:22:56 , Sat erxcbj02-home 00:11:28 RM 0.11
27-Nov-2004 16:34:26 , Sat erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
27-Nov-2004 16:39:55 , Sat erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
27-Nov-2004 16:45:26 , Sat erxcbj02-home 00:05:28 RM 0.05
27-Nov-2004 16:50:55 , Sat erxcbj02-home 02:27:28 RM 1.47
27-Nov-2004 19:18:21 , Sat erxcbj02-home 45:03:29 RM 27.03
29-Nov-2004 16:22:13 , Mon erxcbj02-home 00:08:01 RM 0.08
29-Nov-2004 16:32:19 , Mon erxklj02-home 48:36:38 RM 29.17
01-Dec-2004 17:08:59 , Wed erxklj02-home 00:00:20 RM 0.00
01-Dec-2004 17:09:20 , Wed erxklj02-home 04:09:11 RM 2.49
01-Dec-2004 21:18:31 , Wed erxklj02-home 13:04:01 RM 7.84
02-Dec-2004 10:22:34 , Thu erxklj02-home 00:00:18 RM 0.00
02-Dec-2004 10:22:50 , Thu erxklj02-home 30:45:30 RM 18.46
03-Dec-2004 17:08:22 , Fri erxklj02-home 00:00:19 RM 0.00
03-Dec-2004 17:08:24 , Fri erxklj02-home 185:52:52 RM 111.53
11-Dec-2004 11:01:18 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:20 RM 0.00
11-Dec-2004 11:01:40 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:02:10 RM 0.02
11-Dec-2004 11:03:52 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:18 RM 0.00
11-Dec-2004 11:04:12 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:04:47 RM 0.05
11-Dec-2004 11:09:01 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:22 RM 0.00
11-Dec-2004 11:09:24 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:02:46 RM 0.03
11-Dec-2004 11:12:30 , Sat erxklj02-home 02:19:41 RM 1.40
11-Dec-2004 13:32:13 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:18 RM 0.00
11-Dec-2004 13:32:23 , Sat erxklj02-home 91:48:19 RM 55.08
15-Dec-2004 09:20:43 , Wed erxklj02-home 02:21:57 RM 1.42
15-Dec-2004 11:42:41 , Wed erxklj02-home 00:53:59 RM 0.54
15-Dec-2004 12:36:43 , Wed erxklj02-home 00:00:18 RM 0.00
16-Dec-2004 23:38:45 , Thu erxbrf01-home 02:42:02 RM 1.62
15-Dec-2004 12:36:57 , Wed erxklj02-home 57:05:45 RM 34.26
17-Dec-2004 21:42:42 , Fri erxklj02-home 12:18:25 RM 7.38
18-Dec-2004 10:01:09 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:19 RM 0.00
18-Dec-2004 10:01:30 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:50 RM 0.01
18-Dec-2004 10:02:22 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:19 RM 0.00
18-Dec-2004 10:02:43 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:58 RM 0.01
18-Dec-2004 10:03:42 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:19 RM 0.00
18-Dec-2004 10:04:03 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:01:12 RM 0.01
18-Dec-2004 10:05:17 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:19 RM 0.00
18-Dec-2004 10:05:38 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:55 RM 0.01
18-Dec-2004 10:06:35 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:18 RM 0.00
18-Dec-2004 10:06:54 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:01:08 RM 0.01
18-Dec-2004 10:08:04 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:20 RM 0.00
18-Dec-2004 10:08:26 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:01:05 RM 0.01
18-Dec-2004 10:09:33 , Sat erxklj02-home 00:00:19 RM 0.00
22-Dec-2004 22:18:25 , Wed erxbrf01-home 02:11:36 RM 1.32

- Total 764:30:47 RM 422.71



So I emailed this on the 29th of December. Guess how long before they responded?