Thousands and maybe hundreds of thousands of Malaysian are not happy with our Telcos, but right now, Maxis appears to be the most popular among them all.
Since late February (or early March), Maxis have been quietly offering a “secret postpaid plan” to customers who requested to port out. The secret plan offered Unlimited Calls and SMS, 5GB data at RM68. The postpaid plan is exactly the same as MaxisONE plan 158, but customers pay RM68/month instead of RM158/month. Some Maxis customers who were porting out were also offered the MaxisONE plan 188 at RM88/month instead of RM188/month.
The offer angered many loyal Maxis customers.The cheaper plans were offered to customers who have decided to leave Maxis, while customers who have been loyal with Maxis over the years were not given the same special treatment.
There are 623k MaxisONE plan subscribers with an APRU of about RM150/month, as of December 2015. Maxis lost 377k subscribers between October, November and December last year.
During these period, many Maxis customers were trying to port out but Maxis did not make the process easy. For Maxis Mobile Number Portability (MNP) to work, customers who wants to port out will have to respond to a SMS from Maxis, confirming the port out request within 24 hours. It is believed that the SMS will be sent to the principle number and all supplementary numbers. The MNP process will fail if one of the number don’t respond to the SMS from Maxis and customers will need to walk in to Celcom, Digi or U Mobile to request for port out again.
This wasn’t the only Maxis MNP issue, I have seen a few possible evidence that Maxis MNP system failed to recognise those port out request despite all procedures were followed (screenshot above).
The popular secret postpaid plan was later launched as MaxisONE plan 68 (March 11), however it is only available in Sabah & Sarawak. Maxis also upgraded all its current MaxisONE plan with a data quota that is almost double and unlimited Internet between 1am to 7am, available in East Malaysia only.
In West Malaysia, MaxisONE plan starts from RM98/month with unlimited calls and SMS but only comes with 1GB data.
Comparison of the confusing MaxisONE plans offered to different “types of Malaysians”:
| West Malaysia | East Malaysia | Maxis Postpaid customers who wants to port out (Mostly in East Malaysia) |
| MaxisONE Plan 98 RM98/month, Unlimited Calls & SMS, 1GB Data
|
MaxisONE Plan 68 RM68/month, Unlimited Calls and SMS, 5GB data. Unlimited Internet 1am-7am.
|
MaxisONE plan 158 at RM68/month instead of RM158. Customers get Unlimited Calls and SMS, 5GB data
Or |
| MaxisONE plan 128 RM128/month, Unlimited Calls & SMS, 3GB Data | MaxisONE plan 98 RM98/month, Unlimited Calls & SMS, 7GB Data.
Unlimited Internet 1am-7am. |
MaxisONE plan 188 at RM88/month instead of RM188/month. Customers get Unlimited Calls and SMS, 8GB data |
| MaxisONE plan 158 RM158/month, Unlimited Calls & SMS, 5GB Data
|
MaxisONE plan 128 RM128/month, Unlimited Calls & SMS, 9GB Data. Unlimited Internet 1am-7am. | |
| MaxisONE plan 188 RM188/month, Unlimited Calls & SMS, 1+7GB Data | MaxisONE plan 158 RM158/month, Unlimited Calls & SMS, 12GB Data. Unlimited Internet 1am-7am. |
On March 9, a Maxis customer (now ex-customer) posted on Lowyat forum claiming that Maxis have been treating customer unfairly. He pointed out his friend received a better offer while trying to port out to Celcom. He called Maxis but couldn’t get the same offer Maxis despite being with them for over 10 years and with 5 numbers. In the end, he ported to Celcom while his friend took up the better offer from Maxis.
The forum posting became viral over the past 3 weeks and to date, it has over 200,000 views. You may read it here.
In response to the forum postings, Maxis made a statement on its Facebook page last night at 8.38pm.
The Maxis Facebook posting received close to 2,000 comment, over 90% of them were not happy with Maxis. Some 3,000 of them were ANGRY (Facebook Like- Angry Emotion) with Maxis.
Maxis did not response to comments from unhappy Malaysians as its social media team have been extremely quiet today, the whole day.
If you are still reading this, there are better postpaid plans from Celcom, Digi or U Mobile.
Celcom’s First Gold plan is priced at RM80/month with Unlimited Calls & SMS, 5+5GB data. Details here.
Digi has a new postpaid plan with 7GB data (roll over data to the next month), Unlimited Calls at RM78/month. Details here.
U Mobile’s Hero P70 postpaid plan comes with 15GB data, Unlimited Call at RM70/month. Details here.
What other portals and blog are saying about Maxis over the past 1 day:
[Link]– Maxis under fire over unfair mobile price plans
[Link]– Malaysians are angry at Maxis. Here’s why.
[Link]– Maxis addresses accusations of ‘unfair treatment’
[Link]– Malaysia: Maxis scandal under hot water as they anger more than a 1000 loyal customers!
[Link]– Here’s why Malaysians are disgruntled with Maxis
Disclaimer: This is an opinion based article and it is the personal view of the writer. It does not necessarily represent the view of MalaysianWireless.
