On Monday, the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) released a media statement regarding the issues faced by Telekom Malaysia (TM) customers following a number of tweets last weekend from the Minister of Communications and Multimedia, Gobind Singh Deo.
MCMC revealed that it received the most number of complaints on Telekom Malaysia compared to other Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the country. Similarly, the Communications and Multimedia Consumer Forum of Malaysia (CFM) also recorded the highest number of complaints on Telekom Malaysia in 2016 and 2017.
To date, MCMC recorded a 43% rise in complaints on Telekom Malaysia compared to last year. MCMC breaks down the complaints as follow:
- Dissatisfaction on pricing: 21%
- Lack of Unifi Coverage: 16%
- Unifi Service Disruption: 13%
- Billing: 14%
- Service Delivery: 14%
- Other Category: 22%
Full media statement from MCMC below:
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As the largest fixed broadband provider in the country with 85.97% market share of total subscribers, TM’s inaction affects many Malaysians who depend on TM’s network in their daily professional and personal activities. Consumers are demanding better services for the money they are paying TM.
At the time of writing, MCMC has received 7946 complaints on TM services, representing an increase of 43% from 4528 received in 2017. Based on average number of complaints for every 1000 subscribers, TM has recorded the highest number of complaints when compared with other service providers.
These complaints centre around consumer dissatisfaction on pricing (21%), the lack of UNIFI coverage (16%), UNIFI service disruption (13%), billing disputes (14%), service delivery (14%) as well as other categories (22%).
The government views this alarming decline in TM’s services delivery very seriously.
TM’s repeated complaint handling approach in citing technical limitations and requesting consumers to exercise patience is not an acceptable course of action. Leaving customers in the dark is not the way a company of TM’s stature should operate.
Yesterday for example, TM informed its customers of UNIFI services disruption, but failed to provide reasons for it.
TM must also rationalise the disparity between UNIFI and Streamyx pricing per Megabits per second (Mbps) so consumers are charged fairly for the speed that they enjoy without technology discrimination. This is especially important in areas where UNIFI is not available.
TM needs to be transparent in dealing with the Rakyat by offering packages that are great value, not take advantage of consumer’s lack of options.
MCMC regards consumer protection as a key priority and will not hesitate to take any regulatory action against TM or any licensee found to be in breach.
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Telekom Malaysia was quick to respond to the media statement above but it was barely convincing on how it would resolve the issues raised by MCMC. In its media statement, TM repeated what it said 4 months ago, that it will be upgrading half of its Streamyx subscriber base. On top of that, it also repeated about “calling for the discussions with the Government to quickly reach a mutually beneficial outcome for these customers.”
Despite the warning from MCMC, TM continues to leave users in the dark. The Telco has been unresponsive on its Facebook page over the past few days. On its official Facebook page, there are hundred of comments from the Malaysian public and not a single reply from the ISP. Here’s one screenshot taken today [link]. On the official Unifi Facebook page, an estimated 95% comments are left unattended over the past few days. Here’s a screenshot[link].
The tweet from the Minister was triggered due to a service disruption which affected customers of Unifi, Streamyx, Unifi Mobile and Maxis fibre customers last weekend. During the time, TM acted unprofessional by not explaining the reason behind the outage. It also failed to give any detailed update towards restoration of service. This has since been corrected since the tweet from the Minister.
Following the latest media statement from TM, Gobind said that the Government is ready to assist the Telco and will discuss proposals next week.
