I Hate Maxis Malaysia

First the award,

Malaysia’s Worst
Customer Service Call Center Award
goes to
Maxis Communications Bhd

Then Congratulatory Note goes next,

To the Maxis Customer Service team and boss(es),
Congratulations.

Then we roll the story,


This is a shout out to anyone who wants to change to Maxis and Hotlink. Before you do, please think and think and think again. If you must, think again.

There are many users out there who are not happy with their service including myself. Jeffooi.com, Lelong.com.my's Forum, Cari.com.my's Forum and Mobile88.com's Forum are just few examples of websites where you could go read about Maxis and Hotlink services. Most rant are from Maxis and Hotlink users who have experienced poor quality of customer service.

Google "Maxis Sucks" and you will get about about 142,000 results for just those keywords alone.

So why the devil am I mad, mad, mad? Because I am using Hotlink Prepaid from Maxis and desperately tired of such pariah customer experience from Maxis and Hotlink Customer Service. I personally have had terrible user experiences with their lousy network and non-existent customer service.

Maybe all this pariah treatment has to do with unwritten policy employed by Maxis : Postpaid subscribers are Kings – higher usage, higher revenue. Prepaid users generates only a small sum of revenue to complete the pie.

Even if that is true (Believe it!), if Maxis were to take out the prepaid revenue pie out of their system, I don't think they would even go that far.

For once, imagine this situation in sequence.

Your office is located at Petronas Twin Towers.
Maxis have Receivers installed somewhere in the office bearing numbers like Maxis-A1-T2-L62-1
They installed it for free.
Next to the building IS the Maxis HQ Building.
Your phone has no problem. At all.
Your phone shows full line but the message says (*changes from time to time)

• Emergency Calls Only or


• No Access To Network or


• Searching… or


• You have received 10 missed calls from X numbers.

All this happens while your phone shows full network bars.
Then you try to text someone. Anyone.
It says “Sending Message Failed".
You call out to a local number.
All you hear is l-o-n-g silence.
Either that or you hear an annoying, TUT TUT TUT TUT.
If you are lucky, you hear a robotic Pissant telling you, “You have insufficient credit to make a call”.
The next logical thing you do is check your credit balance of course.
It displays “Balance: 44.58. Expiry Date: 30.09.2007. SMS Bonus: 0”
You tell yourself, that’s weird, let me try again.
But all you get is free stress.
Frustration starts to creep in.
Every number you call out gives you the same rotated results.
You decide to call Maxis Customer Service Care Line at 1300-820-120 from your cell phone.
Ah, also cannot.
You resort to office phone to call.
On the other end, a lady Pissant answers your call.
Pissant asks for your cell phone number.
You tell her.
Pissant asks for your name.
You ask her, “Is my name not in the system when you key in my phone number?”
Pissant says, “No ma’am. We cannot see.”
You tell her your name.
You even have to spell it out.
To annoy you further, Pissant uses your first name at every possible juncture.
For example, “Okay ah Ms. X, what is your problem with your phone ah, Ms. X?”
You insist it’s not a phone problem.
You tell her THE problem.
Pissant asks you, "How long ago did you encounter the problem?"
You tell her, “Since past two weeks.“
Pissant tells you, “I will escalate this issue to our Technical Team and will get back to you in a week time.”
You ask Pissant, “Is there any reference number for this issue?”
Pissant tells you, “Sorry ah Ms. X ah, we don’t have reference number Ms. X. But don’t worry ah Ms. X, I will send this issue to our Technical Team and they will handle this from there.”
Annoyed by the inefficiency, you ask, “When I want to enquire the status of this issue, what do I refer then? How do I find out? There must be a reference number or something.”
Pissant assured you, “Sorry Ms. X. This issue ah Ms. X ah, I cannot open any ticket for you. We must send to Technical Team first to find out what is the problem then only we can issue the reference number.”
(H)(O)(H)(!).. Like that also can meh?
You reply, “Oh well, what is your name then?”
Pissant hesitates before telling you, “It’s Satia, ma’am”
You ask, “Just Satia? No full name?”
Pissant to you, “Ms. X, you can just call me back at this number and look for Satia.”
You say, “OK you’re going to call me anyway right with the status?”
Pissant last words, “Yes Ms. X, I will definitely do that. “

5 seconds later, a text message arrives asking you to rate their customer service.

You put in 1 for lowest.
You wish there is a 0 for non-existent.

Two weeks later.

No improvement to the network. Still lousy as ever.
No follow up phone call. Liar liar pants on fire.

You call the Customer Care Line number again.
You ask for Satia.
Pissant Two asks, “What is it about?”
You tell Pissant Two you are calling because you want to know the status of your complaint last two weeks ago.
Pissant Two offers, “Maybe you could tell me and check for you. Can I have your cell phone number?”
You give her.
Pissant Two checks her system.
Pissant Two asks, “Ms. X right? ”
You agree.
Satia the liar.
Pissant Two then asks, “Can you explain to me what is the problem you experienced?”
Slightly annoyed, you tell her the issue.
Pissant Two tells you, “Oh, I am not so sure about that. Let me get Satia for you. Can you please hold?”
A silent (F)(U)(C)(K)(!) then, “What is your name? “
Pissant Two replies, “I’m Tina. Please hold. “
You're put on hold.
Eleven minutes later, no Satia.
Nobody picks up the phone.
You hang up.

5 seconds later, the Rate My Service text message arrives.
Again, you rate 1 for lowest.

A week later, no return calls from anyone.

Others within the same company find all Maxis/Hotlink users experience the same issue, prompting a written complaint.

It was solved within 1 second.
You really think they’re that fast meh?
It was solved within a few hours.

No more issues.

No calls from Satia or other Pissants telling you the status too.

Then, Pissant 3 calls.
She says, “Hello I am from Maxis Customer Service Center and I would like to find out why you rate our customer service as lowest?”
You tell her why.
Halfway through your story, she says, “Thank you for using Maxis. Have a nice day.”
Click. Hang up.

Stunned, you decide to call Satia.

All you hear is excuses, excuses, excuses.

Oh don’t bother. Satia is an ass. So is the rest of the team of Maxis and Hotlink Pissants.