I spent Saturday morning trying to complete my broadband moveover from Starhub to M1, and to set up the half-completed fibre network. Believe it or not, in that short period, I was able to encounter the Good, the Bad -- and the Ugly.
The first thing I did was to call Alex, a technician working for an M1 contractor, but as expected, there was no reply. Minutes later, surprise surprise, he returned my call.
First
thing he said was, do I want to an extra router to enhance the wifi signal in my TV room.
He had the day before quoted a charge of $160 for the router plus installation. I declined the offer.
He then
told me to call M1 to fix another appointment for him to come back to complete his job. He did not finish
it yesterday (Friday) as he could not receive a signal from the OpenNet fibre network.
The
OpenNet people, two very pleasant workers, came a few hours later to get the
connection fixed. A job well done. One of them was from Myanmar.
Soon after, I left a e-message for Alex to tell me when he
could come to complete his job, but there was no reply.
This
morning, in my eagerness to get everything sorted out, I called M1 and told a woman called Crystal
about the uncompleted setup, hoping for someone to come down to my place later
in the day.
She said she would not be able to do so as Saturday is a
non-working day. She added that there
would be a charge for someone to come to my place to fix the network. I lost my
cool and told her: "Are you mad?"
How could
M1 charge for what is a free installation job which was not completed?
In a
subsequent call, Crystal said she would get a technician to help me. The technician, Norman, rang a short while
later. He explained to me, pleasantly and patiently, how
to go about fixing the router and the modem.
And it
worked -- for the internet! However, the Asus router supplied by M1 could
not be used to boost the wifi signal in my TV room. Reason: two routers -- Asus and my Apple routers -- were located at different places. These, he said, had to be connected with another line before
it could function fully.
Although
I wasn’t sure he understood exactly what I was
trying to put across to him, I was happy that the internet fibre connection was
successful. The weak wifi signal in our
TV room remains an issue.
With the fibre connection fixed, the next step was to set the ball rolling for the move -- from Starhub to M1.
After consulting M1 about the rollover, I went ahead to cancel my
broadband link with Starhub. The woman from Starhub who took my call, asked why I was terminating my broadband account. I told her briefly that I was not happy with the service I had received at its Plaza Singapura outlet.
She said I could not cancel my broadband
without cancelling the phone fixed line at the same time as they came as a
bundle. She said I had to go down to
one of its outlets if I wanted to do so. Strange!!!
I forgot
to remind her that my contract with
StarHub had expired and therefore I
should be able to give up only what I wanted.
While
talking to her, suddenly my fixed line went dead. More strange!!!.
Minutes
later I called Starhub again, this time on my iphone. I was served by a lady called
Arlene. I told her what had happened and she
went to check. She returned to tell me
that the broadband account had been cancelled -- at 11.44 am precisely -- but the fixed
telephone line account was still active. Even more strange!!!
Was the
first StarHub woman who attended to me, trying to pull a fast one because I was
switching telcos? Pity I did not ask for her name.
I leave it to you to identify who's the Good, the Bad and the Ugly .
