TMNET - WHY NOT ANSWER CONSUMER’S QUESTION?

December 15, 2009 on 1:04 pm | In General |

‘I cannot but feel ashamed every time I read such letters.

Where is the corporate responsibility and governance?

Where is there the claimed accountability and transparency?

Many of our GLCs are today behaving like ‘little Napoleans’ as well - they think they are also politicians - or at least have the ‘protection’ of several corrupt and racist ones to continue behaving and operating a corporate culture which is disgusting, despicable and disliked by both paying consumers and foreign investors!

The world is today a flat land remember - already we have been left far behind by even poor nations of the past, like Cambodia, Vietnam and perhaps soon even Sri Lanka!

The only ‘foreign investor’ of the future here will be both ‘Pakistani, Bangladesh workers’, prostitutes from former Russian states, China and the fraud specialists from the African continents at this rate!

‘Padan Muka!’ - Dr Jacob George

Dear Dr Jacob George,

Greetings and Merry Christmas to you and your fine team addressing consumer grouses!

I have been complaining about TMNET’s unfair restriction to certain file sharing online services and failed to get a satisfactory explanation from them.

I would appreciate your advice as to whether I have any chances of asserting my consumer rights and winning the case if it ever goes to the Tribunal for Consumer Claims.

The emails below are recent correspondences between TM Customer Support and I.

Looking forward to your advice.

Regards,

Lee Chee Keong

‘Dear Sir,

If you are not able to provide the list of websites that are subject to TMNET’s blocking/throttling, then please advise as to how a customer is going to know which web services that a customer intends to subscribe, will be jeopardized by TMNET’s unfair Fair Usage Policy (FUP)?

Bear in mind that these are mostly services hosted outside Malaysia and requires payment in foreign currencies.

Based on Rapidshare.com’s reply to me dated 12 Dec 09, rapidshare has indicated that they do not restrict download traffic for their clients.

The fact that many complaints have been received from their Malaysian clients only help to suggest that TMNET is the culprit behind the speed throttling from certain websites.

A copy of the email reply from rapidshare.com is attached to support my allegation.

Since I have also renewed my 3-month subscription to Rapidshare.com service on 13 Nov 09 (to expire on 12 Feb 09), I would like to seek compensation from TMNET for an amount equivalent to Euro 16.99 for the loss of use of the 3-month subscription service (email from PayPal.com for the payment is enclosed below).

My claim is based on TMNET’s failure to inform its customers on what specific types of online services is forbidden and blocked by TMNET, therefore resulting in financial loss to me, for unknowingly subscribing to such service which has been “blacklisted” by TMNET.

My justification for TMNET’s compensation is supported by the following rationales:-

a)    TMNET’s FUP does not specifically spell out the list of services that are subject to any bandwidth restriction/throttling by TMNET.  Customers acting in good faith to purchase online services could be potential victims of TMNET’s arbitrary blacklisting of certain online services without the knowledge of its customers.

b)    The scope of TMNET’s FUP is not clearly defined and vaguely covers peer-to-peer (P2P) services only, with no specific mention of other services such as file-sharing, etc.

c)     Actual bandwidth usage is not communicated to each TMNET customer and TMNET’s merely and unfairly applies a “blanket”  blacklisting/throttling of services.  This will in certain way, unfairly penalize customers with low bandwidth usage.  Does TMNET provide any tool to help customers keep track of their bandwidth usage?

d)    TMNET does not define what constitutes “high” or “low” bandwidth usage by its customers.  Is there a threshold known only to TMNET and not made known to its customers?  Why is TMNET so secretive about such thresholds?  Even relatively new  internet service provider such as P1Wimax informed its customers upfront of its bandwidth threshold.

I hope that TMNET can really provide a list of “blacklisted”  services to prevent further financial losses to its customers.

Also, it is my wish to see that my request for compensation is favourably considered by TMNET.  In the event that TMNET is not agreeable to such request, kindly provide the name and contact details of TMNET’s authorized personnel for subsequent correspondence in relation to escalation of this matter to the Tribunal of Consumer Claims.

Lastly, my view is that limiting customer’s bandwidth should not be a long-term solution by TMNET to manage server congestion.

Ultimately, TMNET should aggressively embark on network expansion plan to cater for higher bandwidth load to meet the government’s call for better broadband utilization (especially High Speed Broadband).

The current state of broadband infrastructure to close to “pathetic” and Malaysian home users are not as lucky as their Singaporean counterparts who can enjoy up to 15Mbps of broadband speed from home (info is extracted from SingTel’s website).  At my area of residence, looks like I may have to wait for a couple more years for TMNET to offer its 4Mbps package (assuming no further delays on TM’s part, in its upgrading exercise).

Looking forward to TMNET’s response as soon as possible.

Regards,

Lee Chee Keong’

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