Let's complain about the local taxi service!

In a yumcha session last week, my friends told me that the taxi service in our country has recently been rated as the worst in the region. This morning, one of my friends shared this article in Facebook, which is on the same topic.

The past 2 months, I have been driving frequently than I ever had before. I hate (hated, hate still) driving because it adds one more car to the already-busy traffic, it pollutes the environment, it causes fuel depletion too. For these reasons, I always took taxi last time (for years), because I didn't travel much.. I didn't feel the pain although I ranted about it sometimes.

What're the problems? Two problems:

1. The taxi drivers never use the meter if you're traveling from one town to another. Say, Setapak to Mid Valley, Chow Kit to One Utama, KLCC to anywhere, etc.
2. Most Malaysians do not queue (esp. couples), I usually shout to stop them from taking my taxi.
   

I drive because I travel far these days and I got enough of being ripped off by the taxi drivers. But that doesn't solve the problem I faced and other people are facing. So, inspired by OpenMalaysia's Yoon Kit, I decided to lodge a complain to the ministry of domestic trade and consumer affairs.

Please join me:

The local taxi service has gotten out of control to the extent that we are now rated as the worst country in taxi service provision in the region. We're also featured in the MSN Singapore News<http://news.sg.msn.com/lifestyle/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1682889> too.

I am a residence of Kuala Lumpur and the situation has become worse to me these days as I have to travel frequently than I ever had to, to/from Mid Valley, 1 Utama, KLCC, etc.

The taxi drivers never follow the meter, every time I travel to/from these places, I have to bargain for a good price in order to get into the cab. At the first place, it is so wrong for them to break the rules, secondly, it has made me to look like a an idiot for so many times by walking from one taxi to another. There was once in Mid Valley that I had to try seven taxis.

Another issue is that, most general passengers do not use the queue and taxi drivers just stop their car before the station when someone waves their hand at another end.

Can someone do something about it? It's not just hurting the local consumers, it's also tarnishing the image of our country because tourists don't really love it too.

Act now!

From @yoonkit: @yclian you may need to name specific taxi companies and events, otherwise they won't know how to react.

- yc

Unprofessional Support-Fu, Let's Talk about It

Check this out. A 22-minute call from an angry customer to the Astro customer service. Most people would say that the customer was being unreasonable and having unbalanced hormones. But I have a different opinion -- that's very bad customer service by Astro.

I am a nasty and very-nice customer, it all depends on the issue am having and how the personnel speaks to me (of course, the same to most people too). I always dial the hotlines whenever I have something to complain or to inquire or I feel that I need to talk a bit with someone on a good afternoon. Always, really. To the extent that my colleagues questioned me a few times if I was simply too free.

At the same time, for the past 2 years, I worked on two support projects, providing technical support to customers around the globe. I was trained and I was also responsible to train new guys to come into this field.

My experiences with TM and Astro were usually bad. And what would I say for this case? Terribly handled. This case could be resolved in 2 to 3 minutes and it was ridiculous to drag it 'til more than 22 minutes 31 seconds.

To handle this emotional customer, Jeeva should:

1. Apologize for the misunderstanding ("that's your problem, I can't..")
2. Not question / argue with the customer, there's no rationality at another end dude. Be polite and say "I'm sorry" to calm her down, and bring her back to the point. What do the customers need? Solution.
   
3. Not keep quiet to dilly-dally the call.
4. Escalate! Or maybe not, because it would have been settled if Jeeva had better support-fu.

I always like the Atlassian's core value #3 - "Don't fuck the customer." Seriously don't. If you ever want to do it, do it in the nice way.

- yc, bloody hell.

Who's eating all my SMSes?

This blog is for whoever that might be sending me text messages. I had a problem with my mobile (an O2 XDA II mini) before I flew off to Sydney, a sudden hang and hard reset. Ever since then, I do not receive SMSes and I actually thought it was some roaming problem.

I have tried switching SIM cards and phones and it's confirmed that something has gone haywire here. The hardware The O/S (and solved by not restoring my O/S to a previously backed up state).

Jeez. You will never like this happen, will you? Let me know if you have an idea about this problem.

P/S: I'm back to KL.

Cheers,
yc