Some time ago, I blogged about how frustrating it had been to get First Media's internet service up and running in my house. Today, I received our first bill from First Media.
It says right here on my bill that payment due date is 15 October. Erm... that's yesterday. And the fine print (in bold, no less) warned "Payment of your subscription fees should be settled by due date mentioned above, even without receiving a copy of this Billing Statement. Other than this Billing Statement, you are able to find information of your account at First Media website, click or please registered your email account."
AMBOI. Sooooooooooo eager to get your grubby hands on my money but take your own sweet time when it came to getting my Net right. How on earth am I supposed to make a payment when I don't know how much to pay? We only had things activated halfway through Sept, so what do I do? Pro-rate the full month bill by days, using the package charge as shown on the internet? Or pay the full rate regardless? Turns out both options are wrong, I don't know what formula they're using.
I would expect things to be explained in a billling statement, sent to me early enough so that I would have received it with ample time to make a payment. I couldn't even use auto-debit if I wanted to, that service is only available to Lippo Bank account holders and we don't have one. Same goes for Internet banking payment which is only available for very few banks. The best option seems to be paying at an ATM. No mention anywhere about how payment should be made regardless of non-appearance of the bill. All it says is that payment should be made before/on due date on bill received. Am I wrong to then expect them to send the bill on time?(Source: First Media website)
Obviously First Media expects us first-time customers to be so enamoured of their services that we're all rushing to pay what we think is the correct amount on what we think is the cut-off day. Maybe they expect me to call up eagerly to ask how much I should be paying. I've never had any service provider expect me to do that before. They're usually careful enough to send bills really early so that it's clearly MY fault if I don't pay them by the due date stated on the bills.
So really, First Media, you can fuck off. Cut off my services if you want. Now I know why my neighbours use other providers. Crappy customer service but oh so eager to get your hands on my money. They make TMNet back home look pretty efficient. Sigh.
That's ridiculous, that is! You were offline for a while too. Don't pay lah :P then you'll see their efficiency in cutting your services off.
ReplyDeleteOh no, you have to pay!
ReplyDeleteThe are horrible people to deal with, but they are they have the fastest connection.
We changed are credit cards but one of their departments forgot to talk to another and two weeks after the payment and upgrade a moron with a pair of nail scissors came and physically cut the wires.
It took 5 weeks to sort it out, with me calling every day.
Everybody has problems with all the providers here, they all have shocking service, but FM is the fastest.
Oh and for those five weeks... I had to pay FULL price.
I run a business and do my uni degree on line, I have to have the internet on so I just have to take it.
PB: I've calmed down a bit now and I think we will have to pay. Otherwise, they will also cut off our cable and that means no footie!
ReplyDeleteJen2: I read about your crappy experience with them on your blog, looks like I'm not the only one frustrated with them. Locals have also told me that FM is the best of the worst, so I don't have much choice. I hate being held to ransom like that.
You're amazing, running a biz, doing the degree AND taking care of the kids and hubby... really take my hat off to you! I'm having probs enough trying to manage the hubby! LOL