Friday, December 14, 2012

TM Cables stolen again within a few weeks - TM too slow and inefficient

When TM fails to provide good service to paying customers...In 2012, there has been about 4 - 5 occasions, where the cable has been stolen - the last being early December 2012 - and gain now it has been stolen, and guess what the theft has happened in almost the same location. And every time it takes days and days for the cable to be reconnected...meaning that customers for phone and/or internet service suffers. Customers pay monthly - and sometimes the loss of service can last weeks... but TM does not deduct the period they fail to provide service...

Worse still, is that when we call that 100 number to receive service faults, it takes a long time with all their many 'press this button'...and that button - key in your phone number....etc - sometimes more than 10 minutes - the longest that I have been on line with the TM customer service person has been more than 1 hour. And they ask all kinds of funny questions like your operating system and modem brands... WHY? Are they doing some sort of market survey? Why do they charge customers for making reports...

And the delay is caused because they have contracted out repair jobs to outside contractors... On the other hand, TNB (Tenaga Nasional Berhad) is so much more faster when it comes to response time and repairs... Surely TM can provide better service - why 24 hours? ...which most time is not true for it takes much more time than that... Telecommunication service providers must respond and remedy errors immediately in 1 to a few hours... Charges go up...and up and these service providers.

Now, I have to go to the internet shop many kilometers away...pay for parking and petrol and pay monies to access and use the internet...

Complain to the BN government - well, they will turn around and say that it is TM, a private company that is the service provider - so not their fault...

The GOVERNMENT MUST BE RESPONSIBLE - and in Malaysia, they must ensure that telecommunication services are all at the very best. TM should have their own staff responding and doing the necessary repairs...

Why are the cables being repeatedly stolen? Don't they have an alarm system? Why do they not keep the cables 'high' making it difficult to steal? One wonders whether it may just be the 'contractors' they use that is involved in these thefts - after all, more work...more contracts. We told them to fix the cables higher - but they still keep it low... 

Make a police report - Well the Ketua Kampung went to the police in Mentakab and made a report - they took it lightly....and said to go the TM and report - and then the Ketua Kampung gets a call from the Temerloh Police Station who asks him to come in again and bring his IC and make another report... Well, What about that CCTV that the police are installing ...should it not be installed here... The one in Mentakab, I saw was installed near the Maybank and the Public Bank in town in an area that is busy... Is it only Banks that need these CCTVs - no, the CCTVs must be installed in residential areas...kampungs and kampung baru where the it is not always filled with people and movement for these are the places that need more police protection...

Number of Police to 100,000 people
Malaysia - 370 (Total Number of Police Personnel in 2012) - Source: Interpol Website 

Singapore - 752 for every 100,000
Brunei - 1,076
Cambodia - 428
 
It is not just the numbers that matter, but also the quality as well as how the police are being used. In Malaysia, the problem some years back was that there was really insufficient 'Investigating Officers'(IO) - these are the police personnel that investigate the reported crimes. One IO once complained informally to me that every day when he comes in he has the interview and get details from about 30 persons who filed new reports daily - his complaint was that he really did not have time to go out and do further investigations...What we need is IOs that have the time to really investigate and find the criminal perpetrators

The case of stolen telephone cables ....will most likely not be solved given the state of affairs... To steal cables, you need the necessary lorry/vehicle and long ladders --- really, how many can there be? Surely, looking at the CCTVs, one will be able to reduce the numbers of possible suspects...remember these cables are beside roads - so not easy to identify the criminal.

But then, the problem is these contractors used by TM - they do not have easily identifiable uniforms or even vehicles with distinct TM markings - so the ordinary person will not know whether it is an official TM repair being done or whether it is some 'criminal' about to steal some cables... TNB is clear - as they use the TNB lorries/cranes and their personnel usually have the required TNB uniforms when they do their work... 

SOLUTION: Make sure that TM work is done by workers with the clearly identifiable TM trucks/vehicles wearing clearly identifiable TM Uniforms - With TM Road Signs when needed to be placed on roads when repair is being done...

When Cables are being stolen - insert CCTV - or place the cables on higher poles - more difficult to access...OR Bury the cables in pipes underground. Or get rid of the copper cables and change it to fiber optic cables which has no value and will not be stolen...

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