Yes there are regrets

Despite the numerous delays, we were actually looking forward to the launch of Yes which is the last WiMAX operator to launch commercially. We pre-registered the moment the Yes brand was revealed and gotten ourselves a Yes Go dongle on launch night. We bought into the hype and was one of the many Malaysians out there looking forward to a positive change…

But as far as we’ve seen and experience — and we are sure that many will agree — Yes has faltered in virtually every aspect. Yes claimed that it wanted to delive innovation, performance and value, and just within its first day of launch, yes is struggling to meet even the most basic of customer needs.

Yes website
Yes being an internet provider is still struggling to get their website up and running. At time of posting, it is coming close to 30 hours for the newest “4G” operator without a proper online presence. All that marketing drive on the radio, print and even online is going to waste as we speak.

Yes ID
Early adopters who signed up for a yes ID and had collected their device are facing problems too. There are many tweets online including ours that complained of not being able to access the yes 4G network with their yes ID. The connection manager returns bad username/password and efforts to check online via yes portal proved to be futile as the userid was “not found” in the system. The sluggish website didn’t help either as it took sheer luck just to load a single page. It was obvious that the pioneer subscribers were deeply frustrated for not being able to use the product after signing up. Who knew being the first to subscribe would face such massive problems? They could have conducted a Friendly User Trial earlier on with a selected group of users to ensure that all systems are go for full commercial launch.

Customer Support
If being frustrated with the experience is bad, wait until you try to get assistance. Yes does not offer any customer care hotline numbers for customers to call in. On their materials and device manuals, the only channel for support is via their website or email. This is a fatal flaw for yes to skimp on customer service. We are baffled by their omission from providing a phone number and customers are left with rather limited alternatives. Haven’t they thought about customers who can’t get online? How are they suppose to get help? Not providing a customer care phone number gives the impression that Yes is not willing to listen to its customers. The only human interaction you’ll get is through their Yes stores at Lot 10 and KL Sentral.

So far we have sent an email asking them for help with the yes ID but we haven’t heard from them after more than 10 hours. If they are not occupied answering phone calls – which obviously they are not, why can’t they respond more promptly? To make matters worse, there’s no auto responder to confirm if your complaint has been received. At the moment, only their twitter channels are active but they don’t really offer much help other than reminding people that they are still busy rectifying their issues. Yes needs to do more to assist its troubled users and most importantly to keep them well informed on the situation at all times. If there’s a nationwide problem with logging in, they could have sent an email or SMS to all subscribers that yes is aware of the problem and fixes are on going. Right now customers are literally left in the dark!

Network
Although we can’t verify this, we heard that there were blackouts that occured today. It could be isolated to certain sites or it could be nationwide, we can’t confirm. This doesn’t bode well for a new network that has promised the world. For even one site to go down just one day after the launch doesn’t bode well for consumer confidence. Currently their subscriber base is too little to do any serious load on their network.

Although first impressions are important, a long term relationship is even more. So we will continue monitoring the performance of Yes to see if they’ve learned the many important lessons in this day one disaster and quickly turn it around. If the people in Yes know what they are doing then they will realise that the silver lining of this day one disaster is that there is an opportunity to win back the many hopeful customers who believe in the promise of Yes. Malaysians are a forgiving bunch of people, us included. We see much potential in Yes but all the potential in the world is for nought without substance — Yes, please make us want to say yes!

[ Picture Credit ]