Have a problem with your telco? Here’s how you can resolve it

There is no perfect telco. Sometimes, problems are bound to crop up with your service and that can cause frustration from a consumer standpoint. From there, the default reaction in this day and age would be to type out an angry status on Facebook, tagging all the necessary parties. Also known as the ‘mohon viral’ tactic in some circles.

But that’s often not the right thing to do if you want your issue resolved quickly. Here is what you should do instead.

1. File an official complaint to your telco

This is the first thing you should always do. When you have a problem with a service provider, the best way to solve it is with the service provider themselves. The only thing you have to make sure is to file your complaints through the telco’s official channels. Here are some examples:

Maxis:

Support Centres
Live Chat
Twitter
Facebook
Call: 1-800-82-1123 (Personal) or dial 123 from mobile, 1-800-82-1919 (Business)

Digi:

Support Centres
Twitter
Facebook
Community Forums
Email: help@digi.com.my
Call: 016-221 1800

Celcom:

Support Centres
Contact Form
Facebook
Online Customer Service
Call: 1111 (from Celcom numbers), 019-601 1111 (from Celcom numbers, fixed lines and mobile operators)

U Mobile:

Support Centres
Contact Form
Facebook
Twitter
Call: 018-388 1318

Yes 4G

Support Centres
Email: yescare@yes.my
Troubleshooting Form
Facebook
Twitter
Call: 018-333 0000

webe:

Support Centres
Support Form
Live Chat
Facebook
Twitter
Call: 011-1000 1000

Keep in mind these are just some of the official methods in which you can contact your telco. If your particular telco is not listed here, you should usually be able to find the helplines, emails or support forms by hitting the “Help” or “Support” tab on your telco’s website. Alternatively, you can scroll to the bottom of the webpage and you should see contact information there as well.

However, we understand that sometimes the issue can’t be resolved through your telco and sometimes the resolution provided by your service provider isn’t satisfactory. When that happens, the next step is not to yell at your customer service rep, instead, you should move on to option #2.

2. File a complaint with the Communications and Multimedia Consumer Forum of Malaysia (CFM)

The CFM is a forum under the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) that was established to protect the rights of consumers in the telco industry. They do this by working closely with service providers and ensuring that all the customer complaints are solved as stipulated in the General Consumer Code.

To give you a general idea of how effective this Forum is, the CFM resolved over 97% of the complaints they received last year, in that year itself. The remaining 3% was resolved within the first quarter of 2016. That’s 7,326 complaints in just over a year. According to the CFM, the top five complaints that they receive are regarding poor service, billing and charging, poor coverage, SMS and unfair practice.

For 2015/2016, the CFM introduced the MY Mobile Rights app — the nation’s first one-stop telco consumers’ complaints submission mobile application. This meant that consumers could easily submit complaints regarding their telco via the app. Just download the application on Google’s Play Store and follow the steps within the app.

If you want to save space on your smartphone, you can also opt to drop a complaint at their online portal, by calling their hotline at 1-800-18-2222 or by visiting CFM themselves directly.

Regardless of what method you use to file a complaint with the CFM, you will receive a confirmation as well as a reference number for your particular complaint. Once CFM receives the complaint letter, the forum will begin their investigation. According to the General Consumer Code of Practice, 90% of complaints must be resolved within a time frame not exceeding 15 business days while 95% of the complaints must be resolved within 30 business days.

Should the issue not be resolved within 30 business days, the CFM will bring the complaint to the council for deliberation. Once that’s done, the cases will be escalated to relevant parties (such as the MCMC) for resolution.

The important thing to remember here is that you are not alone and you shouldn’t have to worry about being bullied by your telco with sub-par services. CFM is here to protect your rights so it’s important that everyone is aware of their rights and what they can do if someone violates it.