P1- Phailed Billing

Now, most of you know that I’ve been a fan of P1 since I subscribed to them in late November. What I’m NOT a fan of is their OCS, because they do not have a way for the customer to check how much outstanding they have until the next bill cycle and the fact that I keep forgetting my password. Doesn’t help too, that I am currently sick at home for minor food poisoning (argh!).

This is what happened.

TLDR Summary: P1 doesn’t trust their Customer Service reps to reactivate accounts based on customer reports. There is also a disconnect between their billing updates and payment made updates.

Edit 1: A check in my account reveals that my bill for January has yet to be released and updated, which means I have basically overpaid. Well, P1? What is your response?

Jan 16
– I received an email from P1 saying that I owed them RM113 outstanding.

Jan 23
I received my bonus around Jan 23 and subsequently made payment of RM100 (enough to tide me over, I hoped, until the bill was updated).

Jan 28
Received email saying that they had noted my payment. This was also confirmed via SMS.

Jan 31
Timeout happened in SS3. Outage lasted till about 3pm, Feb 1.

Feb 1
Timeout resolved, called P1 to say that I could not connect, escalated to Technical Department.

Feb 2, part 1 (4pm)
Called P1’s to check on the status of my account. Discovered that my account was suspended. WTF. According to him, I made a payment of RM1 instead of RM100, hence my account was suspended. Why was I not informed of this earlier, either via SMS or email? If you can send me the SMS and email to confirm payment has been made, why not now?

Told the guy (something something Ron – rhymes with Aaron) that I know it’s not within his power, please to escalate to his supervisor to reactivate my account. Promises to call back and never does (extremely bad luck with male Customer Service people. Are males in this line dumb or what?).

Feb 2, part 2 (5.53pm)
Went to take nap, called P1 again, and this time a nice young girl named Ka-Ying answered. Told her what happened, she confirmed that my account was suspended, promised to call back after checking with her supervisor.

She calls back after about 5 minutes and confirms the payment. I owe only for Jan 27’s bill, which amounts to RM89 as I had an adjustment previously. Now, apparently I need to make payment for the said amount before I can get connected again. Here’s the catch-22. I pay my bills via Maybank2u.com. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO PAY WHEN I CANNOT GET ONLINE?

Apparently they do not have the power to reinstate my connection until AFTER the payment has been reflected in my account, and that is only when Maybank has released the money to them. At this moment I am WTF WTF WTF. First, how can I make payment when I have no Internet connection? Secondly, according to her, it may take up to 3 working days before the payment is reflected in the system. Excuse me, who is going to reimburse for the 5 days of lost connectivity? (including the 3 working days to “process” my payment?)

Feb 2, part 3 (6.05pm)
I make payment, call them up, and Sharon this time picks up the call. She confirms Ka-Ying’s explanation and takes down the details of the payment I have made. About 10 minutes later, she calls me up to confirm that she’s spoken to Finance, and Finance says they can do nothing about my account until it has been confirmed by the system that I have made payment.

At this point in time I am not mad at P1, but I am mad at their inane billing practices. I think she sensed it too, because she sounded really small and hurt on the phone when I told her thanks for her help.

Questions I have to ask P1:

– Why was I not informed that my account was suspended?

– There should be a function in the OCS to show users how much they owe P1 without needing for the Bill to be updated. A simple payment outstanding summary will do.

– TRUST your customers. Since you’re automating the system, take a leaf out of PacNet. As long as your users can provide transaction details of payment made, allow your CS people to reactivate the account. If payment is not reflected after a certain amount of days, then re-suspend the account automatically. If the user needs the Internet to make payment, allow them to do so, provided they either email you or call you up with their transaction details shortly after. On your side, make sure your CS people forwards this to the Credit department (really, this is something I should NOT have to point out)

– Finally, who is going to reimburse me for the time lost?

I am NOT a happy customer. Even with all their inferior products, at least TM’s billing system is not as shitty as this. I’d really like to say my thanks to Ka-Ying and Sharon for their patience in handling an irate customer, but at the same time, I am VERY disappointed in P1’s distrust of their customers.

2 thoughts on “P1- Phailed Billing

  1. I had the same problem with Streamyx when they merge the phone bill with the streamyx bill. It gets worst when I cut my line. i had to make couple of calls to their hotline and even when to the TM Office to get it fixed.

    Geminianeyes: Ouch. I just went to Steamnut to change the billing name after I got my P1. It seems that Malaysian ISPs don’t really know how to handle their customers, do they? :S

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