Paul Ooi

A complain to TMNet Streamyx

I received an email from my reader, Soon Heng, and he has something to complain about Streamyx bandwidth problem.

By the way, I didn’t attend the dialogue session at Chatter Cafe during merdeka eve with Michael Lai and team, but Jeff Ooi did. I didn’t because I know it’s wasting time, I attend and it doesn’t mean my co-lo will not have downtime, or my streamyx will runing smoothly 365days a year. Furthermore, during Merkeda eve the road is so jam. Wasting petrol and time is not me.

I think beside Soon Heng, I also have the same problem, I subscribed to the 1MB package, but my highest speed can go up to is about 80++kBps, not more than 1MB. Sometime it’s even slow, yes it’s slow like the TMNet customer service(may be Slow is their Norm of work). Sometime my housemate will get frustrated and call me, and I always told him that it’s TMNet.. Nothing we can do.

Even though you complain to them, they will said, get back to you soon. Soon, their soon is xxx time or xxx date, they are not serious giving you support, because they have xxx thousand subscribers in Malaysia, if you complain or you don’t use it, they will not make any lost. But this is Malaysian culture, never complain, imagine 100000 subscribers who have problem also complain. But if you complain also the same, this is Malaysia, TMNet monopoly, you can give up, unsubscribe streamyx, but then what are you going to subcribe to? The ONLY ONE cheap broadband service in Malaysia is TMNet.

I believe that Soon Heng sent his letter, the situation will be the same. After complain I still using it, it’s silly right? But complain is a make, it’s our right to file a complain, and I also have my right to voice how bad is the services is.

Michael Lai wants to rebrand, but then it’s TM norm, slow. It take time to changes, may be 10 years. or may be not, may be new competitor come in.. competitor? no, it will not happen..

To Whom It May Concern:

Intermittent Service since October 6, 2005

Shortly after October 6, I called up TMNet’s customer service to lodge a complaint about the non-service of Streamyx. I was informed that there was some problem with a node on Jalan Ipoh. I was asked to lodge a report and I did (REPORT No. 451512).

But following the report, nothing much happened. The service came on, went off, came on but at about 28kbps, when the promised speed is 1Mbps. Now it has been off the last couple of weeks. But no word from TMNet.

I called several times and was asked to write in. Customer service said that there was nothing it could do. What’s worse, nothing proactive was undertaken to manage my expectations as a customer. I wasn’t provided with any kind of information how long the problem would persist or what steps TMNet would take in light of the situation.

Of course, the bill came promptly and unashamedly asked for payment notwithstanding the non-service.

I understand that the technology isn’t without its problems. But good customer service requires that the customer be informed and not left hanging indefinitely in the dark, uncertain when the service will be up and running again.

Customers can’t be treated with indifference, not especially when TMNet keeps telling us we’re not just a number. Right now I feel I’m worse than just a number. I’m an insignificant number.

Will someone kindly call to let me know what’s going on and how long this non-service would last?

Sincerely,
Lim Soon Heng
CC Mr Michael Lai
CEO

Paul Ooi

88 responses to “A complain to TMNet Streamyx”

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  3. “Customers can’t be treated with indifference, not especially when TMNet keeps telling us we’re not just a number. Right now I feel I’m worse than just a number. I’m an insignificant number.”

    Totally agree! When i saw that advertisement, the 1st word pop up in my head is “Bullshit!!”
    So lame!!

  5. i also got bandwidth problem. i send a complain e-mail to tmnet last night and they reply it today saying they have a connection problem with overseas isp.

  7. Hi Paul and others,

    I would like to clarify first that I am not a TM Nut fan. The opposite is true. Anybody must be nuts if he/she is TM Nut fan.

    However, I would like to clarify some b and B here.

    Bandwidth as advertised by ISPs such as TM Nut is in bits per second. So, Streamyx advertised their 1 mega bits per second (mbps – note the lower caps ‘b’).

    Downloader programs shows the download speeds in bytes per second, in your case kilo bytes per second (kBps – note the capital ‘B’).

    8 bits = 1 byte.

    Therefore, the speed of 80kBps = 640kbps. Which ain’t bad. If we add in overhead into the speed (which is inclusive of the bandwidth used). It is likely to be around 700kbps.

    TM Nut “best effort” bandwidth of 1000kbps is 700kbps, dictates by MCMC. (70% of advertised bandwidth).

    You can take a bandwidth test at TM Nut bandwidth barometer test site. http://202.188.95.52:8080/speedometer/

    That is not a very accurate test site.

    You can do a real world test at some of the super fast servers around the world such as
    http://mirror.switch.ch/ftp and download some huge Linux/BSD CD isos.

    Another site you can test is ftp://slackware.no/

    Usually I get about 102kBps (sometimes much lower – Tm Nut what). However I am in a low streamyx penetration area. So, YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary).

  10. carboncopy, ei dude, no worry, i bet other reader would love ur b and B explanation.

    being gracious huh? v must be friend friend ma.. dun fight over the blog 🙂

  11. Paul, if kahsoon is a quarter like u, i probably will leave him alone. hahaha but still..:)
    tmnet, tat makes me think twice to get or not to get broadband when i go back msia end of the month

  13. Yup… slow slow very slow. Just tested… ONLY 30KBps
    Note: huruf besar B… Dah lebih seminggu daaaaa.. Labi.. labi..

  14. last week i went to alamanda at putrajaya..i saw a fews Jaring guys promoting wireless internet connection..they still exist eh?? i thought they already out of bussines after tmnet take over their company couple years back and monopoly the broadband bussines..
    But i don’t bother to find out what was it…
    so are there a new player in the bussiness..
    just wondering..

  17. actually,
    besides STREAMYX,
    now u still hv Jaring FLITE to subscride,
    i have considered to change,
    since i found that the service of STREAMYX r very bad.
    but,
    if u were late to make the payment,
    their ‘service’ will be very fast,
    i have tried twice and twice..

  18. anybody heard about TM latest products that is called TM Destina ? they said it’s really cheap 0.18 cents local and std, mobile 0.19 cents, need more info abt it, help…..

  19. I am using a 512kb connection and my downloading speed is like less than 15kb/s ….my internet speed is at a crawling pace and playing online games are almost impossible….I hAtE streamyx..bloody idiots..try to call the customer service and they will give u one hell of a bullshit story…unplug your modem and all those stuff..in the end its always the same thing..and they they will probably say that the connection in your area is slow..

  20. Muahaha. Remember the invitation to talk to Mr Michael Lai. Maybe he’s also given up…. The most he could offer; talk to the customers and make them happy for a while. After that go back to the same old routine. What can one man do? The best lip service ever….. go back to sleep. After all it’s monopolised. Customer can take or leave it…..
    haiiih…tak boleh tahan….sooooo sloooooooow….

  23. ya…tmnut is suck lately… but 1Mb dont mean that u can have 1megabyte of speed…it’s actually a 1 megabit per second…so in teory u can go up is about 128Kilobyte per second.

  25. i am very disappointed to telekom service. i believe i met same treatment by tmnet streamyx folks, my 1Mbps package is actually 100kbps (by calculating any download file), the tmnet speedometer website indeed shows 800kbps, i can tell you its fake, or maybe i can say it illusion, when i made the complain through phone(complain around 5 times) initially need to wait 10 minutes for auto anwsering machine, after that, they start taking my complain, end up two days later, one malay ppl call me and ask whether what is the problem, after i told them again the issue, they said ok ok, then hang up with no news forever.
    I really don’t know how tmnet system works, i am sad about any malaysia government corporate system such as proton, tmnet, JPJ, polis, maybank… i believe people won’t know how to escalate to top management, we will only see malaysia getting outdated and kampungly. sigh..

  26. I think TMNet Marketing is currently pushing very hard to gain more customer. From the Customer point of view, this is a very attractive point but their pricing strategy is really irresponsible. As a customer, we always like to compare so that we always have choices. From the recent promotion, I found out that it really hurt a lots of existing Streamyx subscriber in the sense that early birds is not always get better offer. If TMNet keep coming out this kind of price war strategy to gain more customer, you will loss customer confident in continue support their service. I will say that, after the contract period, i will go for others service provider even the price is slightly higher because TMNet do not care for thier customer. Price setting always a critical and sensitive issue for a company in service industry. For example, if you are using a Celcom Mobile service with monthly access of RM 60 but one months later, people can get the same service with same contract for only RM 30. How do you fell? Most of us will make noise, of course.

    This similar to the service that i complaint. I am getting 2 years contract as what TMNet Marketing Division set one months ago with the price of RM88 but i am getting same treatment of the service as newly promotion of RM77. This is really rediculous. If you would to say the holiday package is only valid for Student or whatever in terms of rule change, the scenario will be different. This is a big conflict of pricing strategy in promotion

    I really hope that TMNet can do something to compesate the existing customers in terms of pricing. Please do consider my request because this will really affect your company reputation in the sense that no proper planning on the promotion for such a big company.

  27. streamyx=suck!!!!!!now my fastest speed is only 30++kbps!!! even I sub 1 mbps packcage…it’s sucks!!but this is MALAYSIA…. ai…wat can do??there’s only one broadband in MSIA=TMNET….SUCCCCCCCKKKKSSS!!!!11 I’m SICK when I’m think about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

  28. Actually, advertisements are not necesssary because Malaysia have only one major Broadband service.
    They suppose to use advertisement money to fund new hardware.
    I’m really sad and angry at the same time when I saw the new package offer on television.
    Free modem, RM 77 per month while I’m RM 99. The RM 22 difference means ALOT for me as I use my monthy pocket money that my parents give me to pay the bill. I’m using my own pocket money because my parents are not agree to subscribe Streamyx, so I apply Streamyx by myself and I’ only 16 years old.
    I really lose my confidence against TMNet.

  29. TMNet offers excellent service! Not.

    I wanted to get Streamyx the other day but they said the port is full. Whatever that means, I don’t know. I emailed customer service and they replied saying that there is no broadband for my area. This is very confusing as my area supports fibre wire connection. Aren’t fibre wires used for high speed connections?

    I also read that TMNet does not install the infrastructures for broadband when there is no high demand. Is this true? Then what about the other 10000 people like me? This is extremely unfair as there is no other ISP that can provide broadband than TMNet. Then why do the government rant about the lack of broadband users in Malaysia when the cause is very clear? I wanted to use Jaring FLITE but there is none for my area. Does this means I have to move to get a broadband connection? Or wait until 2020? Perhaps form a broadband rights group? What the…

    “The best of broadband from TMNet!”

  30. Actually, I have no energy to complain againt Tmnet anymore.
    We feel tired and exhausted to do so liao. Whatever you do, the problem still exist. Dunno which baka tell me that they have improve a lot, like wat shown in TV,fast connection. BULLSHIT ~~!! But, what to do??Since they monopoly the broadband’s market. Althru we complaint until “Shou Luan” also no use, -_-“”

  31. […] how amazingly people use flash for other tools in our life while i’m still like a frog sit below the coconut shell ” direct translation = katak bawah tempurung ” since like traffic jams, Global Positioning System GPS, interactive TV and so on are using flash as thier platform. the interface is simply amazing and very helpful while maintaining low data transfer. not to forget they does not lag the tools. btw since they [ United States ] are using a higher barebone speed of internet [ maybe terabyte oledi ? ] so i wonder can those application running on our country smoothly like them ? malaysia barebone speed if i’m not mistaken is just 1ogb and japan is 60gb already. the difference is very wide clear. even some of streamyx users comments that they do experience lag. […]

  32. Hi Guys,

    Nice blog you have here! I am facing the same problem in JB too….tried to call the Customer Service and they keeps on asking you to off and unplug your modem for few minutes, then asked you to call back after that. So I did, and they asked me to “switch off and unplug”. I said, I did that already and gave them the report no. They will say: ” We will come back to you, Mr. XXX”

    So this is the standard procedures, and you wait long long till you not exists and there will be no news from them.

    What to do? sighhhh we are living in the country that going backward when others is forwarding very fast.

    Anyway, feels free to check out my blog

    Cheers

  33. I am facing a big problem with tmnet streamyx also.
    my ADSL light is blinking in an interval of 3 minutes during night time, sometimes starting at 7pm, and this can happen for more than 2 hours.
    I have write so many feedback and mail to them and till now, about a week time, I am still having that problem.
    As an MCSE certificate holder, the solution they provide is only a basic solution which may never help to solve most of the problem. And I believe that the technician at the streamyx there set something weird on user accounts so as to control the bandwidth to free their resources. one of the weird thing I suspect is they monitor your online time, and after few weeks they will disable your account during certain times on certain days in the week that show that you are probably not using the internet. And if you happened need to use internet during that time, and call them for the problem, they will ask you to restart your modem, then at the same time they will reactivate your account to make you think that it’s the problem at your side, not their fault. SO SMART right.
    Talking about the Internet service in our country, Malaysia, I will always miss those time while I was in Singapore. I have internet connection for more than 2 years and I have hardly any chance to call their hotline for a line problem. Compared to making more than 10 calls within 2 weeks and most of the calls were not answered as I have to wait for so long time that I finally give up waiting.
    Sometimes I wonder whether our government ever think for its next generation, with all those protections given to most of the local and never give any room for them to learn the skills of survival in competitions.
    the next generation will tends to depend more and more on the government and whenever they face any problem, they will blame the government for not protecting them.
    Just imagine foreign car producers can make a profit to sell in our country after a 300% tax incurred on them and ours ………. ?
    And sometimes I wonder what is going wrong ? If you have something to sell to your own family and also some outsiders, will you charge more on your family or outsider ?
    And imagine if all the cars cost 75% less, how much extra money our people can afford to spend on other area to boost the economic ?

    SIGHHHHHHHHHHHH

  34. if they were a compeititor with reasonable prices… ill definatly crossover. streamyx is turtle anyway. can’t even utilize the speed we paid for. Plus i guess everyone has experienced the ‘tmnet customer support feeling’ should think so too!

  35. ya…

    my office 2MB…. but slow slow.
    i tested to download few file from internet. success get 10-20kb only.
    i waited 3-5 mintues just to download a MP3.

    usually took me only less than 1 minutes.

    10th May 2006

  36. What’s going on with streamy broadband ? My connection become very slow.
    And now i facing a new problem … Once i connected to streamyx, suddenly it will disconnect, its the DSL problem …. Even my fren facing the same problem . It’s very ignoring. Really hope that TMNET can work with it, we pay to get a best service, not keep disconnect !

  37. SOMETHING I will meet a download speed with less than 1kbps!!!that’s mean around 400bps-1kbps!!!that was terrible.1years ago,the normal speed was around 100kbps ,fast and no worries to download files.But now i can’t download files because it is too slow(it will take 20 mins to download a 10mb files),can’t play online games because always lags and sometime kicked out by others players or take too long to get into a website(not always).I asked others players from others country when playing an online game,they also use 1mbps modem but alot faster than ours……..you could see that their internet company works alot to keep the connecton fast enough.You all know Malaysia have a same way of thinking(inclulding me) is that we always think that we have done our best althought it still have a long way to go,and always never think of others feeling and what they are thinking about.I don’t think TM is trying to speed up the streamyx again right now.I am sure that they are now still relaxing.

    WORDS TO TM COMPANY:
    YOU TOOK THE MONEY,YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT JUST LIKE WHAT IT SHOULD BE:
    “THE BEST OF BOARDBAND”

    If even the BEST of boardband”s download rates are under 10kbps,then our HIGH-SPEED internet connection will not reach high-speed although the year reach 2020…..

  38. TMNET SUX! Their DAMN customer service probably dun even have streamyx and yet try to explain solution to us. DUH! STREAMYX LINES are always so slow/down. We pay about Rm80 for a 1mbitps connection while ppl in Singapore pay the same price ( ~ SG$40 ~ ) but they receieve connections 6 times faster which is 6.3 megabits per second. Sigh. TMNET are using such an old network which doesnt really utilizes the full potential of ADSL lines. 10gbps for roughly a million subscribers is definitely not enough. -.-

  39. Yeah, I totally agree with all.. TMNet only faster at night. Hello TMNet…..if that is the case so dont bring out the streamyx line..Most of the Networking are to be heared ‘every year mantainence’. Dont lie tu US…We are the customers…1MB = 80kb/s, 512kb/s = 40kb/s …..trully sucks….Are their bandwith always down or used for their COMPANY only!!….

  40. Agreed that Streamyx service can suck, in my experience mostly due to bad phone lines (ie too far from nearest telephone exchange)
    Personally I have very good service almost all the time and have to say that the TMNET Speedometer does not cheat. It gives a good measurement of your speed to a high speed well connected server in Malaysia. We need to remember that servers outside Malaysia have to feed through possibly overloaded submarine cables, that is why the tests from outside Malaysia will give slower results.
    While, yes, it is possibly a TMNET problem (they don’t buy enough submarine bandwidth) it is not a cheat on the Speedometer.

    From their FAQ
    “TCP has an overhead in transmission that can be about 5-10%, but ATM overhead is more like 15%. So you can expect to lose up to 25% of your purchased speed at least when counting application data transfer rate.”
    So you can expect around 800mbps or 100kBps download speeds shown on the speedometer (which is what I consistently get).
    For more information on your second by second data transfer try 3rtg from http://www.codefromthe70s.org/ (and don’t miss their DesktopEarth)

  42. As for the comments on the TMNet’s Ads. They should’ve used this motto instead
    “Subscribe to TMNet, take it or leave it. Leave it, as in no internet acces, then you are as good (or useless) as a dancing hermit.”

    As for mentioning that Streamyx is in actualy fact keeping their eyes on the subscribers, YES, that’s us. They even have lists to which they can categorically put any of us in. Seriouly, I don’t really care about all of that, all I care about is that they improve the (1) internet service and the (2) customer service. Heck, I wouldn’t even care if they want to monopolize everything, THAT IS, if the service is that good.

    I don’t think there never any need for me to mentioned just what exactly the sort of experiences I’ve had with Streamyx (mighty pleasanty, I might say). Whatever I have experience has already mentioned by the comments posted. You’ve been a great crowd, thank you very much.

  43. Why do all of you only stop at complaining and remain loyal subscribers to tmnet? Thing is, when someone mistreats you, don’t just think of how miserable it is for you, DO something about it. Why waste precious time typing emails? You know they’re being ignored already! Here’s what you can do, you can switch over to some other ISP! Wouldn’t that make at least a difference? There are alot more ISPs out there than you think. You might think some of them are expensive, but you might get what you paid for, unlike me, the RM 88 package subscriber who most of the time only get a rate of less than 3KB/sec download Which is more expensive? You do the simple math!

    Oh, and by the way,
    here’s a list of ISPs you can take a look at:
    http://www.mycen.com.my/search/isp.html

  44. mine 1MB package ….the connection always drop and DSL light keep blinking. It happened agai and again and make me ver dissapoited and lose patience. The quality of the line is ver poor. I hope Streamyx provider do more ASAP cause,if it happen and nothing change . I thing better to didn’t have a streamyx than just wasting your precious budget to the things that supposed to make you happy and increased your productivity but otherwise give you a problems. Like I want to throw away my DSL Modem..ahhh

  45. Most of the problem is :

    1) DSL light stable but cannot connect…. This usually happened when people who think they know everything reconfigure or I don’t even know what are they doing in the modem or router, tweaking or what.. When the configuration wrong, definitely cannot connect and start to call us. But, some of the modem we gave is modem with a dialer, but most of them refer to their friends and make fancy2 thing to the modem and make the modem became router. If problem happened, just blame on us but did not see on self stupidity I think.. Oftenly they can connect back after reconfigure the router….

    2) DSL light blinking… If customer called, the most basic troubleshoot is bypass splitter. But when check the technician comment, they said change splitter.. So it is splitter problem… Is streamyx customer did not know how to bypass splitter, or just bluff they has do that.. I am sure streamyx user is not stupid enough on how to bypass it…

    3) DSL off… Most basic troubleshoot is asking customer either there is dialtone or not… Customer said yes, got dial tone… I wonder.. Why? Because usually there is a report to number 100 because of no dial tone problem…

    4) Cannot browse.. Very simple…. Use firewall so that your friend can adore you as IT savvy and updated, macho maybe.. But did not have enough knowledge to handle it.. Frankly speaking, I also not familiar with that… Most basic troubleshoot is turn off firewall and also anti virus… Because, most of the IT savvy, blocked some port for internet usage accidently… Example, if you blocked port 21, you cannot use FTP as it is FTP port.. Besides that, they put fix IP at the PC or laptop, and the IP is not the default gateway IP… Called us and blame us, for what? Use wireless router, but did not know how to configure at PC.. The most stupid is, can browse when use wired connection, but when use wireless, cannot browse.. Still call us and blame.. When we tell the line is ok, customer start to shout like…. I don’t know what to say…. An educated people keep shouting at others because of own stupidity.. Oh gosh… What a world…

    5) Slow connection… Very interesting problem… I also dont know how to say about this problem. Some of customer report at newspaper, and what a pity.. When our expert come, the problem come from customer PC… Besides that, when make bandwith test, can reach good speed but slow when surfing or download.. One of us said our bandwith test is fake and asked to go to other bandwith test (outside Malaysia).. Some of them said slow browse to US website and playing games esp Korea game server.. I am also an online gamers… For this problem, it is very simple.. If you have good brain and knowledge how to think… If I ask you to run go and come for 100m, I think it will take about 30 – 40 second maybe… But if I asked you to run go and come back for 1 kilometer, how long do you think it will take? Very simple… Our bandwith test is accurate because it show your actual speed.. You are not at US there to use bandwith test from US…. The further the host, the slower you get because of signal loss and other factor… For online gamers, do you know why is your server slow? Try to use paid server, and you will have very good speed.. Don’t think that only you are using that server… Other people like free things also, like myself… You have to understand about overload server.. Same to people who loves to download… You are sharing the server to other people, so please understand…

  46. mad i hate same problem my streamyx is slower then normal 56k dail since week ago mad… i heard my friend said tat jaring will have monthly payment tat almost same with streamyx…. jaring is private compeny they sure will do ‘batter ‘ then tmnet tat with slow connection same with their slow custermer servise.. if jaring is more pricy then tmnet also will change my streamyx to jaring… mad slow slow.. i open this page with more then ’15sec time’ mad…..

  48. ya.. my home internet down during weekend!! it always happen!! And complain no use as they will say no body work on weekend you have to wait until weekdays!! weekdays everyone working who the hell can wait for the streamyx ppl come to your house to fix the streamyx line ??? services really bad!!

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