Digi vs Maxis

For my daily work whether it's blogging or programming 3Gb per day is more that enough. It's even possible to do some video streatming as wel (although not heavy streaming..).

Compensated by DiGi

• It wasn't easy. Had to have a back and forth dialog with DiGi over messenger and overall it left a bad taste in my mouth. I did get back my precious RM 30 which was wrongly forfeited by DiGi. I did get a somewhat "sorry" from DiGi. 

What I am not satisfied is that I only got back my "refund" after making complaints in Facebook and on this blog. What about other people who don't do this ? Would they have been compensated too.

P/S: Just a note - any DiG custome i can make the Digi plan change themselves easily via their phone menus. You need not call DiGi call centres to do that. And since access to that feature is open and easy to get to, ample warning should have been given that any changes in plan meant their system will wipe away all your previous credits you have paid for other services. No warning was given and the assumption is the customer should have known better and they should have called DiGi support. And when your credits are reduced to zero, no message is given. It is just gone!

The dialog between me and DiGi via Facebook.

• Andrew Ooi Boon Seng
  

  
  

  
  

  http://andrewooi.blogspot.my/2016/06/digi-cheated-me.html

  
  

  

  Andrew Ooi -Malaysia Blog: DiGi cheated me

  andrewooi.blogspot.com
• 11 June
• 

  11/06/2016 20:50
  

  Digi
  

  
  

  
  

  Hi Andrew Ooi Boon Seng,

  May we confirm whether the plan change done on your own or by one of our staff?

  Warmest Regards JD
• 

  11/06/2016 20:57
  

  Andrew Ooi Boon Seng
  

  
  

  
  

  The plan change was done by me
• 

  11/06/2016 21:07
  

  Digi
  

  
  

  
  

  OK, may we confirm whether you have contacted us to inquire about the plan change before it was done or before you posted on our wall with claim of being cheated?
• 

  11/06/2016 21:23
  

  Andrew Ooi Boon Seng
  

  
  

  
  

  Why should I inquire about the plan change when I was the one who made the change? I wanted the change. What I didn't expect that my monthly Internet subscription was nullified wasting my RM 30. No warning was given.
• 

  11/06/2016 21:33
  

  Digi
  

  
  

  
  

  Please don't get us wrong. We just would like to get more clarification because we couldn't find any records of previous interactions with you in our system prior to the plan change. When you said cheated, we thought you might have been misinformed by one of our representatives about the plan change process :-(

  Since there has been no adjustments made for your account involving similar issues before, we can arrange for a one time refund for you, as a token of goodwill due to the confusion.

  However, we strongly recommend for you to contact us here or by calling to our helpline to get more info before making any changes to your line. We won't be able to guarantee any more refunds in the future for similar incidents. Please acknowledge before we proceed with the refund arrangement, TQ
• 

  11/06/2016 23:38
  

  Andrew Ooi Boon Seng
  

  
  

  
  

  When you say refund as a token of goodwill it implies that there is doubts in my claim but you may refund me all the same. That doesn’t sit well with me. The issue here is the change of plan involves forfeiting any subscription a customer already has which is very unfair and wrong if no warning is given. I am sure there are other customers who are in my situation. If it is a matter of that RM 30 refund, please keep it! I’d rather customers be informed of this clearly bad practice by DiGi. We don’t have to ask if our subscription will be wiped away before making a plan change because it is logical to assume that it will not happen. Since this is the case, then DiGi should be responsible enough to alert users that any change of plan will involve them losing money on previous subscriptions.
• 

  11/06/2016 23:58
  

  Digi
  

  
  

  
  

  Certain changes may affect other parts of your account due to system conflicts and/or limitations. Due to this, we strongly recommend for you to contact us prior to making any changes to your account, in order to avoid any unwanted surprises.

  Nevertheless, we value your feedback. It has been recorded officially so it can be included in our future service enhancement processes, TQ
• 

  12/06/2016 00:23
  

  Andrew Ooi Boon Seng
  

  
  

  
  

  Sorry to say your reply is very off putting and makes me even more dissatisfied. I only expect 2 simple things. A quick refund and a short apology for the mistake made. I'd be very satisfied with that. Instead what I get is "we can arrange for one time refund.." implying you can but not necessary you will refund ??? And then there is a reprimand that it may be the customers fault to check for system bugs where changes in plan involves loss of credit (which is clearly weaknesses DiGi should know about and we don't have to call to find out if there is any possibilities of that!). Come on DiGi. If this is "system limitations" or "system conflicts" it is clearly bugs in the system which is the responsibility of your systems engineers to root out. Blaming your customers for not finding it out earlier is something really rude.
• 12 June
• 

  12/06/2016 16:03
  

  Digi
  

  
  

  
  

  No, by conflict we don't mean bug. You are changing from an old plan with a different internet charging base, Pay As You Use (PAYU) to a new plan with a free basic internet access base. So, any change to the base will affect any add on packages/subscriptions you currently have, when the old base was removed.

  Yes, we do agree that a warning prompt might have helped in cases like these, so we have recorded your valuable feedback for our future service enhancement processes. As a precaution, we still recommend for you to contact us here prior to making any changes to your account.

  We have arranged a refund for your account as promised earlier. You can expect it to be credit into your account within the next 48 hours. Do let us know if it is still not credited within the time frame above so we can check the status of the arrangement for you ya.

  On behalf of Digi, we apologize for the confusion caused, TQ

DiGi is TOO MUCH. They cheated me!

DiGi was just 'TOO MUCH'. I changed my prepaid plan to Smart Prepaid and was grateful it was done FOC.

However, my RM 30 subscription for 2.25 Gb internet for the month was immediately cancelled. No refund too ! So that's RM 30 down the drain.. and it was the first day of subscription  too so I didn't even get to use the Internet subscription I paid for.

So seeing their above image banner on DiGi website makes me really mad!  "We don't pull the plug on you" says Digi. Right!! :(

Update: Posted this link to DiGi Facebook page and their response is to PM them the details. I have done that and awaiting any reply (if at all).

'Upgraded' to LTE DiGi SIM card

Just happen to pass by the DiGi shop in Teluk Intan after finishing some banking at RHB. I remembered reading my SIM card had to be upgraded first before I can get LTE speeds. DiGi is pretty slow in LTE technology. That's one of the reason I got another Maxis SIM card last year just to get LTE something I didn't want to as I wanted to stick to only one telco.

I remember reading that it can be done free of charge so I went in the shop to get the free SIM card.  However the  customer support  at DiGi told me there is a RM 10.60 charge for 'LTE activation'. Oh well, so much for free.

I got it and had to top my prepaid account by RM 20 since they can only top up in increments of RM10. Darn 60cents for GST  :(

Got the SIM card and DiGi told me to wait  10 minutes for activation before it can be used.

Actually it was only less than that as almost immediately my old SIM cannot be used. So I took it out and replaced it with the new SIM.

Tested the internet speeds and didn't notice much difference.

It was faster (about 20Mbps) in the centre of town. The above is the speed I got at home (no LTE just HSPA according to the 'H+' sign on the phone).

Shouldn't complain much as this is much better than the speeds I got last year and I have the satisfaction knowing both the SIM cards in my phone (DiGi and Maxis) are now LTE.

Digi prepaid RM 30 for internet

subscribed to this digi prepaid plan.. RM 30 - 2Gb -30 days ... so that's what 'unlimited' meant. Only found out after registering DiGi online and browsing to this page.

Posted by Andrew Ooi Boon Seng on Thursday, 7 April 2016

Programming on the go

Quite cool that the Android ecosystem have matured enough to support programming on the go on a mobile phone. Using bitweb server to run php and mysql from the phone.  A bluetooth keyboard makes very close to coding on an actual pc. Also code editing apps like Droidedit is surprisingly feature packed that it makes users of sublime / ultra edit / atom feel completely at home. Anyway  it's pretty cool to be able to code and developers on your phone.

When I see this ...

When I see this...

I think of this ...

ZeptoExpress.com is a promising Malaysian startup in the vein of Uber doing crowd sourced delivery.

Exabytes innovative workplace environment

The video of #Exabytes employees having innovative workplace ala Google that I shared previous was promptly removed from #Exabytes own page  !!...
Posted by Andrew Ooi Boon Seng on Thursday, 7 January 2016

Well I guess I should be honored that my actions were noticed and they had to remove the video from their own facebook page!! 

Exabytes want to build for us?

Saw this Facebook advert pop up so  often on my Facebook page I had to say this:

REALLY? No Coding? No Hassle?

After showing how unprofessional and incompetent Exabytes  handled my malware problems  on my shared hosting after 10 years of being a loyal customer ? I say "NO way! "

If they treat a customer of 10 year  this way, how will they treat new customers?

Never again with Exabytes!

related links:

• How Exabytes killed my website
• Exabytes only responded when their ad received some negative comments from me (marketing firefighting  to minimise damage)
• Exabytes finally responded but it's clearly a case of too little too late

Exabytes - bad local webhost!

The past couple of weeks I've been fired up against the webhost that killed of two of my main websites that has been running for 10 years or so. Why? I saw their Facebook ads talking about their great service etc and I couldn't stand it. All because of incompetence and they have grown so big they really don't care about the smaller customers that they built their business on.

Anyway, after weeks of pouring out my experience on social media and blogs I was curious to see if that had any impact on search engines with the key word "Exabytes"

3rd and 4th place is two of my blog post!

Granted it's only from Google plus but I am sure more organic links will popup after some time. Also my anger towards the bad service I got from Exabytes has not abated so you can safely expect more posts from my favourite local webhosting company - Exabytes.

No Wi-Fi

A little hard to live blog on the first round because of lac of Wi-Fi. My Maxis prepaid is running out of quota so this will be challenging.

 

 

Router tantrums and how to fix disconnected IP 169.x.x.x

This is a common problem. You log in to your WiFi networ either at home or some free WiFi outside of home, it "kicks" you out. All indications that you are connected, only that you are actually not!

How do you know? 

Your browser says there is no connection.

You then check your IP you get the above. 

The router gives you an IP that starts with 169.X.X.X which means it hates you and won't allow you to use the internet.

This happens very often to me, especially if the router has been turned on non-stop for weeks or months. So the solution which I know most of us will do is reboot the router. That almost always solves the problem.

The problem is on public WiFi. It's a little more difficult to get the owner of the establishment to reboot the router. I tried this at my local mamak shop and the worers reply is that "Sorry. Boss takde. Tak tahu camner nak tutup and on balik router".

The solution is to assign your own IP and not the useless 169.x.x.x that the router assigns you.

This  can done on any phone, tablet or notebook.

Example. Here's my settings:

The 188 is abitrary. You can choose any number between 1-255 except '1' because usually the router takes that IP number.

Advantage is pretty clear. Since no one else is connected except me, I have the internet all to myself :)

My usual snack while getting my internet fix at my mamak shop.

HAPPY MERDEKA 2015

Why la PostoExpresss no outstation?

I really wanted to use that new PostoExpress, that new local Uber-like service that uses crowd sourcing to deliver your goods. However they don't deliver outside of Klang Valley as far as I know.

I am sure they will in the near future and I can't wait to use it then.

The above is my Petai plant delivered by DHL from Muar to Teluk Intan for RM 15.

No prizes for guessing petai is one of my favourite food and with the prices skyrocketing lately, I thought it would be nice to plant my own petai.

Anyway, when they do go nationwide, I will definitely use our own innovative local service PostoExpress. Seeing our currently bleak economic climate, it's good to support local !

Also, I don't mind earning extra cash delivering their stuff around my town on my bicycle !! :)

P/S: Their iOS app needs a bit of fine tuning as I couldn't select my address. It kept pointing to a school which is not where I am at.

OMG !!

 

Posted with Blogsy

What the hell Malaysia?

What the hell Malaysia ? What is happening ?

Uber model for Express Delivery ?

At the post officenow to send a hgeavy package.

Ok la.. rm 31.80 to send 10 kg of parcel.

Hmmm here's an idea.. use the Uber model to get anyone interested in doing delivery within the area to make the delivery ad-hoc!

 

Name the service and app "UberPost Expresso". :)

 

Customers win coz they get their delivery fast and cheap. Wins for Motor cyclist, motorist without work can become part delivery workers to earn extra cash .

I for one wouldn't mind paying RM 20 for instance instead of RM 31.80.

 

Downside of course is the trust issue. Just like Uber, do I trust the rider/driver? But unlike Uber the dangers are less as it is the package at risk and not my person. All of it can be elleviated with driver/delivery rider ratngs on trustability and personal record.

 

 

Will be in direct competition with Dhl, post laju etc.

 

Good idea, yes?

 

Posted with Blogsy

My RM15.70 (USD 4.15) DIY Aquaponics

Fascinated by the many Youtube and Pinterest I seen (just go and search!) on aquaponics, I decided set up one for myself.

According to Wikipedia, aquaponics is

"a food production system that combines conventional aquaculture (raising aquatic animalssuch as snails, fish, crayfish or prawns in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. In normal aquaculture, excretions from the animals being raised can accumulate in the water, increasing toxicity. In an aquaponic system, water from an aquaculture system is fed to a hydroponic system where the by-products are broken down by nitrification bacteria into nitrates and nitrites, which are utilized by the plants as nutrients. The water is then recirculated back to the aquaculture system."

Cost is pretty minimal at RM15.70. Mineral water from Giant supermarket cut into half. Bamboo from outside my house, some perlite I got from Ace hardware and zip ties and I was done. I got 3 cheap guppies from a pet shop nearby. Didn't want to get the goldfish (RM 8) which has a high risk of dying by my hands :)

Ulam Raja plant, one chili plant and 3 recently germinated durian seeds in perlite.

3 red eye guppies.

Mineral water bottle   RM 4.75

Fish (red eye guppies) RM 3.00

Perlite                RM 7.95

--------------------------------

Total                  RM 15.70

================================

Price exclude water pump (not in picture) as I already have an old one lying around.

My only problem is the water pump is too big and powerful for this small system. I am manually scooping the water up a few times a day to the perlite for the moment. There are tiny holes made in the bottle cap so the water will slowly trickle down back to the fish.

Recycle

 

Recycled water bottle cut in half.

Pandan plan discarded at the side of road after some road construction dug up the soil nearby.

Nothing wasted.

P/S : rag cloth act as wick so no need to water as often. useful for a lazy geek like me.

Posted with Blogsy

Remember the video taping days ?

Want to see that favourite TV show but not around to watch it during it's show time? Just video tape it. That's what we did 20 years ago. Those were the days..

Today we have YouTube, torrents, Astro DVR etc. Show the kids today what we used to watch our favourite media and I think they would think it's hilarious.

Anyway, today this is what I use.

Some "cloud" storage and some free service to "tape" my favourite shows :-

showRSS (showrss.info)

This is where I find my TV torrents as soon as they are available. It's a free service to track all your favourite TV shows. 

I even have another free service from IFTTT to popup notification on my handphone and iPad as soon as a TV episode is released. Gone are the days of watching the TV program section of the newspaper to know when your favourite programs are on.

Many of the shows are so recent they are almost always ahead of our local ASTRO cable tv.

I use a "cloud" storage service like btcloud.io when I am away from my normal broadband connections. Services like TMNet Streamyx on a slow 1mbps connection actually throttle your internet downloads speeds to 2-3 Kbps if you are downloading torrent. They don't slow down UNIFI though. Double standards if you ask me. Anyway using cloud services like btcloud.io I get  speeds of 100Kbps which is the max speed on a 1mbps account anyway.

BTcloud.io is a paid service but they have a free limited account too you can register and get 1 Gb of storage with maximum of 5 torrents. That's more than enough for me to get all my regular TV shows.