Wow...wow...and wow!

When my Mastercard expired in July this year, and the replacement card was lost in the mail, I decided to just not renew it. After all, I have my trusted Visa card from the same bank and the limits have been combined. So I figured, I'll just stick to the Visa. And this will hopefully expeidiate my personal plan to cut down and cut back on credit purchases.

I overlooked a few auto debit instructions made to that Mastercard, however. And I only remembered them when I started getting text messages on my mobile phone from these service providers. One being Astro! Nope, my account was not terminated nor blocked or suspended, just that they asked me to check on my billing facility.

The bank told me I have to update Astro with my new auto debit facility so I did. I called their Customer Service Hotline, pushed the few numbers following the machine instructions, was left on hold for what seemed ages, got cut-off, redialed and this continued. Was I frustrated? Surprisingly, no. 

I checked my Astro statement to see if there any other ways I could get in touch with them. And yes, there are. Via facebook and e-mail. I chose to e-mail them an enquiry. Within hours I received an automated reply, telling me they would probably take 48 hours to respond to my specific enquiry but if I still want an urgent reply to please call (oh, yeah???) or send them a message on their facebook page.

I replied that e-mail with a note that my frustration was what led me to e-mail them, then went to their facebook page and scrolled through to read of comments and feedback from other 'likers' of their page. There were a few who had similar requests to mine...changing their auto debit from their Mastercards to Visas but then, because they wanted to take advantage of Astro's current offer to Visa card holders. One caught my attention because he complained he was put on hold for 10 minutes on the Hotline and nothing happened. Hmmm...

Anyway, I decided to send a private message instead of writing my request on their wall. Lo and behold, I got a reply immediately. The response was courteous and gave me specific instructions on how to proceed with my request. As soon as I wrote to thank the person who responded to me, I received a call on my mobile from their Customer Service Support Unit who spoke very clearly, well paced and in proper English. He too, guided me on what I should do to change my auto debit provider. He was responding to my e-mail.

Wow...wow...and wow! I went back to their facebook page and re-read some of the comments. Ah, there it was. The language used by some of the 'complainers'. Strong, aggressive, abusive, rude. I can empathize with the Astro Customer Service personnel for I too was in Customer Service. When you are bombarded left, right and center with such language one after another in a day, you just don't feel like offering the abuser(s) any assistance now, do you?

Yes, as consumers, as customers, we have the right to complaint and raise our grievances to the service provider for any inconveniences. But mind your language, though. Put yourself in their place...would you want to be treated that way?  

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