The almost-monopoly (or is it absolute monopoly?) of the satellite TV business in this country must hv gone to their fat heads.
If it weren’t for the fact that the normal tv channels show almost unwatchable programs save for 8tv during certain viewing hours of the day, I would not have even subscribed to their service since I hardly get home in time to watch anything anyway and im usually out on weekends. Anyways, subscribe I did since I couldn’t watch tv unless it was connected to A$tr0. (one of those complicated things related to living in a condo)
And in just 6 months of subscription, they have managed to piss me off twice for rather major reasons. And im not even talking about late or non-delivered A$tr0 Guides. My payments are done via auto debit to my credit card to save the hassle of having too many bills to pay independently every month. One day I received an sms asking me to call the a$tr0 reconnection number to reconnect my services. Thinking that our ever efficient peeps over there just have mistakenly sent me that text, I ignored it. Next thing I know, I received a formal letter from them asking me to request for reconnection. And then poof, suddenly I couldn’t view anything anymore.
I was furious because not only was it impossible to NOT pay since it was an auto debit anyway, I had been settling my credit card payments in full anyway. When I finally called up guess what made them be so rude so as to cut my service without any proper issuance of notice to demand payment or reminder? Apparently some moron had paid into the wrong A$tr0 account, namely mine. So no biggie. Moron calls them up and has them transfer payment to the correct account. Here’s where it gets stupid.
Since that moron had already made a payment which amount didn’t even tally with my monthly charges into my account, the wonderful company did not proceed with the auto debit charge into my credit card. Now isn’t that smart. And that’s the excuse that was provided to me, whilst I was screaming at them on the phone. I was screaming because previously, their officers did a double auto debit charge on my credit card. And they had to set it off in the end. But what im trying to get at is, they can make a double charge and so whats there to prevent them from doing it again this time??!! Suckers. Anyways, that was waaaay back in January. And their letter of apology took 2 months to arrive.
Now. The new story is that I cant bloody view a single thing because apparently (according to the error message) this channel is not in my subscription. Upon checking my latest bill I was still paying for the whole damn package. So fine, I called them up and queried. Customer service officer with the pleasant tone tells me to wait and their technical ppl will call me back in the next 4 hrs to troubleshoot. After 4 hrs, still no call. And since it was midnite and all their servicemen had gone home, I assumed they would do their job the next day and left it at that. That was last nite.
Today, I finally arrive home in the evening and guess what greets me when I turn the TV on again? Yep you guessed it. THIS CHANNEL IS NOT IN YOUR SUBSCRIPTION. Bloody hell !! So Im pissed and I call their pleasant toned customer service officers again. This time the officer tells me that she will ensure someone gets back to me. And asked if anyone called me the nite before because apparently, the comment placed beside my account details was that there were 3 attempts to call made and I didn’t answer a single time. Wow. I specifically instructed them to call my mobile and unless my mobile services also gave up on me the same way A$tr0 did, Im sure as hell I didn’t receive a single call. So I said thank u and hung up the phone waiting for their ever so efficient ppl to call me.
After an hour of waiting I decided enough was enough. I called them again and this time, their customer service officer miraculously directed me at some simple instructions on downloading the whole bloody service again (which I had already done several times and which I pointed out to him). And he said, download and place in standby mode for half a bloody hour because they would be transmitting signals or some crap over from their HQ.
Amazing. All it took was one call to solve the stupid problem and there we were placed in a wild goose chase.
So now I can finally view what I paid for. I mean its bad enough not being able to view the damn thing coz im not in all the time but being denied the shows when im in??!! Sigh.
Oh, and I didn’t receive my A$tr0 Guide for March either : (
Gawd im such a TV junkie. I cant live without my CSI, ANTM, Heroes or House ;o)
HAHAHAHA. This method of displaying is very, very hilarious to me for some reason or other.
I attempted to make bak kut teh (or rather chick-kut-teh since its almost impossible to find pork meat in supermarkets so i substituted it with chicken instead) for myself & CS on Saturday. And when i say attempt, i really mean it coz im not much of a cook. Unlike most gals i’ve nvr actually helped my mum in the kitchen when i was young. But like any good game, there are cheats when it comes to food and i used the ready-made powder for the broth. So its a real no brainer, just add in the chickayn & mushrooms : ) Of course its no where nearly as good as bak kut teh in Klang (or nearby my house hehehe) but its not bad ; ) Hey im learning and eventually will exceed. I hope : D
I went back to CS’ home over the weekend hoping to play with the lil puppy that has been residing in their home for weeks now but instead of a puppy, i saw a mother cat & two of her kittens : ((( The puppy was gone !!!! According to CS’ mum, its rightful owners had come and collected their long lost pup :’ (( I was so sad. His mum asked me to choose one of the kittens instead, but im more of a dog person so no go. They were gorgeous kitties though : ) And to think i had already bought one of those chewable fake bones for the puppy. Sob sob.
its just shots of a super clear LDP and Sprint highway at 430am on a Saturday morning. u cant see my 4.30am face though… LOL
