boon's log 4109.07: TNB Surprise

A while ago, I blogged about my less than satisfying visit to the Kedai TNB at Anson Road when I was on the receiving end of a whopping >RM500, wrongly delivered utility bill [click here for the entry].

Almost a month after that and when all the dust has settled, I received a unexpected and surprised phonecall from TNB [surprise #1]. He introduced himself as Tengku Hazman bin Tengku Hassan, the Assistant Manager for Customer Relations at TNB Anson Road. He wanted to follow up on the "bad experience" that I had with the branch and if everything was in order. Little did I know (not until later) that it was the first phonecall of a series of phonecalls - a total of 8 phonecalls to be exact! This guys really meant business and really wanted to make sure that he got all the details correct for his report - to the extend that he wanted me to pin-point the lady at the counter which re-acted rudely to me during my visit. I told him that she did not wear any name tags and I did not know who she was. It was then, during the last phone call (i.e. #8) that he invited me to his office to bersembang and perhaps to help identify the lady. And throughout the entire time, he was very apologetic about my "bad experience" with them. I was like... huh?! [surprise #2]

Okay, woah, horsey! Is this really happening? Houston, do we have a problem? You bet your bottom dollar it really happened, mate.

Anyways, I agreed with the Tengku that I meet up with him. I parked my car on the 7th floor as he suggested and called his cell when i arrived. I went throught the same doors as I did ~1month ago, but the lady that served me the other day was not at the front counter. It was a man this time. I waited for him to finish up with the person before me. I stepped up to him when he was ready. He looked at me without saying much and I said, "I'm here to meet with Tengku Hasman, please?". He immediately brightened up and spoke in English, "Please use the white doors on the right and then take the first door on your left." [surprise #3]

So off I went and as he saw me heading towards the doors, Tengku came up to meet me and shoke my hand. As we stepped into his office, he began again with apologizing for my experience and thanking me for coming to his office to meet him, saying that he was willing to come meet me if I could not make it. Anyways, as we sat down, he showed me a print out copy of boonspot, and particularly my blog entry about TNB (!!!). I was like, How the heck did he matched my complaints with my blog entry?! Someone in MCMC perhaps? Or TNB actually pays someone to surf the web and scoop for TNB-related blog entires? [surprise #4].


TNB tracked doown my blog entry...

He was telling how he (and his wife) thought that the write up was not rough or rude - in his words, "lembut dan tidak kasar". I replied that I just wrote it out as it happened, there is no reason for any "kasar" to be involved. He also showed me the "management report" and also the sequence of events that took place after I handed in my complaint form. It was then that he also told me that the VP down in KL had forwarded the blog entry to his Boss at TNB Penang and has given them a week to settle things with me. The TNB VP? Really. Honestly, I have my reservations in taking that in, but leaving some room for truth in that. [surprise #5].

Our meeting lasted for about 30minutes. He mentioned that the respective employee has been identified and warning letter has been issued. He also mentioned that she was in no position to advise me that I had to pay the RM500 before things have been confirmed. He regreted on her (and TNB's) behalf. But I had to agree that the entire episode from the wrong billing to the re-billing was carried out rather speedily - like in 2-3 days and I received my correct bill thru mail in like another week. And we ended our "sembang" session with (a) the fault of the meter reader and (b) the poor attitude of the front desk employee. I also made mention that it was a hassle to come in to report about something that it was TNB's fault. He gave me his card and asked me to call him or email him anytime with any problems with TNB, and he'd be happy to help me out.[surprise #6]

Oh, and just before i left, he requested to take a picture with me - I guess as a proof that he has met with me, when he reports back his Boss(es). Could I say no? Of course not... So we striked typical hand-shake pose for the camera [surprise #7]

Came back to the office and filled some of the folks in on what happened and they too were surprised and shocked! Is this the TNB that they knew? HT and JT decided to investigate on how they linked my TNB physical complain with my blog entry. They did a simple Yahoo! Search on "TNB Mistakes" and found my blog entry in the first page along with a Star write up (click here to read about the write up) about at similar issue of mis-billing by TNB Penang reported by a former Pengkalan Kota Assemblyman, Lee Hack Teik, where he was overcharged by RM30.34 (RM404.94 versus RM374.64). Apparently Mr. Lee went to the MCA about this. Well, I was overcharged by RM343.25 (refer to my blog entry) - perhaps I should have gone to Lim Guan Eng, huh? So anyways, according to my 2 super sleuths, HT and JT, TNB has been in a string of complaints - perhaps that is why they are so uptight and responsive about my complaint.

Well, all-in-all, I'm impressed and truly pleased with the way this was handled. As I mentioned to IL - seems like this is more effective that writing to CAP. :) Anyways, as the also Tengku mentioned, "Although TNB is the only Electricity provider, TNB should not take advantage of that fact and act irresponsibly." I sincerely hope that he means it - and not only himself but the rest of his colleagues at TNB and the rest of the utility service providers shares that same mentality... Kudos to Tengku Hazman.


boon out...

boon's log 3609.03: I am TNB, I don't make mistakes...

Came back from work one day, peeked into our mailbox and found our TNB bill lying in there. IL and I had a little game going on - i.e. to guess what the amount of each month's electric bill is going to be. We named our guesses and found that we were both wrong. To our BIG surprise, this month's bill was a whopping RM524.80. I rubbed my eyes and rechecked the number ... RM524.80. Checked the name and address on the bill. Everything checked out correctly. We did get an electric utility bill for RM524.80... no tunggakan, it's Caj Semasa - Current charges, not brought forward.


TNB Surprise.

My mind immediately went into a frenzy trying to figure out which appliance in our small little apartment could have caused this and the immediate thing was to detect and destroy - yeah, like throw it out of the 25th floor window, kinda. We came up with a few suspects - the washer, dryer or the air-conditioning system...

Anyways, I did the next best most imaginable thing - I checked our meter reading against the bill and "Voila!" we found the culprit - the TNB meter reader-guy read our neighbors' meter instead of ours(!!!). Called TNB to file for a billing dispute. 1-5454.


Mine... mine... mine...


Our neighbors - a whopping 683 kWh difference

"We cannot do anything for you here. You will have to take your bill to the Kedai Tenaga listed at the bottom of your bill and file for dispute," was the reply.

Wait-a-minute, I live in the south part of the island and you want me to drive all the way down to downtown, pay for my parking and line up and file for a dispute for a mistake done by TNB? Am I missing something here?

According to EY "Dude, what do you expect? It's not 2020 yet!"

So, took the picture of both the meters and went through all the hassle of driving downtown, endure the traffic jams, parked my car and lined up to report a billing mistake done by TNB.

At the Inquiry Desk, the lady was, as expected, impolite and unfriendly. I took the initiative to wish her a good-morning, to which there was no reply. I tried to let that go, being Ramadhan and all. Anyway, I showed her the bill and the pictures and told her the whole story of how the meter guy clearly read the wrong meter and the bill was wrong.

She then snapped back and debated on how do I know that the meter guy read the wrong meter and that my picture was blur and not clear enough and in a way rejected the dispute. What the? That set me off. I asked her which part of the picture she could not read and she told me the No. Jangkaan - i.e. the Meter Number.

"You boleh baca, kah?! Ah, bacalah... bacalah!", she said.

So I read the No. Jangkaan out to her and she tallied it with my bill. And her reply was a loud, "Ah, betul-lah! You... baca dari mana?"

!!!

I took a deep breath and said (in English), "Auntie, I read it from the number printed on the meter in the picture that I just showed you just now."

Only then did she give me a photostated copy of a form to fill in, with no carbon copy, no report number, no reference number. What to do? This is TNB... Filled it up and passed it back to her.

"I kena simpan ini gambar," she said - as if it was part of the requirement for me to bring the picture in the first place. So I told her, "Sure, go ahead, I have the soft copy."

I asked her for a reference number so that I can refer to this report later in case I need to follow up, but she just gave me the blunt, "Tak apa, depa (they) akan call you nanti."

"Siapa depa? So, I tak akan bayar dulu sehingga depa call saya?", I said.

"No, no, no. You kena bayar!!"

"Apa?! Saya kena bayar RM 500 because TNB salah baca meter?!" That was the trigger that set things off. "No, I will not pay TNB anything until you fix the issue!!"

"Ok, our complaints department will call you back as soon as he can." - if there is, indeed, a complaints department, that is.

I went back to my office and immediately submitted another complaint online and then called up the TNB Penang and asked for the Manager of Commercial Affairs, Tuan Haji Yusoff bin Hamzah. The operator immediately patched me through to his office. Unfortunately, Tuan Haji was out and his Personal Assistant (PA) will get back to me shortly.

True enough, the PA called me back half an hour later and spoke to me politely in perfect English. I complained the entire ordeal to her, stating my utmost disappointment with TNB and the service that I am getting. She accepted my complaints and said that she will personally look into it and ensure that the personnel/officer in charge will call me back before lunch - and he did.

The next day, I got another call from TNB confirming that they read the wrong meter and the amendments were being made in the system and that I will be receiving the amended bill through the mail. And was told not to pay anything until i receive the new bill. And true enough, I receive the new bill in my mail box the next day... looks like it really helps when you talk to someone at the top.


Amended utility bill

So a key-learning for folks living in apartments and condominiums - it is not very hard for the meter reader to make mistakes. Do not condone to the impolite treatment when making your complaints at the TNB. Take a picture of your respective meters immediately (to capture the closest reading to the one recorded on your bill) as evidence - even though they did not ask for it initially(but they will ask for it later).

This is Malaysia, and this is Tenaga Nasional Berhad, they don't make mistakes - even if they do, YOU (the customer) will have to pay for it. Service without a smile.

boon out...