PCCW....

I have PCCW internet broadband access and NOW Broadband TV. With the state of technology today, one could imagine that the service would not be as horrible as it is. It is probably the worst service that I have had in 15 years except when I had the expensive Wharf Cable and their cheapie internet dial-up service that rarely worked.

I suspect that they, periodically, put too many customers on a server and the signal to the TV starts to break-up and slow down. When I complain, they send a technician over that fiddles around for a half-an-hour, gives you another useless decoder and then tips on his merry way. I have had these people come over at least a half a dozen times over the past several months.

All of this should be an embarrassment to them. But since the monthly charges are automatically put on my creditcard, how embarrassing is it really? They don't have to provide the contracted service and still get to charge the creditcard every month.

And try calling the service line... it is 1833-833. Ha ha ha. I spent 5 minutes today punching in numbers only get recording after recording and now that I have been on the line for 12 minutes [live blogging], its just an office phone ringing and ringing. I usually spend 10-15 minutes pushing buttons and listening to idiotic recordings asking me to enter my ID card number "to serve you better" and one can rarely get a live person on the line. I did end up getting a nice young man on the phone and after I completed my duty to complain, he said that he knows that the recording cue just sucks.

The most frustrating thing to me is I pay the full price for two lines and they keep shutting off the two line access that I pay for. I rarely can find who to talk to get this straightened out.

I called Jack So's office to complain. He is the Deputy Chairman and Group Manager Director. They just laughed at me and took down my number. Let's see if anyone calls me back. I doubt it. Jack took over the reigns from the vilified Linus Cheung. According to the 2004 annual report the top 5 directors of the company received compensation of between HK$18.5-24 million [US$2.37-3.07 million] each. So, I assume that since Jack is 2nd in command, that he is one of the directors getting compensated at this level. Despite their high compensation levels, the leaders at PCCW have been unable to get very much right when it comes to satisfying at least this customer. And as far as I am concerned, it is ultimately their responsibility to get it right. I guess that mini-tycoon Richard Li isn't that concerned since he is the son of uber-tycoon Li Ka Shing. I will comment on what I think of these two dudes some other day.

Hong Kong just blows when you deal with these monopolies and oligopolies. They figure that they are doing you a favor by charging you full price and delivering substandard Bangladesh type service.

But i would much rather be dealing with a Hong Kong company than a Chinese company any day of the week. There, they would just take your money and you would have absolutely no leverage against them.