I had broadband + Now TV package installed, long story short, the HBO on demand did not work and I was using a remote that did not have a on-demand button, when calling customer support and the guy on the other end of the line insisted that there was a on-demand button, he then asked a colleague of his and I heard him say "This customer must be blind" in Chinese, "he claims he cannot find the on-demand button.." Little did he know, I was using their newest Now TV decoder which had a remote button used to access HBO-ondemand was called "now-select", not "on demand".. after figuring that out when the technician came to my house the next day which did not matter anyways because my on-demand was not working to begin with.
The technical support came to replaced the modem, did alot of calling to someone on the server end I guess. They could not get the HBO-ondemand to work after 3 hours, he then told me to call the customer support hotline since there is nothing more they can do, modem + decoder + link 100% sure it works fine, problem is not a technical problem, more of a profile/account problem. At least he had manners and tried his best and was very informative when I asked questions about my service, I tipped him $20 and sent him on his way.
That evening, I called the hotline, the customer support on the other side explained to me that I was using a new special modem and that I would need to wait 1 week before HBO-ondemand works because it was a new plan.. I flipped out and told him off that you are charging me for this plan, why do I have to wait a week for it to work? and the whole special modem? what bull crap, I didn't ask for a special modem, come over, give me a old modem or whatever and give me what I paid for.... he told me not to get mad and asked someone else to come talk to me (I guess a manager), the manager ended up telling me that because of the building I live in and the max throughput the line can support is 3mb (old building, old line, MDF is like 5 blocks away), it cannot support HBO-ondemand, he suggested that I un-suscribe to the channel and that I would not be charged for it at all for this month.
Today I check my account status online and found out that other then my original plan which cost roughly a total of $506 for both TV + Broadband, I saw about a bit above $200 of VAS (Value added services), mail guard, special mail box, photo storage online, cam online, some online phone service.. I did not apply for any of this and the sales agent never told me anything about it. When calling customer service support, they refuse to turn it off and said that I must ride it out through the trail period and must cancel at the end if I do not want it.
The key here is I want to alert all expats when applying for service from PCCW, make sure you know what you are getting, check after you have got it to see what they have thrown in as FREE TRAIL PERIOD without telling you. If you don't check, after trail period, they will automatically charge you for the service and if you complain then, they can cancel it but will still get you for 1 month or more.
$10-20 is nothing to me, it's the principle.. companies should not be doing business in the way.
Please take it easy on all the NOW/PCCW sales staff, technicians, even the guy that comes install your broadband or phone line. I know for a fact most of them don't work directly for PCCW, they carry a PCCW ID but they actually work for a sub-contractor, PCCW has contracted out 90% of their operations years ago and service has gone down hill since. The technicians make peanuts, they get paid per job basis, no monthly salary, no bonus, no medical, no vacation, it's like working freelance but 6-7 days a week and 10-12 hour days. Sales staff works on commission also but I think most of them get a little bit of incentive pay but it's probably only enough to cover transportation. Please Be Nice to Them
Out.
