I just saw a very interesting story today (see pic below)

I believe a lot of people are ignorant about mobile spyware software : see below for my full story

Click here for the news link

In case you DIDNT know, there are TONS of mobile spyware software today in the market that tracks, records all your calls, sms  live ! Most of these software works on multiplatform and it is really hard to even detect on your phone once it is installed. one of the common one is called flexispy

now i dont condone the use of mobile spyware to record someone else’s conversation or calls because it is unethical. I  am not sure if MCMC have made it illegal yet in malaysia but they should!

So before you go public and sue a telco for 20million, please at least check your phone and see if it is tapped! One good case study – if your pc was infected with virus/spyware – do you sue your ISP ?? i dont think so right?

celcom underpar

So i got the reply from celcom regarding my complain : see below

Note that i sent the original complaint on 26th and the reply came in on 28th. The reply came in exactly in 48hours, probably their standard timeline to reply to customers. I think in their haste, they dont even bother to understand the nature of the complain from the customer.

what do you think?

I dont know about you but i asked for their boss to talk to me and i am probably going to decide if i will switch telco based on their reply. will keep you posted.

Not Celcom Again!

I received a sms from Celcom yesterday :

Due to Technical Issues, pymt by cr card fr 6-12/7/10 via online cust svc cannot be processed. Pls arrange pymt for continuous svc. Sorry for the inconvenience.

WTF!?

Due to this damn problem from Celcom, i have had my line BARRED 4 (FOUR) times just last week, despite my payment made on their online service/payment portal. During my heated and painful call with them last week, they keep insisting that me, their customer, was at fault for not making payment despite showing them PROOF (AND GUESS WHAT? I just logged into Celcom online service portal and they just REMOVED all the old payment logs from 6-12th July)

This is really unacceptable Celcom.

As a customer, i had to go through 4 painful calls to prove that i have made payment and now all you do is just send a sms telling me to pay up again. thats all. This has gotta be the worst way to deal with a issue.

Also, i cant find any information regarding this payment notice on their website or even online payment portal

i am going to complain on this matter and let you guys know the outcome. stay tune.

Malaysian broadband service is utter rubbish. discuss.

Feeding off my earlier post on broadband advertising by P1 and TM (streamyx), its now time to focus on Maxis . If i recalled correctly, maxis stop above the line campaigns for its wireless broadband campaign for sometime but it had to respond to the sudden surge of interest and popularity of P1 advertising campaign. Also, not forgetting that maxis is set to relist their stock, so….. you know the drill, make noise in the media, make your brand visible to everyone so they buy your stock!

This is Maxis’ current advertising campaign – something for everyone

I am curious, why do i need Maxis to tell me the profile of internet users? hmmm……whats the customer value proposition? Whats the difference between maxis broadband and others? whats the edge?  Does identifying with any of these profile will drive me to subscribe to the service? strange indeed… very ho hum, marketing 101 idea. im wondering who is the poor chap that signed off this campaign in maxis…..

Maxis also did a small above the line campaign, pushing their MUSIC EDITION broadband dongles.

I was scratching my balls when i saw this campaign. How does a broadband modem dongle dressed up with stickers is gonna get me to subscribe? stand a chance to meet local artistes? pffffft….who gives two shits about the local artists? seriously?(Picture credit from prasys blog)

Now lets compare maxis advertising campaign, creative and messaging to the customers -with a HK ISP called 1010

See the difference? clear visual and messaging on speed (speeding ticket) + roaming (passport). The last image is not a full image of their campaign but its shows how a boxer is down on his knees (representing 1010′s competitiors) not being able to catch up with 1010′s new wireless broadband speed.

 

So lets take a step back and see the ISP market at a glance :

1) P1 – 80,000 subs (as of Sept 2009)

2) Maxis – 145,000 subs (As of Oct 2008).

3) Celcom – 270,000 (As of Mar 2009)

4) Streamyx -1.12Million ( As of May 26th, 2008)

 

If we re-examine maxis’ strategic marketing campaign since they launched the service, ( almost 3 years now), my guess is that maxis probably has 160k subs (taking into account high churn rate /people leaving the service).  so in 3 years and millions of advertising money spent, maxis only has 160k++ subs. P1 is now 1 year old and it already has 80K plus subs. Whats wrong with the picture here ?

 

 

Advertising war! in malaysia!

Yeah, i have to say the P1 advertising campaigns are fresh. filled with sexual innuendos? hell yeah!The recently concluded CUT the wires campaign was aimed at wired broadband customers from streamyx. Of course, in malaysia, the lingo of “POTONG” or CUT refers to circumcision, which is mandatory to all muslim boys.

P1 salvo aimed squarely at TM Streamyx broadband (wired) customers...

Well, the campaign was really everywhere. TV, Billboard, magazines,blogs,fb, everything that P1 can stake their logo at! Roughly 3-4 weeks after the campaign, TM finally responded with a tongue in cheek ad, aimed at mocking not only P1 wimax service but also their CEO!

reaaaaaaaaaal cheeky TM....

Dont see the resemblance? well…i also so happen to have P1′s michael lai handsome picture here…

oh yeah…not forgetting the recent controversy regarding their tv spot…if you havent seen it….here it is

 

So WTF is this post about you ask? well, firstly, for the longest time as i can remember, this is the first advertising campaign battle between ISP, poking directly at each other not only professionaly but also personaly.Secondly, in the midst of these two ISP battle to win consumers hard earned $$, where is CELCOM and MAXIS?

Part 2 : we examine the broadband and go to market strategies of Maxis,P1, Streamyx and Celcom. stay tuned.