Maxis Wireless Broadband Sucks!

Posted in Daily Observations, Effective and Efficient, Money Scams, Technology |

Maxis Wireless Broadband USB Modem
I signed up for the package on a fateful afternoon back in February 2008. The package was RM 178 per month. Since it came with a HP Laptop, I am suppose to be tied to the package for the next 24 months, which comes to RM 4,272. Thus far, from February to September, I have paid RM 1,246 for this sub-standard product.

I’ve officially discontinued my Maxis wireless broadband on 9th Sep 2008.

There’s only one reason why I would want to pay for a wireless broadband service- mobility. Since I am always running around, I need internet access on-the-go. Yes, before I subscribed to the broadband service, I have to ensure that my appointments are made at a place with wifi connections, or at least “close to a Starbucks”. You also get to learn which Mc Donald’s are run by stingy managers. You also know which Old Town branch has got broadband but provides no power outlet, which is a very obvious message that customers with laptops are not welcomed (hint: Aman Suria). So, I thought by having a wireless broadband package, I could end the Hunt for Wifi Zones once and for all.

Let’s look at what they’ve quoted on their website on Minimum Contract Period:

We believe in giving you the best assurance when you use our service. As such, we are providing a seven (7) days cooling-off period. This allows you to test whether you like the service and whether the indoor coverage in your specific area is adequate to deliver the speeds you expect. During this 7-day period, you can discontinue our Maxis Wireless Broadband Service without any handling fee. Simply return the modem and telephone set (if applicable) in good working condition in its original packaging to our Maxis Centres (KLANG VALLEY: KLCC, Sunway, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Cheras, Selayang, Pavilion, Berjaya Times Square PENANG: Northam, Bayan Baru, Prai JOHOR BAHRU: JB Kotaraya, Taman Molek).

For full clause of their no minimum contract period, check here.

When I first signed up, of course there was no such clause. This must have come up to reduce the number of complaints. 7 days to test out the connection is actually too short. Why? Since you need mobility, you definitely need to test out the connectivity in a few destinations. Unless you can cover many places that you are most likely to travel to in these 7 days, then having this 7 days cooling period is as good as nothing. So, to really exercise your cooling-off period rights, make sure you schedule a cross-border trip across the country the moment they pass you the tampon.

Also, after the 7-days period, the no minimum contract period is as good as USELESS. That’s because you would still need to pay a hefty fine of RM200 for handling fees if you are to stop using the service in less than a year. RM200 for handling what? That’s literally daylight robbery. So, why didn’t I stayed on for another 4 months to qualify for the handling fee waiver, which would mean that Maxis will absorb the RM200 handling fee? Maxis has provided me a service I could barely use, and I don’t see that changing in the next 4 months. If I am still subscribed to the service, I would continue to fork out RM712 for a useless device. So, which is the lesser evil? The RM200 pickpocket or the RM712 robber wielding a parang? You might want to help Ananda Krishnan do the maths.

I happened to extensively travel between Kuala Lumpur, Melaka and Johor. The quality of connection in Kuala Lumpur is still alright. The speed is fine, but the amount of times being dropped out during a connection is considerably high, say once in about half an hour. Even if you are not dropped out, chances are the downloading will just come to a stop, whereby you need to restart the connection again. Well, that’s in Klang Valley.

Now, let’s drive 180 kilometres south to the Historical City of Melaka. Over here, the symptoms are quite consistent in the past 6 months: the device will indicate it’s connected at 3G or EDGE, but essentially nothing comes through. Yes, you’ll be loading pages and pages of “Connection Time Out”, and if you are lucky, the Maxis broadband homepage loads.

And let’s go all the way down south another 120 kilometres to a small town called Kluang. It’s small, but the population is rather civilized and the 250,000 residents living here also deserve decent wireless broadband connection. Unfortunately, Maxis doesn’t think so. Hence, you are being served GPRS if you are really lucky and most of the time, it’s just 53.68Kbps, which is almost the same speed as your normal dial-up connection. Only, all these speed are just “lip service”. Like in Melaka, you don’t get any data while you “stay connected”.

I remember very well on the day as I was enthusiastically signing up for the broadband service, the Maxis Wireless Broadband representative was explaining to me how they are going to extend their coverage in time to come, and how the broadband connection works. Basically, the device will detect the connection speed that is available in the area, and if you look at the chart below, the slowest connection that the device can fall back on is dial-up.

Maxis Speed of Service is on Best Effort Basis

This essentially means that I still get to connect at dial up speed in the worst possible scenario. However, they’ve never told me that even though you might be connected, there’s no assurance that the data will be received by the device.

Now, their favorite tag line is this: Speed of service is on best effort basis.

Ouch…whatever happened to consumer rights? Does that mean we get a discount from you if your package is performing below acceptable quality? That’s certainly not in my case. I have to pay in full every month even though I make complaints to them on a monthly basis, even when I am having problems downloading a decent web page. Just because you have that “best effort basis” clause, you can just tell all customers who are facing problems with your service, “What did I tell you? Stop whining, we are doing our best.” Is that the BEST Maxis can do?

Alas, this is my personal experience. I am not sure if there are any Maxis wireless broadband users who are having the same problems which I’ve had. If you do, please share it here. Also, there could be Maxis wireless broadband users who might have had a good experience, please share it here too.

To add to the challenge of unsubscribing, I asked the Customer Service dude what’s going to happen to my Laptop that came with the joint-promotion. He just gave me blank look and tell me to contact HP myself. So much for joint-promotion, it looks more like a joint-extortion.

I have heard good stories from many friends who are using CELCOM’s wireless broadband, which is essentially using the same HUAWEI E220 technology for the device. I have not used it myself, but if I am going to subscribe another broadband services in the future, I will definitely give CELCOM’s package a try.

To conclude my adventure, here’s another look at one of Maxis Wireless Broadband propaganda. They are quite smart to use all these “wild, jungle, animal” themes to sub consciously drill into our heads that you can go into the wild jungle like Indiana Jones and still able to work and surf the net with their service.

Maxis Wild Live Blogging with Tampons

All I can say is that you shouldn’t sign up with Maxis wireless broadband if you need mobility. Period.

I am not alone in my quest to bring up the injustice that Maxis is practicing on their customers and ex-customers:

http://titoki.blogspot.com/2008/09/fuck-u-stimx-fuck-u-maxis-bb-fuck-you.html
http://crizlai.blogspot.com/2008/05/maxis-wireless-broadband-unreliable.html
http://www.planetmy.com/blog/maxis-broadband/
http://nccc.org.my/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=820&Itemid=99999999
http://www.consumer.com.my/message/index.php?itemid=1620

Don’t think twice when you are choosing your next wireless broadband package. In fact, don’t even think at all. No amount of perks or up front promotion will make it up for the distressing experience once you sign up with Maxis. You’ve been warned!

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View Comments

Totally agree with u. Maxis Wireless Broadband is a piece of shit.

Comment by HateMaxisBroadshit — September 21, 2008 @ 8:13 pm
maxis broadband is totally rubbish.daylight robbery.
used it, it sucked, returned but have to pay rm200 fine which has an interest rate if we refuse to pay it/
late fine payment.i hope they close down the whole damn maxis company.

Comment by rina — September 26, 2008 @ 2:32 pm
It's very common to see these Maxis buggers going around promoting their wire-useless broadband services…

I am really tempted to ask these buggers if they've really used the broadband service themselves….

Comment by yowchuan — September 26, 2008 @ 2:37 pm
LMAO, after seeing all of you complaints here, i felt better, coz im really frustrated to encounter all these dumb ass connection that maxshit is givin me. paying rm115 to them and yet, they still giv me all these shit. i am a volcano ready to explode at any time, maxshit. u better giv me a good connection or else that i will go to the church every sunday to pray ur whole goddamn company shut down for the sake of consumers, ass maxshit. now u r really pissin me off

Comment by GotScrewedByMaxshit — October 13, 2008 @ 1:26 am
well maxis= DUMBASS.. im suffering the same problem…

Comment by Chick-n-Chop — October 13, 2008 @ 1:20 pm
ah, after reading all command, it make me feel like wana go call maxis to terminate my broadband immediately. By the way, anyone can share hows the celcom service? is it fast? is it allow port forwarding? thanks

Comment by kelvin — October 28, 2008 @ 7:38 pm
Hew, almost put my head to the lion's mouth…
Thanks for all the good comments. U guys are really cool.
i wanted to get the devices last week and enjoy myself all the time with wireless modem…
Looks like there's a coverage problem…Haven't expand more coverage then already wanna bullshit with fully coverage HSDPA i will need to do something since i know someone in Maxis but it's up to them if they wanna upgrade their systems…they really nasty…even the customer service that cuts off my line where i call them up and fuck them straight…it was a Indian Bitch who pick up thephone, then less than 10mins they reconnected me back. or esle my client gonna kill me…if i did not make the delivery call.

R&D
Ryan

Comment by Ryan — November 10, 2008 @ 2:22 pm
Ryan, it's unfortunate that you'd a rather rude encounter over the phone.

From my experience, when calling up these companies, I always have to remind myself that it's another human over the line. They are usually not responsible for the mess that I am in right now. Most, if not all the time, it's their top management who are sitting comfortably in their walled cubicle, probably never had to interact with a real frustrated customer, who decided to market a broken product to me. Yes, I can always vent my anger and frustration at these customer service attendants, but it's not going to help me solve the problem.

I have been to the Maxis customer service center in KLCC. It seems after I've paid the RM200 handling fee for terminating the broadband service, Maxis is no longer obligated to refund me any compensations. Now, it was Hewlett Packard who told me I could get my refund from Maxis, which is why I went all the way down to their customer service center KLCC in the first place. No, I didn't screw anyone or shouted any profanities, because the Maxis staff who served me was professional, and she has answered all the questions I had on the termination and the refund policy.

Now, I am back to the phone line again, speaking to the HP customer service, telling them about the latest predicament. I told them repeatedly I am willing to pay for the HP laptop that came with the promotion, but because they've charged the full sum of the 2-year contract (RM178 x 24 = RM4,272) to my credit card, I demand that they reimbursed me the sum after minusing the actual cost of the HP laptop (the laptop definitely did not cost RM4,272). The customer service staff told me she will bring the matter up to the management. I am still waiting, before I send them an official letter to ask for compensation.

All this mess happened because someone from Maxis decided to market a bad product. Who is responsible for the development and marketing of this bad product, I would probably never find out in this lifetime. I do not blame the customer service attendants for not being able to solve this problem in the shortest time possible. It doesn't matter. All I know is that I will never put my money on Maxis again. Once bitten, twice shy.

Comment by yowchuan — November 13, 2008 @ 3:24 am
Maxis sucks and I totally agree with you and now they have put this 3gig cap in your monthly usage. After the limit is reached, then the speed is downgraded to even slower than the snail-ly dial-up line. I have signed up over a year now and which at the beginning, it was still considered acceptable but now, I can hardly stand with it.

Unluckily during my sign up time, the terms and condition that they imposed are very different;

a) I can't terminate the contract until the maturity (18 months) or, unless I pay the remaining contract period that remains

b) Shall the 18 months mature and if I don't end the contract, Maxis will extent the said contract for another 18 months. What kind of this terms? Even you could do that on Streamyx, nor that I like them either.

Maxis promote heavily on this Maxis Narrowband, do you know why? Because the unsubscription rate is too high. They are losing customers now and then, but they do nothing to their services and keep on torturing the customers. I'm going to terminate mine when at the 18th months.

MAXIS, U are fired!

Comment by Ken — November 21, 2008 @ 7:34 pm
I am only using Maxis because Streamyx fixed line is not available in my area ( I could go on for months complaining about Streamyx and their terrible customer service and lies and incompentency.) I experience frequent disconnects with Maxis, due to my area (near Bandar Menjalara – Desa Park City area).

I went on a trip to Langkawi last month and Maxis worked perfect there. Great signal, fast speeds, I was in heaven. Why can they deliver great service to a small island, but not to a large area where most of their customers are???

Also, I am able to download unlimited amounts, sometimes over 1 gig per day. I notice they release their block on P2P at 1:00 am and block it again around 6 am. Speeds are fast after 1:00 am. But I have never been limited to 3 gigs per month, as I easily go over that each week.

I looked into signing up with Celcom several months ago at a retail outlet in Kepong, next to Car Four. I asked the salesman if Celcom would work in my area and he couldn't make any guarantees, then I saw his computer was connected to Izzi. Imagine that, Celcom reps are using the competition to provide internet service. That speaks volumes for me, so I didn't bother signing up with them.

I will gladly welcome the day when corporations in Malaysia decide it is time to serve the customer rather than the customer serve the company and the top execs who promote low quality garbage.

Comment by Gordeaux — December 1, 2008 @ 2:02 pm
As much as I would like to get even with Maxis or HP (I'm not even sure who is the one responsible for my plight now!), but the turn of events and the experience of being 'taiqi' around from Hewlett Packard to Maxis and from Maxis back to Hewlett Packard just goes to show how much rights a consumer has in Malaysia. Look at MCMC, a regulator that somehow doesn't give a hoot about the public's suffering under these 'evil mercenaries'.

Comment by yowchuan — December 3, 2008 @ 5:17 am
5th December: The Customer Service consultant from HP (Jasmine) told me to look for a Sandy Low, a Maxis employee who was in charge of the HP-Maxis joint promotion. I went over to the Customer Service Center in KLCC and asked for Sandy, but unfortunately, Sandy does not 'meet customers'.

That's where it almost short circuit me. Here I am, a paying customer, who got into so much trouble trying to get a refund from a non-functional product, and this person who is in charge of the entire 'scam-promotion' told me over the phone that she doesn't meet customers!

And later she had the cheek to say that since this is an exceptional case of a refund, she will need a copy of my credit card transaction to prove that the charges has indeed been made. And now, I have to make another trip to their Customer Service center to show them the transaction records.

I can only conclude that the management in Maxis has no intention at all to solve my problem. They are trying to test my determination on getting my rightful refund.

Their labeling my case for refund as an 'exceptional case' also shows their arrogance on the issue. There are so many evidence available on the net that complaints on the lousy quality of their wireless broadband service.

I do not think that this 'chronicle' is going to end anytime soon. Looking back, it's been 3 months since I terminated the service. It seems that I've only moved a few inches in a 100-meter race.

Comment by yowchuan — December 6, 2008 @ 7:35 am
OH shit, this means I am screwed. I just got this wireless broadband (maxis) 5 hours ago and now I'm realize that I'm actually fucked up…

Oh shit. There goes my scholarship money and my so called “RM100″ deposit… :'(

Comment by laknatmerah — December 9, 2008 @ 3:42 am
And now Maxis bundled the broadband with Dell Mini 9 after the dramatic Indiana Jone campaign…

Comment by Pin — December 10, 2008 @ 1:45 pm
Wow, hot discussion here! I've tried Celcom 3G broadband at Kluang PC Fair. The service seems to be promising. The promoter was showing the RM68 connection which is rated at 384kbps but it goes up to 1.5mbps most of the time. Sounds cool?

However, I noticed that when I ping US, Taiwan and China servers (well.. WoW servers XD), all I got is “request timed out”. It takes longer to access my blog as well.

Comment by Robin Lee — December 20, 2008 @ 2:56 pm
OH nvm, looks like my fears were unwarranted after all. Maxis broadband is pretty stable and I can download 20++ GBs worth of torrents per week :P

Comment by laknat merah — December 25, 2008 @ 6:27 pm
I have a Celcom 3G modem at work provided by my company for use at client side. Unfortunately the service is pretty much like that of Maxis. Terrible speeds that more akin to narrowband than broadband. Frequent disconnections and poor download speed for small sized files.

IMHO Malaysian broadband users are pretty much screwed either way with Maxis or Celcom. As much as we complain of TM's Streamyx, and it still has much to improve on, it's still the most stable internet provider in the country. Sad but true.

Comment by Jasraj Sandhu — December 31, 2008 @ 5:55 pm
Yes, I agree with you, Jasraj. My complaints to Maxis about connectivity issues has never been resolved at all (100% useless). Complaints to TM's StreamyX, although the complaining process is a pain-in-the-neck, usually shows significant improvement after a week or so.

I'm definitely not signing up with any broadband services in the next 2-3 years. All these advertisements about broadband coverage by these irresponsible telecommunication companies are simply misleading.

Comment by yowchuan — December 31, 2008 @ 9:34 pm
Guys, Maxis has some issues in highly populated/high usage areas during peak hours, do air your concerns here:

http://www.maxis.com.my/personal/general/person...

Cheers!

Comment by count-duku — January 19, 2009 @ 5:33 pm
Thanks for all the compaint/advice. Today 1 go to maxis for register with their maxis broadband but their modem out of stock After i read all the msg here decided to reg with celcom broadband.

Comment by zai77 — March 6, 2009 @ 5:44 pm
OMG celcom broadband… they suck big time… speed so slow… sometime no connection. tried P1 oso same… maxis broadband is so so only but much much better than celcom n p1. CELCOM SUCKS

Comment by anne — July 16, 2009 @ 11:06 pm
Have to understand the fundemental of a ISP provider point as well. Connection is good depanding on the area its covered.How many transmiting attena and also how well is the place , isit high rise or low land.If you are located near to a good coverage area of course any service provider connection will be good.P1,Celcom,Maxis.Before signing up , please read trough the T&C each line of it….and im prerty sure you will find a clause of Fair Usage Policy. That can clearly tell you why the speed drops out of sudden.:)

Comment by rydeg — September 11, 2009 @ 12:14 pm
well Digi broadband is giving away FREE broadband and a chance to win a Macbook air/pro ler.. the contest called pimpmybroadband.com.my .. simple mechanics to this i think.. just post why you want a digi broadband and they will pimp your broadband experience… try it out ler

Comment by robbiebroadband — September 17, 2009 @ 10:51 am
Have you consulted any lawyers on this matter & if you havent send me an
email to: raven474@hotmail.com and have a short discussion to see if there
are any legal avenues to screw these Liars maxis up.
REY

Comment by REy — October 3, 2009 @ 6:56 pm
HI there, I am currently using Maxis broadband. Damn BAD and slow. Love P1max but Sentul is still not under coverage. Wanted to switch to CelCom. BUt not willing to pay the RM200 handling fees. DAMN!!

Comment by Somanee — October 11, 2009 @ 11:19 pm
Very regret to use Maxis wireless broadband, please dun try !

Comment by VvvvV — October 20, 2009 @ 10:55 am
hi guys can i know broadband 3.6 mbps the cost how much in malaysia.Any interested dealers wanted cheaper broadband please email for me.tnx..(wil_w81@yahoo.com)

Comment by williamwong — December 4, 2009 @ 6:00 pm
yes…suck on maxis internet prepaid when they just said..there is no package included to repay your lost on 11 Dec 2009 from 12.30am until 4.00am..how many customer lost? how many money loose? no one would inform….suck maxis!

Comment by myname — December 11, 2009 @ 4:06 am
it is no use to complain and complain and complain. i know the way to make maxis broadband to give us better service. my email:maxonizukalee@hotmail.com
my h/p number:016-5402971

Comment by maxlee — December 19, 2009 @ 11:06 am