just for once it would be nice if things worked as promised...as the premier telecom provider in sri lanka dialog really sucks...
For the last year I have had the following issues with them:
- this last weekend they turned off my idd without informing me. when i called up their customer services i was told that I had exceeded my credit limit. i then told the person that I had a left a deposit of LKR 11,500 and that my largest bill had been LKR 5,000 and that my bills are automatically settled to my credit card. She went "oh" - left me on hold for about 15 minutes and promised to restore my idd in 10 minutes time.
- my phone was cut off from making or recieiving any calls for practically the whole day last thursday 17th may. I had arrived from Thailand that morning and use dialog's sms roaming service when abroad (paying my own bills i do not want to have outrageous roaming bills + they require a deposit of LKr 40,000). to start up the service you have to activate it by sending an SMS before you leave and similarly de-activate it by sending an SMS when you return to the island. I have had constant problems with it when I started using the service but they seemed to wok out the niggling issues (or at least my wife has patiently informed them that things weren't as they should be). Anyway my phone was not working properly until about 3:45pm and I had missed some very important calls that i had been expecting. dilaog really sucks
- i had been receiving nuisance phone calls throughout this year from another dialog number. i had to send a formal complaint to them about the calls and sms - whcih i did. Anyway once i had made my complaint they sent this person a mail with my very number on it! Of course the idiot starts calling me and texting me in a very threatening manner - all dialog says it for me to take it to the police.
- every time i go abroad and come I have to reset my phone to use voice mail or missed call alert
11 comments:
use a prepaid connection, mate. instant roaming, no deposit, no hassles, free upgrades. plus, if you spend anything more'n 2000 per month on mobile bills, arguably cheaper.
I think now we have enough posts to start new blog http://dialogsucks.blogspot.com and keep it alive for next few months
Well,their billing system sucks as well.
Today i got billed at Rs 6per min outgoing to my couple connection. (which is supposed to be billed at rs 0.50 per minute out as its a supplementary package bonded to mine). Funny thing is their billing system detected my couple connection as a 'Non Dialog' number. This is the 2nd time this has happened to me. 3 million customers and a retarded billing system!
Admin make a post about this on your new blog. Also, syndicate the new blog on kottu.
You may get some ideas for your new blog from this link:
http://filenetworks.blogspot.com/2007/02/dialog-gsm-billing-system-share-your.html
Mobile phone services by general have the lowest customer satisfaction rate all around the world. It is lower than second hand car sales. There are lots of bad things about dialog, but for me, it is best services compared to others.
jokerman: the instant roaming is a joke if you want to make a call - you need to dial a whole bunch of prefixes before every call.
mr.x : think i will
anon: I had exactly the same problem on my wife's 101 package. It took them almost 3 months to sort out
terminator: will check out the link
sam: I agree - but we do not have nearly enough consumer activism in Sri Lanka and this would be a small way of bring such issues to the forefront
maf,
were all your calls to the super 101 billed at normal rate? In my case it happens randomly.
How did you sort it out?
Dialog service is indeed teh worst in the country. It is in the same category as a government department.
No one sems to be able to take a decision and everyone is more worried about their procedures than the suffering of the customers.
A dialogsucks blog is long over due.
On roaming, it is far easier to get a chip in the country that you want to roam in. If you want to get roaming you have to tangle with a massive bureacracy, pay huge deposits and generally get treated like shit (this seems to be the standard Dialog approach to customers, treat em like shit)
I now have SIM cards for the UK and Singapore. The rates are far cheaper than paying Dialog the roaming rates and I am contactable in these countries. I may miss a few calls from Sri Lanka but 90% of those would not be important anyway.
anon - it was a problem of being billed at the regular rates. I noticed this when going thru our bills and then informed dialog.
I had paid up and then they corrected the mistake with some credits...I could not verify the amount of discrepancy so had to take their word for it.
This all happened last Oct and once they gave the credit it has not happened again - so I presume it was an internal cock-up..
I also have a difficult history with dialog. All their systems seem to be malfunctioning now. God help the millions of customers!!
In January 2008 they cut both my post paid connections on the same day without any notice. I was puzzled because I was well within the credit limit and in fact one of the connections had a negative outstanding amount (overpaid bill). When complained dialog could not explain the incident but blame it on the system. The lines how ever were re connected after about 2 hours after several calls to customer care Hotline.
In February I got a Data only SIM to connect to Internet, but the SIM was not connecting to the 3G network. (I was having the 3G coverage and was using a different SIM for a while.) Dialog took 3 days to fix what ever configuration problem they had with the new SIM.
In my February 2008 bill of one of the postpaid number they have treated my coupled number as an ordinary dialog number. Once I complained dialog said they will waive off the over charged amount within the next 2 months. They failed to give me a reason why that happened.
Today (8th March 2008) I saw that I can redeem my stat points in to my bill.
http://www.dialog.lk/en/mobile/loyalty/starpoints/index.html
All I had to do is to send a sms like "star pay 500" to 678. When I do that I'm getting an error sms saying I do not have enough star points. When contacted dialog they say to dial 522 (this is not a free number) and use the menu driven program, but that too result in same error.
I'm still awaiting feedback from dialog in this regard.
Hwy ALL,
I found this story on a Random Google Search about the Billing System of Dialog Telekom. This lady has a good and a funny experience with her bill…
http://theshoatstatements.blogspot.com/2008/02/dialog-gsm-anaganne-adai.html
I don’t have any trust on Dialog Telekom and their billing system now and THERE IS NO POINT of making them a complain since they will somehow turn it back to your account and they’ll wash their hands.
few times my connection was disconnected without a prior notice (SMS/Call or wateva) , then my Credit Limit was increased…… Then my bill gets MESSED UP… and now they are saying that it’s my actual usage….. ( I am the one who uses the phone and I know how I used it :@ )
Over the years, I also had a greater trust in Dialog GSM and I didn’t prefer any other mobile connection rather than a Dialog One. I ‘ve been using Tigo (Celltel) , Mobitel, Hutch and Airtel but None of them fits my need like Dialog did. But, now i feel like they’ve fooled (fooling) their customer’s , specially the ones who get bills more than Rs.2,000/- . in 2005, I had a Super 500 package which always my bill was more than Rs.3,500/- and i couldn’t afford it since I was not doing a Job and my parentooz were really concerned about their son’s High mobile phone usage ;-) and it was a bit of Pain though…
Then I changed it to Super 500+ , still the same and then I had to leave the country to my higher studies and my dad has to pay Rs.7,000+ for that to get the bills settled and get it disconnected. (See how they are charging from one connection, there may be thousands like this)
So, FInal conclusion, Dialog is a Prestigious Mobile Partner to Deal with… BUT their SYSTEMS SUCKS
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