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How Long Do You Expect To Wait Before Someone Pick Up Your Phone Call?

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Have You Contact Your Local Council Recently?

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Do You Get A Good Customer Service?

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I shared the same experience when contacting the Kajang Municipal Council (MPKj) and it is not easy to report a complaint.

MPKj has a complaint e-mail at   aduan@mpkj.gov.my but they NEVER Even Bother to REPLY or Send any acknowledgement on the e-mail received.

What is the point having the e-mail at the first place?

They can easily say(blame)  e-mail system problem.

But what about the survey done by StarMetro as below?

There is no point having a Great Web Site when the customer service is not there.

Maybe the local council should introduce back broom award for those non performing local council

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A frustrating experience

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RING…ring…ring…ring

How long do you have to wait before the hotline operators at your council pick up the phone?

When they do pick up your call, you are sometimes given the run around as they transfer your call to one department after another.

And when finally your complaint is noted down, you find yourself in another waiting game — this time for the council to address the problem.

StarMetro conducted a quick survey in testing the response time by calling up four councils’ hotlines with actual problems.

 

Kajang Municipal Council (MPKj)

Number of rings before someone answers: Not noted by complainant.

Promised response time: Not stated.

Actual response time: Unknown.

Zoe Chong, from Kajang, related her frustration contacting the council for help when a snake entered her house from the vacant house next door.

“The house has been vacant since I bought my unit last year and it is now overgrown with weeds and shrubs. After a snake entered my house in March, I filed a complaint at the council immediately,” she said.

She added that she had not received any call from the council thereafter, and was given the run around when she contacted the council again three months later.

“In June, there was another snake in my house, so I called them again demanding action but to no avail.

“I had called about 10 times and had to contact the various departments directly, still the problem was not solved.

“Most of the time when I called the hotline, the call was only attended to by a pre-recorded voice asking me to leave a message because all the personnel were busy.

“I left several messages, but no one called me back at all,” she said.

When StarMetro called MPKj, the first attempt was unsuccessful and we hung up after 20 seconds.

We called again and this time it went to the voicemail.

The calls were made at about 2.30pm.

We finally got through after trying a few times.

When asked why it was so difficult to get through, the operator explained that there were only two people manning 15 lines.

 

Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ)

Number of rings before someone answers: 10 (on second attempt)

Promised response time: 14 days

Actual response time: Within 12 days

MPSJ is the most responsive council in this test.

StarMetro called the MPSJ hotline 03-5637 6545 on July 1 at 4.10pm.

The first call went unanswered and the line was cut off at the 31st ring. During the second call, an operator named “Amy” picked up at the 10th ring.

She asked for our name, address, telephone number and details of the problem.

Without revealing that we were from StarMetro, we told her that there was a pothole at the traffic junction of Jalan Kenari 8 and Persiaran Puchong Jaya Selatan.

She then said it would take 14 days to solve the problem and we were given a complaint reference number.

On July 13, we noticed that the pothole was patched up.

Albeit a bit too late, we received a letter on July 16 informing us that our complaint was received and it was being processed for the next course of action.

The next day, another letter dated July 13 was delivered to us. It updated us on the status of the complaint and said that the problem had been fixed.

 

Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ)

Number of rings before someone answers: Four

Promised response time: Three days

Actual response time: Pending

Taman Dagang Resident Tan Juat Chiew, 51, was told to wait three working days before Ampang Jaya Municipal Council officers attended to her complaint on the missing drain cover in front of her house where she has lived for the past 20 years.

The cover, she added, had been missing for almost two years.

“A few drain covers in my neighbourhood have been stolen over the years and previous complaints seem either to fall on deaf ears or MPAJ claims it is not their responsibility,” Tan, a housewife, said.

Many residents have placed makeshift covers over the gaping holes and feared for their safety while waiting for action from the authorities.

However, after almost two weeks of having called up the hotline, nobody has come to check on the matter and she has not heard from MPAJ.

When StarMetro contacted MPAJ via the hotline to complain about potholes along the badly maintained Jalan Cahaya 2, the reply was the same as Tan received — that the matter would be solved in three working days.

However, after four working days, the potholes remained and another call was made to the hotline to inquire about the complaint status, to which the reply was that action would be taken soon.

In Tan’s case, the person who took her complaint was quite vague and had to be questioned several times before she was able to find out which department in MPAJ would be looking into the complaint and how long she needed to wait for action to be taken.

The person who took the StarMetro complaint, however, was courteous and explained the council’s operation procedures clearly.

 

Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ)

Average number of rings before someone answers: Four

Promised response time: Three days

Actual response time: More than three days

The number to call is 03-7954 2020 (24 hours complaint number). Written complaints can be sent to the council’s e-mail at aduan@mbpj.gov.my

StarMetro called the city council hotline on a Friday to complain about a pothole in Jalan 16/11.

The operator who picked up the call was polite and told us that the complaint would be forwarded to the Engineering Department’s mechanical section.

He said the unit would resurface the road within three days, but explained that the work would only be carried out starting Monday as the council did not operate on weekends.

Based on this test, we found that of the four councils, MPSJ was the only council that actually responded within the time frame they promised. Furthermore, notices were issued to the complainant to inform that the complaint was taken note of and solved.

MPKj fared the worst as not only were the calls left unanswered, there were no replies to the voice messages left.

While MBPJ and MPAJ hotlines were answered, the time taken to solve the problem took longer than promised and the complainants were not informed if the problem were solved.

fr:thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2010/7/26/central/6651484&sec=central