Customer Neglect

Malaysia got a few companies manufacturing motorcycles.  One of these are called "Syarikat Motosikal dan Enjin Nasional Sdn. Bhd.", a.k.a. Modenas.  Modenas in turn is owned by DRB-HICOM, which is the largest conglomerate in Malaysia with an annual revenue of over RM 6 billion.


Now, one of the bikes Modenas produce is a license build Kawasaki Eliminator, called the Modenas Jaguh.  I have considered getting one of these but most of the ones for sale on the second hand market are quite worn down, so I considered buying a new one.  According to Modenas' web-site:

RM 6000 is really not too bad.  Especially considering most of the second hand ones goes for around RM 2500 and are 12-14 years old.


Unfortunately calling the local resellers didn't prove very productive, so I went back to the web-site:

So I decided to give their sales and marketing office a call.  This was on a normal Tuesday at around 2.30pm.  I think I called 2 or 3 times and nobody bothered to pick up the phone - nothing - nada.


Then I decided to give the factory a call and got through to some receptionist that actually proved quite helpful.  She gave me a mobile number for "someone in sales".    So I called that mobile number a few times and again - nobody picked up.


By this time I had already started browsing Kawasaki, Suzuki and Honda's web-sites, but after half an hour - much to my surprise - I actually received a return-call from the mobile number I had called earlier.  Unfortunately all he could tell me was that Modenas stopped making the Jaguh years ago.


So - a conglomerate with an annual revenue of more than 6 billion Ringgit, owning a motorcycle manufacturer that have apparently produced in excess of one million bikes (2008 figure) - 

1. Can't afford - or couldn't be bothered - to update their web-site
2. Can't afford - or just can't be bothered - to pick up the phone - IN THEIR SALES OFFICE!

As a result I probably wasted almost an hour chasing something that doesn't exist. Ok - I just called local, but say I was located in Europe and wanted to import motorcycles - my next call would be to China - not Malaysia and most certainly not Modenas.

It is incredible that someone can be that uninterested in making themselves convenient for their customers.

Not only is this third world mentality incredible rude towards potential customers, it is also plainly illegal in Malaysia.  The Malaysian Consumer Protection Act 1999 clearly states:

Considering Modenas no longer produce the Jaguh, I think it's clear that they "do not intend to offer for supply".  I think I'll consider filing a complaint.

Healy Mac's Cattle Hoarding

As readers of this blog have probably realized already, I am generally not impressed by the service in Malaysian bars and restaurants. Generally poor and inattentive service is caused by uneducated staff and clueless owners and it is not particularly malicious.  For the past year or so I have been a fairly regular visitor to Healy Mac's in Changkat Bukit Bintang, but yesterday I had what I can only describe as a quite shocking experience there.

When I arrived I bumped into a friend of mine who was seated at a tiny table squeezed into a corner.  One of the staff approached us and suggested we moved to a larger table.  While moving I pointed out to the staff that this larger table had a sign saying "reserved" on it.  The staff said that was not a problem and removed the reserved sign from the table.  I now proceeded to order drinks and dinner for two.  About five minutes after the drinks arrived, but before dinner arrived, another staff approached us and informed us rudely that "we had to move to another table since this table is reserved".  I pointed out that we had been seated at this particular table by one of the staff (and pointing out to said staff that the table had a reserved sign) and that I found it extremely inconvenient to hoarded around like cattle - in fact inconvenient to a point where I would rather enjoy dinner in an alternative establishment if they insisted.  A few minutes later the manager of the place arrived and ordered us to leave the table.  He used the word sorry a lot but this must be the particular Malaysian type of sorry (which is just a word with no meaning whatsoever) and the fact that we had been seated at the table by a member of the staff didn't seem to have any influence whatsoever.  At the end of the day I gave up and went to another restaurant for dinner.

While having dinner at Finnegan's, I couldn't help myself thinking about good old Fawlty Towers:

It is extremely funny watching John Cleese make an arse of himself, but trust me - my experience in Healy Mac's was not funny.

I can't help myself thinking if this is in some way related to the infamous quiz night.  Last year Healy Mac started having a weekly quiz night on Mondays and in the beginning it was great fun.  Unfortunately at some point the whole thing started being way too serious and to me that reached the pinnacle when I was invited to join some kind of "championship" and without being told or asked turned out to be representing Healy Mac and the name of our team was forcefully changed to reflect that ("Healy Mac's ...). I pointed out that I don't represent any commercial entity without getting compensated so I immediately resigned from the team and have not participated in the quiz night ever since.  I guess in some way this might have been the manager's little revenge but it is mind boggling how something that should be fun can turn into something this serious.

Speculation aside nothing can change the fact that the staff and the manager of Healy Mac's stepped out of line in this case and what is worse - they did this knowingly.  How on earth they can justify treating their customers with this little respect is beyond me and I can only urge everybody to avoid this place completely.

One last thing.  I did notice a few complaints on Healy Mac's facebook page, and I did in fact comment on one myself.  However, within 24 hours my comment (and the other negative comments) were deleted.  I have seen this before and I can only repeat that places who do not stand up to public scrutiny but have to hide criticism has got serious problems and that alone is reason enough not to visit them. A serious pub or restaurant listen to their customers complaints - that is the only way they can improve.  A place who ignore and try to hide negative comments is a place who have no intention or wish to improve.

(originally from: http://larsrants.blogspot.com/2011/11/healy-macs-cattle-hoarding.html)

Logitech Bait Advertising

I recently decided to purchase a gaming steering wheel for a racing game.  Based on research (mostly browsing reviews) I decided on the "Logitech Momo Racing Force".

Checking the Logitech web-site the following products are available:

From http://www.logitech.com/en-my/gaming/wheels on Aug. 19, 2010:

Notice the "en-my" in the URL above.  This is clearly localized for Malaysia.

The price in Malaysia differ a bit from shop to shop, but generally they are priced like this:

1. Momo Racing Force RM 250
2. Driving Force GT RM 500
3. G27 Racing Wheel RM 1000

With this information I walked down to the local IT supermarket (Plaza Low Yat).  I guess I should not have been overly surprised, but still - after checking just about every single shop on the 3 floors with IT equipment, I found around 40-50 shops carrying the G27 Racing Wheel, a few shops having Demo Samples of the Momo Racing Force, but not a single shop that would actually sell me a Momo Racing Force - NOT ONE!  Every shop I asked gave me the same message: The Momo is an old model and we no longer sell it.

Say what - how can it be an old model when it's available on the manufacturers web-site???

After I returned home I used Google a bit and came across several local companies with Logitech products on their web-site - for example:

From http://www.modernopc.com (a local reseller) on Aug 19, 2010:

This time I decided to give them a call before driving (all the way out to Subang - roughly 15 km from Kuala Lumpur center where I stay) - and once more - the Momo Racing Force was no longer in stock.

I also tried to purchase online.  The local eBay equivalent (http://www.lelong.com.my) had a number of offers:

I placed an order for every single one of these and they all got canceled within 24 hours (surprise surprise: No Stock).

At this point I called Logitech support (local 1-800 number redirecting to a call centre in Philippines) and they were very understanding and polite.  They gave me the URL and phone number for the official Logitech distributor in Malaysia: http://www.mcl.com.my, but a call to them gave the same result: No stock.

A pattern is emerging there.  Every single shop I visited or called tried to sell me the Logitech G27 at around RM 1000, but nobody was willing or able to supply me with the Logitech Momo at RM 250 (give or take - I have seen it advertised from 239 to around 299).

The Malaysian Consumer Protection Act 1999 clearly states:

I think this is a blatant example of Bait Advertising.  The big question is however - against who do I have a case?  Logitech?  The local distributor?  The end reseller?

For now I'll just machine gun all of them (orally that is) and see who feels responsible.  For now I have written to the person listed as in charge of Media relations in Asia-Pacific:

Dear Channis Wong,

You're listed at Logitech's web-site under Media & Community Relations.  I
thought you might be interested in this:

http://consumermalaysia.blogspot.com/2010/08/logitech-bait-advertising.html

Which clearly documents that Logitech is using bait advertising in Malaysia,
even though this is clearly in violation of the Malaysian Consumer Protection
Act of 1999 (http://www.kpdnkk.gov.my/akta/akta_perlindunganpengguna1999.pdf).

--
Lars

Update Aug 19, 2010 4:00pm:

I last spoke with Logitech support at 10:00am and they promised to call back within a few hours.  Needless to say my phone has been silent.

Update Aug. 20, 2010:

Received the following reply from Logitech:

Hi Lars,

Thanks for your email.

We regularly update our website and would remove product information once
we've confirmed with our channel partners that the stock is very few or no
longer available.  In the case of Logitech MOMO Racing Force Feedback
Wheel in Malaysia, I believe that there's a timing issue and we are a bit
late to remove the product information from the site.  Thank you for
bringing this to our attention and we will action as soon as possible.

I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience that this matter has caused
you.

Best regards,

Cannis Wong
Marketing Communications
Logitech Asia Pacific

I don't believe a "sincere apology" is mentioned as an acceptable defense in the Consumer Protection Act, so my reply was as follows:

That is really not good enough.  As of today the web-site still hasn't been
updated and it was last week I spend up to 4-5 hours trying to locate the
product that you advertise.

If you read the Malaysian Consumer Protection Act of 1999 I think you will
find that a "sincere apology" is not mentioned as an acceptable defense.  I
believe that in the spirit of this act you're required to offer me a similar
product to the one advertised.  If you fail to do so, I will have no other
option than to file a complaint to the Malaysian Ministry of Domestic Trade.

Regards,

        Lars Boegild Thomsen

I can add that - as mentioned in the email - the web-site at Aug. 20, 2010 1:30pm was still showing the Momo wheel as available in Malaysia.

It would appear that Logitech is no stranger to bait advertising.  A Google search on "logitech bait advertising" come up with quite a number of hits (of which this blog will soon come pretty high).

Update Aug. 20, 2010 3:00pm

Received a reply from Logitech:

Hi Lars,

Good news - we found out that we still have a few units of the Logitech
MOMO Racing Force Feedback Wheel with our channel partner.

Kindly be informed that Mr. Dexter, country sales manager from Kaira
Malaysia, Logitech's authorized distributor, will be contacting you soon.

Many thanks & best regards,

Cannis Wong

And as promised I did receive a call.  The guy who called promised that he would have a Momo Steering Wheel "on monday" (after the weekend).  Will be interesting.

This basically concludes my claim (that is when or if I get it) although I still find it incredible that I had to spend so much time trying to purchase an advertised product.

Update Aug. 23, 2010:

Of course I did not receive the promised call, however I did get a call from someone at Logitech.  It was a bad connection and I didn't quite catch her name but she was definitely not Malaysian and didn't call from Malaysia.  I informed her that the guy from Kaira had called me Friday and promised to call back Monday - but that I had not received the call.

Update Aug. 24, 2010:

Got a call from the "authorised distributor" mentioned in the email from Logitech and they informed me they finally managed to locate the product I wanted to purchase, so I went to their office in Petaling Jaya (about a 10 km drive) to collect it.  Unfortunately the authorised distributor apparently charge more than everybody else:

It's a bit hard to see, but that is RM 290.- which is about RM 40 more expensive than everybody else, but what to do - I am not going to nitpick about RM 40 (that's about US$ 10) - so end result:

So - while I had to battle a bit, I finally did manage to find the product that Logitech apparently do not want to sell (even though it tops all the reviews I have read).

Am I a happy customer?  NO!  I am pissed that I had to spend a lot of time getting a product that is advertised just about everywhere.  I am pissed that they end up charging me more than advertised.  Will I buy another Logitech product?  Well, perhaps if there's absolutely no other alternative, but I will definitely be biased against it big time and choose alternative products if at all possible (and let's face it - there are quite a lot of options when it comes to keyboards, mice and speakers).

End of story (unless Logitech choose to respond to this)!