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The moral of the story is whenever mat sallehs lead an organisation or a nation, only disaster looms ahead. Guess that's why we Asians are one of a kind in this world!

ya. it's always easy to blame it on a matsalleh and sack him. not so when it's an umnoputra crony...

I'll have to concur with lsk... much easier to let an expat take the blunt end of the sword. Less questions asked; more importantly..less inquisitive minds probing unanswered (or should it be unanswerable) questions. Lessons to be learnt here?
Absolutely none! Wonder what ever happened to that expat aussie they had at MAS before the emails went airborne.

I think it is about time Astro did something about their customer service which is atrocious. I have experienced it myself recently. Hopefully they will learn and improve.

ASTRO still owed me 2 months of overcharging which were incurred when the company "improved" its billing software/computer around Jan 2005.

Later, I realised that to get back my money, I would have to repeat my complaints individually to endless layers of incompetent staff.
In other words, I would have to earn hard for it.

I gave up !

Lesson:- Never sign up for auto billing.

David Butorac resigning may be one step in the right direction. But surely the buck really ought to stop with Astro CEO Ralph Marshall (NOT an expat, more than BTW, despite how his name might sound)?

Also, it's not like Astro will lack for arrogant, out-of-touch expats once Butorac's gone...or are people like Rob Lyons finally being kicked out as well? Hardly, I think, since if one looks at the latest Astro Guides, the signs are there yet another gweilo has been appointed to head a section of Astro...

Butorac started as a cameraman (not in ASTRO. BSkyB, I believe), and worked his way up. I didn't see Butorac as a firm boss, with quite a number of actions misguided by people below him... (sounded like Msia politics right?)

Somehow, Paul Edwards (COO prior to Butorac) seemed better at running the subscription tv station. Wiser man, more experienced, and a people person.

ASTRO has gotten so big that its CS division is not able to cope anymore, unless the increase the number of CSOs.

I have nothing against mat sallehs being bosses, but they can be quite cunning in making a fast buck.

While a firm boss is good for the company, I strongly urge the big man (the CEO himself) to soften his iron fisted approach in order to make downliners work WITH him rather than work FOR him. The number of times he smiled at his staff in a year can be counted by just one hand.

He really doesn't have to walk around the ABC corridors like Darth Vader!

I just don't get it... the company rakes in so much money and their Customer Service can't improve.

I don't think it's even that. It shows how much problems Astro is riddled with... technology wise, billing wise, etc... that so many people call them every hour of the day.

Reminds me of TMNet.. Ha ha.

Darth Vader... nice:) Oh, the fear!

pigduck,

It is not difficult to lose track of your own direction. What ASTRO fail to do is decentralize their CS call centre, and set up regional CS agents to cater to the locals.

Of course it will drive up costs, but how can they be so deaf toward customer complaints?

I am sure they are trying very hard, but its just not bearing the fruit it should.

Otherwise, they should set up a REAL R&D division to handle technical complaints, and invent a smart settop box that can be self-diagnosed in the event of a failure. That would probably take part of the frustrations away.

And to help people pay their bills on time (I gave up on their autobilling - it should be renamed autobluffing!), why don't they tie up with MAXIS to reload pre-paid subscription on their ASTRO channels? I know it is possible, if only they want to do it... :)