ALKHOBAR — I would like to thank everyone who wrote to me to express their extreme unhappiness with the services of Saudi Telecom Company. It was amazing but it appears that STC has achieved something that I thought was impossible — 100 percent customer dissatisfaction. Of all the e-mails I received complaining about STC, I loved the one from Charlie Cheng the most. It read:
“I was wondering if you could add this complaint of mine to your next issue and maybe it would get noticed. I once had a Family Jawwal (eight numbers only). All other numbers were barred and no international calls were allowed. I immediately closed it when Sawa prepaid came as I felt that choosing a phone with only eight numbers was a big mistake.
“STC gave me a haphazard final bill of SR390 which I paid. After two weeks they sent me another invoice saying I’d overpaid by SR65. Well, their honesty was appreciated, but up to this date I am unable to collect my money back from them. STC refused to reimburse me in cash. I tried to transfer the credit to another account so it could be used by someone else. Unfortunately, STC told me that I must bring to their office the subscriber of that account. This is very difficult as my friends are all busy at work during STC’s office hours.
“What I can’t understand is why I have to bring the subscriber of the account that I want to transfer the credit to? I’m putting money into that account, not charging anything to it. This is so sickening. The situation has been going on since May 2002. Now we are in October and that SR65 credit from STC is still uselessly sitting in my wallet!”
What reply can I even make to such a letter? I would like to know how a situation such as Cheng’s fits into STC’s superior customer service strategy? If anyone out there has any ideas on this subject, even someone in STC’s management, I wish they’d write to me at the e-mail printed at the end of this column.
And now that we’ve finished with STC, let’s move on to HP. As regular readers may know, I’ve had a few problems in the past with HP service in regards to my HP printer. Perhaps it is not surprising that HP has service issues. They are so focused these days on reorganizing the company and enhancing profitability, that they probably don’t have too much attention to give to service. But I really wish that they would consider devoting a teeny bit of time and mind to HP product repair so that we, their poor customers, do not start committing hara-kiri at certified HP service centers.
My portable computer is an HP OmniBook. I didn’t buy it. My company purchased it without consulting me. The machine weighs a ton. Perhaps that could be a desirable feature for a weightlifter. It isn’t great though when I have to throw it up into the overhead luggage bin on a plane. Even worse, many features in the computer lack ideal functionality for a journalist. It’s not my dream portable and even though it was supposed to be my primary computer, I only use it when I travel.
That said, when I am on the road I can’t live without it. Sadly, ever since it was purchased, the machine has had an intermittently gimpy letter “G” in its keyboard. This means that sometimes the letter G works and sometimes it doesn’t. In fact whenever I take the portable to the HP service center the letter G works and whenever I have to write an important story late at night in some hotel, the G won’t function. I got around the problem by copying a G from an old document and then pasting it everywhere I needed it in the new document. Isn’t technology grand?
Finally, now that the portable is out of warranty, the inevitable has happened. My gimpy G, has been joined by an intermittently gimpy H. Since the machine is out of warranty I don’t have to beg anyone to replace the keyboard. I can just pay to have a new one installed — or so I thought.
I dragged my HP OmniBook to a certified HP service center. Sure enough, when I started it up there, the gimpy G and H decided to function. I didn’t care. I told the technical supervisor at the service center to rip out the keyboard quick before the gremlins hiding out in it could escape to another part of the computer and cause intermittent gimpiness elsewhere. He explained that a new keyboard would cost SR250 plus SR150 for installation. That seemed pretty expensive for a keyboard, but I didn’t care. “Rip it out,” I ordered. He still declined.
It turned out that he didn’t have any new keyboards in stock at the service center. To get a replacement keyboard would take three to four weeks. I was shocked. “Where is the keyboard coming from — Mars?” I inquired. He informed me that he would have to bring one from Dubai.
I nearly had a heart attack on the spot. I could feel my blood pressure rising. I went outside and beat my head on the wall for a few minutes. Let’s face it folks, Dubai is a one-hour flight from the Kingdom’s Eastern Province. A truck could bring the part here in about 12 hours. Even a camel wouldn’t take four weeks to carry a keyboard from Dubai to Alkhobar. After I calmed down, I went back into the certified HP service center where they nicely explained that the delay in getting spare parts is caused by all the red-tape in the spare parts ordering process.
What could I do? We ordered the replacement keyboard. I kept the OmniBook with me and went out and for SR80 I bought a spare keyboard to go with it. Now, in addition to the weight of the portable, I will have to drag around a keyboard until the powers that be at HP service can send in the replacement. Many car dealers in the Kingdom have parts depots providing 99 percent of the spares for their vehicles in 48 hours or less, so why does HP need more time than that?
For my machine I have an option. I use my own desktop PC at my office, but many companies are now providing only portables for their employees and they expect them to function on those machines alone. Just imagine if a portable went down and HP told a corporate user that his primary equipment would be out of action for three-four weeks? With the number of portables being sold these days, I don’t doubt that in the near future there will be many more disgruntled customers at certified HP service centers all over the Kingdom.
Before I log off today, I want to tell you about an interesting visitor who came to the Eastern Province last week. Jeh Shyan Wong is the CEO of CommerceNet Singapore Limited and he was checking out possible sites for a high-tech park. CommerceNet is currently looking to expand its operations into the Middle East, particularly the Gulf area. Along with IT Commerce Network Asia, CommerceNet has come to the region focusing on developing specific facilities to support technology development and promotion. They have made inquiries into taking over management of the Dhahran Exhibition Center for the purpose of holding expos to serve niche markets in the industrial, health and IT sectors, among others.
“We are also seeking to establish a hub to hub relationship with a high-tech park, preferably in Dammam, to connect with Cyberport Hong Kong, One Degree North Singapore, and the Multi Media Super Corridor (MSC) Malaysia and other locations,” said Wong. “We have a masterplan to create these connected high-tech parks throughout the world, which in the future will include locations in Barcelona, Frankfurt, Boston and Sydney.”
CommerceNet has just completed its work in Karachi, its hub serving South and Central Asia, so now it is looking to expand to the Middle East. Preliminary studies have shown that Saudi Arabia would be a good place to set up a high-tech park because it has an industrial foundation, the commercial climate is not too speculative, it has a large population base and it is accessible to other Gulf states.
“We are seriously looking at Dammam because it has good infrastructure,” explained Wong. “But it is less noisy than Riyadh. What I mean by that is when companies make a move here people will pay attention. It is also the base of the petroleum and petrochemical industry and any high-tech park would certainly be serving such industries.”
The goal in setting up a high-tech park in Dammam would be to give Saudi Arabia an R&D center comparable to that of the Asian Tigers. It is expected that a high-tech park in the Kingdom would attract not only international venture capital, especially East Asian funds, but also bring in private Saudi capital that is currently invested abroad.
There are difficulties in getting the venture off the ground. According to Wong, in addition to the infrastructure concerns, especially fiber optic connectivity that would involve STC, airline connectivity would need to be improved and other issues like visas and human resource support would have to be overcome.
“We envision that such a high technology park would enable the free flow of talents between Asia and the Middle East,” said Wong. “Once the framework was laid for grid computing this would give the Kingdom processing power like nowhere else in the region. Hub to hub connectivity would enable the Kingdom to shift vast amounts of data and enable many opportunities. We want to create the vehicle for such opportunities. However, various kinds of support will be needed from the Saudi government and private sector and time is short. We are currently working to create agreements for preliminary studies and site selection.”
CommerceNet is investigating several options for the high-tech park in the Kingdom but they are also considering sites in other countries. For the youth of Saudi Arabia this is one project that we must make every effort to win.
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