Hallo

For the past two weeks, I have been sitting in front of a TV screen which throws up jerky black-&-white images. You see, on 13 Mar 2004, there was a series of lightning bursts in Hougang where I live and when I turned on the TV set, I found only black-&-white images on all programmes every channel I switched to.

At first, I thought it was something wrong with my TV set, so I switched to watching a VCD on the set. The movie showed up in colour all right, so the fault could not have been with the TV set. 

I contacted the HDB to request someone to look at the main TV antenna, thinking that it could be something wrong with the TV reception. HDB pointed me in the direction of StarHub whose TV point I was using in the living room of my flat.

The chap at StarHub who answered my call was polite, but it was his reply to my complaint which put me off somewhat. You see, he said that there was a charge of S$42 if his technician came over to my flat and found there was nothing wrong with the StarHub network - meaning it was something wrong with some other source, including my TV set.

While his reply might sound reasonable at first thought to some fellas, it didn't sit well with me at all. I was flabbergasted! Now, the Government didn't get my concurrence when it went ahead and told SCV (now StarHub) to run cables and install the TV points in my flat - it had broader objectives in that it wanted Singapore to go broadband. Therefore, I assume that the proper authority must have worked out contingency arrangements beforehand in expectation of situations such as the one I am facing.

Such contingency arrangements, I am sure, would have spelt out having StarHub's staff come over to a complainant's flat to take a look without first exposing the HDB tenant to a "pay-if-it's-not-our-problem" charge.

Presently, HDB's support staff visit my flat when I report a maintenance problem. But HDB staff do not tell me that I have to pay this or that if they should leave without doing anything. Although StarHub is a commercial enterprise, I would expect StarHub to do things the same way as StarHub had installed these things at the behest of the Government.

Let me bring in an example to emphasise my point - I find the lift not working and I make a report. Someone comes over, finds out that PUB has disconnected the power and then tells me that I have to pay S$50 because it was not their fault, rather it was someone else's fault. Now, is that the way things should be done?

I completed a feedback form at the Media Development Authority's Web site at www.mda.gov.sg, hoping MDA could help me solve the problem. It has been more than a week since I submitted the form, and I have yet to hear from the MDA.

I am still sitting in front of jerky black-&-white images on my TV set, waiting for help.

Have a good week!