This post is titled Rant about Bruneian Companies... by author SoulJah. I just had a revelation... The reason why the cost of services are extraordinarily high here in Brunei is because they (the companies) do not appreciate the customers... Their frame of mind is, "They (the consumers) need us... But we don't need them...". How many of the readers here are subscribers to services? I can guess most, if not all of us are tied to service agreements that charge exorbitant amount of money from our pockets every month. I guess it can't be blamed. If we are to keep up with the jones', we have to... I mean, it's not becoming of a Bruneian to not have a mobile phone, satellite TV, Internet connection et al.

Now I'm not gonna beat you over the head with the "we need multiple companies to serve Brunei, so there can be competition" argument, because that's a dead horse no needing to beat anymore, but this is just a new angle to think of it. And besides, what other company, lest it's a foreign one (which, to be honest, I don't want to 'invade' our fair land) can start up with a capital of millions and make it through the first year? And unless, we can achieve the "1 million population" mark by, I don't know, 2013, I don't think there's any incentive for any other companies to start up business here.

But being a consumer tied to any one company doesn't mean we can't screw up the system. This could be just a silly idea, but it can cause havoc in their accounting departments. Kill off all your subscriptions. All of it. Your mobile phones. Your satellite TV. Your Internet connection. For, maybe a month, or just half a month. I can bet my bottom dollars panic will ensue. If that doesn't cause panicked reactions such as lowering of subscription fees and introduction of better services, I don't know what will. And in this day and age, where everything is about pre-paid this and pre-paid that, its's all the easier. Just resist the temptation to top up for a month, and you'll be doing us all a favor.

Now we need to do this in concerto. I mean, everyone do it. Not just a group of a hundred or so people, because that will barely cause a dent in their accounts. We need to do this all over the country. Maybe then we can be more social, not hiding behind SMS-es or Internet screens, and we will get back our art of conversation (which I find lacking these days.)

But this is just an idea.

Posted by SoulJah at 7:49:00 PM

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