The problem of being on the receiving end of a monopolistic service provider is that we, the customers will get screwed all the time and nobody gives a hoot about it including the government.

In Malaysia, we have to deal with several monopolistic service providers including Astro and TNB. As far as Astro is concerned, if you are not satisfied with their services, you can simply terminate their services.

However, no matter how mad you get with the services of TNB, you just cannot afford to terminate their services. Therefore, being a business entity, in order to increase the value of its shareholders' equity, TNB has been consistently increasing their tariff, regardless of whether the crude oil price is going up or down.

Their one-sided agreement with IPPs means having to pay around RM500 million in compensation, and most probably the cost will be passed to the consumers.

If that's not enough, the government's main investment wing, Khazanah Nasional Berhad has recently tabled a proposal to increase the salary of the CEO of TNB, Che Khalib Mohamad Noh by 100 percent, which means the salary will be doubled.

For your information, Che Khalib's total remuneration for the year 2007 was RM1.1 million, out of which RM600,000 was his annual salary. On average, he received a staggering RM92,000 per month!

But what really pissed me off is their so-called customer careline. Actually, they don't even care about their customers.

Other service providers all around the world, including here in Malaysia, are providing toll-free telephone numbers in order to reduce the cost of customers' calls. It is definitely a good gesture especially when the customers need to make complaints.

If I'm not mistaken, TNB is the only company in Malaysia charging its customers extra for making reports on breakdown. I recently called TNB's hotline, 15454 to verify this fact.

Using DiGi's prepaid line, the ordinary call would have cost me RM0.48 or RM0.38 per minute. When I called TNB, I was charged RM1.50 for the call.

I called DiGI's customer service to enquire about this and they confirmed that all TNB calls using the number 15454 will be charged a flat rate of RM1.50, even though the call lasts for less than 10 seconds. This is ridiculous!

Imagine there is an electricity breakdown in a small town. TNB will receive hundreds of calls and they will happily receive these calls as each call brings more money to them. This is unfair.

How can you idiots charge your customers extra for reporting/complaining about your own services?

On top of that, there is no indication about these exorbitant charges anywhere in the bill. According to Multimedia Act 1998, the service provider must inform the caller on the charges of the calls/SMS if it's above the ordinary rates.

TNB, what you have been doing with the 15454 number is unethical and in fact, you should apologise to Malaysians for charging exorbitant rates for making complaints using their mobile phones.