Roaming

Flying to Beijing today so I have the day off, which gives me plenty of time to sort things out: we are flying at about 11pm, and I need to sort out my phone (roaming), so whilst I am in Mont Kiara getting a load 元 (yuan) I spot the Maxis store and go in there to sort out the roaming. 

Oh no. I need to go to the main office in KLCC to sort that out, they can’t do it in a branch. 

Why the fuck not? 

Anyway, I have time, so I head into KLCC and to the Maxis main branch – determined that they will do this for me, and so I arm myself with everything I think they will ask me for: all my ID, passport, bills, phone, photos, money etc and ask the receptionist who to see: it’s a very confusing store, with no obvious desks, and once I start explaining what I want, the first person starts going on about unlocking the phone. 

No, all I want is roaming. I am going to China and I want to make calls from there. 

"You want to call China?"

"Er, no, I want to call FROM China – please set up roaming." 

She looks at me blankly and starts on about unlocking the phone again I shut her up and say that I am TRAVELLING abroad and I WANT TO USE MY PHONE ABROAD. She looks confused and directs me to another desk where the next receptionist listens to me asking for roaming and starts going on about where and when I bought the phone as it's not possible to unlock phones bought outside of Malaysia...

Listen to me, will you… I want you to allow roaming on the phone, as I am travelling abroad. I don’t want to unlock the phone. 

Finally I get through to her and she asks to see all my ID and I have to sign this form, in triplicate, before they will entertain the idea of opening up the phone for roaming. Twats.

By contrast, to set this up in the UK, I made a quick 2-minute call to Orange and it was all sorted within 5 minutes.

Tsk tsk...