Maxis "Friend Finder" not friendly

Are you using Maxis "Friend Finder" service?  If you are, it is time to stop because you should not be paying to get the wrong answers.    

Cooking lunch for my hubby today, I thought I should check on "Friend Finder" to see if he is already on the way back before cooking the vegetable.  I know he is at his worksite near Jalan Raja Chulan so I got a surprise to see that he is not anywhere nearer home in Kajang but right down in Shah Alam!

So, I decided to give him a call to enquire if he is going to be back late for lunch.  He did not pick my call and I was directed to his voicemail instead.  After 10 minutes of waiting for him to call me back, I decided to use "Friend Finder"again to see if he is on the way back.  This is the response I received:

"012-xxxxxxx phone is off or out of coverage now.  Please try again later."

As I was wondering what my husband is up to, I heard the front door opened and in came my husband.  The last I saw, my husband was driving his Hyundai and it's super not possible for him to be back from Shah Alam within such a short span of time.  I asked if he has received my call earlier.  He said that he did not.  So I told him to check his phone to see if he has switched it off accidentally.

He was very positive that he did not as he has received a call earlier.  I looked at his call history and did not see a missed call from me either.  So, I tried calling him from my mobile phone again.  His phone did not ring and I was put on his voicemail again.  He tried calling his mobile phone with our house phone and got the same response. 

Curious, he removed his battery and checked his SIM card before placing them back and turned on his phone again.  This time the phone isn't working.  Since he lost his phone recently and had his SIM card replaced, we decided to use my phone to call Maxis at 123 to find out what is wrong with his mobile line and to check if there is a possibility that his SIM card has been cloned.

The Customer service personnel told us that there is nothing wrong with his line.  He was told to switch off his phone and turn it back on to see if the problem is rectified.  He tried that again and got his line back as he could now see the missed call from me.

The explanation the Maxis staff could gave us was that this happens and it has to do with network connection and that the next time we face the same situation, just switch off the phone and then turn it back on.  She could not answer me when I asked why we should be charged for "Friend Finder" service if we are given wrong information.

I did a search on the internet to see if others faced the same problem with this service and came across a user who wanted to test its accuracy as he planned to hide one of his handphones in his car so that he could track it with "Friend Finder" service should it be stolen.  With both mobile phones on hand he sent out the SMS to Maxis from one phone to track location of the other.  He was then in Chow Kit  but the "Friend Finder" response he received indicated "Bukit Jalil" instead. 

Come to think of it, "Friend Finder" service could well help break up relationships should one already be doubtful of one's partner.  That is not friendly. Don't you think so?