Tuesday, July 28, 2009

PLDT inefficiency

I got a Landline Plus telephone for Minimal Government Thinkers. Before it was post-paid, then I shifted to pre-paid after a year. They gave me a new number, 701-6558.

Around July 19 or 20, I received a text from PLDT saying that the service under the P300/month plan will expire in 2 days. July 21, I went to PLDT office in Ayala, Makati. It was loaded P300, around 12noon. I was able to make 1 landline call that day, about 2 minutes. No call the next day.

July 23, around 5pm, I received a call in my cell phone from a friend saying that she could not reach me at my landline. I checked -- made an outgoing call, nothing. I called up the landline myself, it's dead. No outgoing, no incoming calls, the phone is useless.

I called PLDT's landline plus hotline, 101-328, past 5pm, pushed 0 to talk to a customer service representative. No one answered the phone. Another call before 7pm, no one picked up the phone again.

July 24 Friday, another call in that hotline, the same zero response from the customer care. The same on Saturday, no one picks up the phone among the customer care people. I did not call Sunday.

July 27 I was out of town. Today, July 28 Tuesday morning, I made 2 calls, still no one answers. I was terribly disappointed already. So I wrote a complaint letter detailing the above to PLDT in their Ayala office through my sister's staff. The messenger went there in the afternoon. A staff at the customer care did not even bother to read my letter and told the messenger that I should call 101-328. In effect I was told that I should call the number that is the subject of my complaint itself!

So that's triple inefficiency on the part of PLDT.

One, disconnecting my landline plus even after I have loaded the required P300 before the scheduled disconnection date.
Two, having a hotline number that no one answers.
And three, having a customer care staff at PLDT office in Ayala saying that I should call the number that I indicated in my letter, is the source of my frustration. Since they are customer service staff, they should have read entirely my letter and did any remedial measure why my Landline Plus phone is still useless even if I already paid them several days ago.

I thought that PLDT is no longer a monopoly. Because only monopolists are arrogant and inefficient, and customers have no other option but bear their laziness and stupidity.

But PLDT is indeed no longer a monopoly. So there must be some sense of professionalism left. I made another call this afternoon, around 2:30pm. To my surprise, a staff picked up the phone, introduced herself as Michelle. I immediately told the lady of my frustration that my PLDT tel. is still useless for 6 days now.

Her explanation? I loaded P300 two days before the scheduled expiration of my previous P300. Since I made one call, the remaining balance is only P296. Since it is below P300, they have to disconnect my tel. -- no outgoing, no incoming calls either.

Wow! Ok, since P296 is not the same as P300, I accepted the explanation. But my 2nd question, why was it so hard to call that hotline number so that one staff could have explained to me as early as last July 24 that I needed at least P4 of additional load so that my telephone will become useful again?

Her answer, they entertain so many callers and they could not answer all calls.

Ok, damage has been done, my phone was useless for 6 days now, for a crime of lacking P4 in the load that nobody in PLDT was able to explain to me earlier.

To my friends -- don't believe those cute promos and sweet talks by PLDT about their Landline Plus. There are hidden inefficiencies somewhere that can cause you some stress, if not anger.

After posting this blog entry here, I will email PLDT and see if they will make any response or explanation. If I don't hear anything from them, that means they are indeed callous. I will make another blog entry and spread to my various yahoogroups or googlegroups.

Meanwhile, I reiterate my position that further government regulations of telecom companies is not the answer to some of their unfair promos. As customers, we need more options, more choices, so it will be to our interest if there will be 5 or more players in the telecom sector, and not just the current 3 players. If one promo or one player is lousy, like the PLDT Landline Plus program, we can dump them and move to the other competitors.

More government regulations to a certain extent is favorable to the existing players. The latter may feel the pain of more government intervention, but such increased intervention also discourages other players and potential competitors from entering the sector. Thus the incumbent's oligopolistic control of the industry is retained and cemented.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

pldt is the absolute player. They never solve the problem of the customers regarding their land line plus product. They have been telling a lot of lies saying that we can provide you the answer the next day, when you call the next,they give the same recorded answer, the next day, in fact is is their permanent line and we the customers are paying the monthly bill for a useless gadget and the worst thing they did, they are still selling the same product to different outlet, to get money and victims of their "ass hole" product.That is plainly cheating people and the people's money. PLDT, If you still exist, or if you are about to get bankrupt,that is not a better way to get money. You should have done something dignified. and please stop with you landline plus product, it really doesn't work, only your monthly bill is working earlier than your deadline.

Anonymous said...


I intend to vote no on these eduction taxes. Their salaries never should have skyrocketted in the 2000s.
A temporary fix isn't sufficient. We need a long term fix.
They claim accrediation is necessary. K-12 isn't rocket science. Just like the private sector:::You want the high pay take your advanced education degree to a university.
There are enough graduates without direction we should offer them a chance to work off their student debt with a pre-determined number of years working as a teacher, for the new lower wage pay structure.

"We intend to bankrupt it." And then what? Only white kids? In this enviornment??
"(force another look at immigration.)" This isn't the 80s. That's all over.
Unless we become 3rd world this is the system, and this is the only way the system will continue to be functional. But in the meantime stop all illegals sneaking into the United States from China through the Ports of Los Angeles and Oakland in those container ships.
They sent that clue many years ago, and people didn't respond apporpriately. As a result it's been continuing incessantly since.
Whites belong here because the god's intent for the United States originally was punishment for white people. Blacks and recent immigrants (80s) can attest to this as they we made to feel very unwelcome, in their heads by the gods and otherwise. Had they responded properly to the god's clue they may have returned home to their countries of origin.
But, like the Jews in Isreal, they have been corrupted by money, and this association with the Evil Empire will ultimately lead them to Damnation with their "friends".

We have seen the gods use efficiency "experts" in context of their positioning in relation to me. They were utilized anywhere I have spent any significant time.
Recall I was interviewed at the Department of Education. Now it is obvious rejection was deliberate, because all this mess in public schools would have been fixed had I been allowed to work at this facility, and we may not had the need to vote on Propositions 30 and 38 next Tuesday.
Their so-called "experts" are clone host fakes, fresh out of high school who woudln't know their ass from a hole in the ground. Without the gods doing their jobs through them they'd only be good for playing with themselves.
Any other state it may have been possible. In California it was not.
Education consumes far too much of the public's resourses to allow continued financial abuse/inefficiency. These issues should have been addressed by now.