Life’s Lessons

I’m back! I was sick since Tuesday that I had to rest. Another thing, I was forced to a total bed rest yesterday because our internet connection was redirected.I am really pissed at our ISP’s services. Lately our connection has been intermittent that I cannot work on OHJ because I’ve been disconnected from time to time. Now my account has been redirected due to the unpaid balance that they charge to my account which is supposed to be not.

I received a call from their hotline months back informing me that somebody has mistakenly paid PhP1,000.00 to my account. I cannot confirm it immediately as Smartbro’s billing is late ever since I subscribed to them. True enough somebody has paid in SM Baguio the said amount to my account. How in the world will somebody in his sane mind will mistakenly pay to other’s account? Anyway, the PhP1,000.00 that was mistakenly paid to my account was reflected in my balance from previous bill the following statement period after they have informed me of the incident and they charged me another PhP1000 under my current statement. My plan 999 became PhP1,999.00 in the billing statement. I only noticed it when my account has been redirected yesterday. I went over each of my bills (though I didn’t receive some) and checked on the accuracy of the previous and current balance stated. It was all correct but not the July (haven’t received the August billing statement yet) bill which I am talking about….the additional PhP1000 in my current balance aside from the PhP1000 they have charged for the mistaken payment.

The Smartbro e-rep verified on the wrong billing statement to their support group and they told me they charged another PhP1000 to my account because somebody has paid the same amount to my account in Smart Ponciano branch which they thought it was not me who made that payment hence they have charged it back to me. If that’s the real reason, how come they didn’t confirmed to me if I really paid in Ponciano Smart Center? See, they’re even so INCONSISTENT for justifying their error. Does it mean I should only make payment to one center so that they will credit my payments? How unreasonable! I asked them if that was the case, why it was reflected in my current balance wherein my plan amount should only be reflected? I told the e-rep isn’t it a typo error which I think it really is. She said “no, according to the support group”.

If I base on the billing statements and the payments made, they really have charged PhP1000 that was reflected in my previous balance and I couldn’t understand why there’s additional PhP1000 in my current balance. I sent Che2x to Gaisano Mall Wireless Center to settle the concern bringing with her the computation I made but to my dismay, the center agents, like the e-reps, relied only on what they see in the system and did not go over each and every billing statement and payments made. Had it not because of my fever, I will go to the center and slap my billing statements to their faces! How inefficient and ineffective these employees are! How can one settle a concern if they rely on their INEFFICIENT system. I say inefficient because with only one mistaken payment made, the system went crazy making charges that shouldn’t be. I supposed it’s the people behind the system but since they all said to me it was system generated and it’s what the system reflects, then blame it to the inefficient system and the process owners of that system.

This issue consumed my whole day for calling the hotline from time to time bringing out same issue in the hope that somebody with enough brain cells will get my point. But the numerous calls were useless. They all said the same thing, “what reflects in the system”. Gosh! Are these people thinking? I furiously said, “what’s the use of having a hotline when you cannot address people’s concerns?”.

After more than couple of hours waiting at the wireless center, Che2x finally texted me to call the hotline to request for reconnection. I will be calling the useless hotline again? I requested for reconnection and was advised that a request report have been made, and monitor my connection within 24hrs. I thought the 24-hr lead time is the maximum only to find out it was the least time they could reconnect my account. After an hour, I called the hotline again to follow-up and I was told the same thing…reconnection report has been made to the system. For the nth time, I called receiving the same response. I was really pissed at how quick they are to redirect and too slow for them to reconnect when it’s just one click from their end considering that I have made numerous follow ups already and for each follow-up that I made, the e-rep sends a follow-up report for the reconnection request (if the e-reps I have talked to really did a request).

Early today I called the hotline to follow up for the nth time was told I still have a pending balance that will due on the 15th so they cannot reconnect my account. What the HELL! It’s only the 5th of the month, they bill us in advance and yet they expect me to pay ahead for the services I haven’t used. That’s another invalid reason for not reconnecting my account. I checked on how many follow-up reports have been made for my reconnection request and their system shows only two. WHAT? I have called them 4 times yesterday and only 2 of the e-reps did their job of making follow-up report? In my follow-up call, I was told the same thing….check within 24hrs and that 24hrs will end 8hrs from now. (Finally,  I was reconnected exactly 4hrs before the 24hrs lead time. Is that efficient?) 

This is how people in this service (in which they are considered as one) industry deal with their costumers’ concerns. And the poor subscriber has no choice but to wait until the concern is addressed because there’s no way to talk to the concerned people but only e-reps and if you ask the e-reps where you can contact their support group, they will just say they don’t have direct contact. Pity are those e-reps for being the frontliners who receives all the angry words of the customers when in fact they aren’t really directly connected with the company.

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