My Third World Angst

Third World Angst: Why I Think PLDT SUCKS BIGTIME!!!

May 13, 2007

Our family started hauling our things from our old residence (which was to be renovated) to our permanent one in Pampanga (we’re not Pampangueño; our house is) and to the new one which my two sisters and I would occupy for the next couple of months.

May 14, 2007

Moving out of our house at Anonas and moving into Maginhawa is now officially finished. First night at Maginhawa. My two sisters and I are all homesick. Before we left the house at Anonas that one last time, I cut the telephone wire that connects to the small square box where the telephone cord is connected (just to make sure that it won’t  and can’t be used by the construction workers who would be working and staying in at the house while it was still being renovated). I didn’t want our telephone bill to go up.

May 17, 2007

I went to the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) Business Center at SM North EDSA to request the transfer of our telephone and DSL services, which was a bundled service. I spoke to someone my Mom and I personally know (he’s from Baler, Aurora, too) so I was confident that our request was in “good hands” so to speak. He told me his request was for the linesman to come to our new residence Monday the following week (that would’ve been May 21).

Sometime between May 18-June 17, 2007

I would sometimes try ringing our telephone number. It rang and rang and rang and rang. But, of course, no one ever answered.

June 18, 2007

The PLDT linesman came to our room at Maginhawa. Installed the new cable and telephone unit. He said he doesn’t work for PLDT and that his company’s services were only outsourced. I asked him why only came today, one month and one day after my transfer request and he said that the address that PLDT was the one at Anonas (our old residence). We’d get a dial tone within 24 hours he said.

June 20, 2007

Still no dial tone. I let it pass one more day thinking anytime within the day we’d be getting a dial tone. By nightfall, my sister commented that she tried dialing the number and it rang; someone picked up the phone.

June 21, 2007

Early in the morning, I went to our next door neighbor, the owners of the room we were renting while our house was still under renovation. I used their telephone to dial up our number. It rang! And then someone picked up. Upon creatively inquiring as to the location of the telephone I was calling, I found out that it was at our old residence at Anonas and that the one who answered the phone was the construction worker renovating the house! I called up PLDT’s 171 to report to report what had just happened! Apparently the linesman connected a telephone junction box (not sure if that’s what it’s called) and a telephone unit to the house at Anonas and the dialtone was restored by PLDT to that address and not to our new one!

After that incident I started calling PLDT on a daily basis. I was still very much polite, trying to be the Christian that I profess to be. But it certainly was quite irritating having to tell each person that I spoke with the entire detail of our transfer request story every time I called up to make a follow up. There is something definitely wrong with the way PLDT does things! There is something absolutely wrong with their system and record-keeping. Imagine this: each time I called, they even had to ask me for our old and new address! And then what ticked me off all the more was the person at the other end of the line telling me that he/she would now be updating our records! It’s been more than a month, for goodness sake! Shouldn’t their records be updated by now?!? In fact, I shouldn’t even have to keep repeating every single detail of my request as well as all the boo-boos that PLDT has been making at our expense!

June 29, 2007 (around 15:30 hours)

I returned to our room after spending two hours at the internet café across the street. (Since we’d moved, I’d been a regular patron there.) I tried lifting the receiver of the telephone set to my ear, not expecting anything. The shock of hearing a dial tone almost killed me (exaggeration, of course!). We FINALLY had a dial tone after one month and 12 days! Hallelujah! We’ve got connection to the outside world now! In my excitement at having the world within my reach once again, I called up my friends Gigi and Neva just to tell them of the news. I would’ve called more friends had they had Manila telephone numbers.

Still no DSL.

July 2-July 15, 2007

It has become my habit to call up PLDT right after I have my morning devotional and prayer to follow up on our DSL service. It has become a battle within, a test of patience, endurance, and my “Christianity.” I admit that there were days when I was my weak human self—giving in to my anger and raising my voice just a bit and scolding the person on the other end of telephone for all the hassle that they’ve been causing me personally. Yes, I raised my voice a little, although at least I have never cussed at anyone. (I’ve “sworn off” cussing a few years back.)

The DSL serviceman that PLDT sends (also outsourced) to fix our DSL connection has been to our new location about five (5) times now! Each time he left without having been able to fix our DSL. We’ve even exchanged cellphone numbers now, since I now use a prepaid dial-up card so I won’t have to go elsewhere and pay more just to go online!

He said the problem is with the PLDT network itself.

PLDT technicians have also been calling us up several times a day just inquiring if we already have DSL; what our old and new locations are (TERRIBLE RECORD SYSTEM THEY HAVE, I TELL YOU!); etc. No solutions whatsoever. Just questions.

The reasons which PLDT and their subcontractors give have all been different from one another, all the more fueling the anger that is somewhat building up within me. There seems to be no hope anytime soon for our DSL connection. I’ve inquired from Globelines about their services. I’ll be in inquiring from Bayantel too next week. Much more of this and I might just go insane already! (Not likely! Another exaggeration. Anyway, you get the picture.) Imagine too, that on top of all these things PLDT has also threatened to temporarily cut off their services to us because they say our bill is still unpaid! The nerve! I said, “What services?” We hadn’t been getting any since the day we moved out of Anonas and we certainly won’t be paying them for services unrendered! In fact, PLDT should even be the one paying us for all the inconvenience it has caused us (me especially!). It’s great that our line is for a residence and not a business, too! That would’ve been a different matter altogether.

This is only the first part of the story. After the house at Anonas is renovated, we’ll be moving back there.  : )  . . . Hehe. Good guess! Our telephone line and DSL would’ve to be moved back there, too! Any guess how long that would take?

So much for my PLDT blues. (Hah! This is even longer than some of the reports I make for school!) Now you (and the World Wide Web) know why PLDT S-U-C-K-S BIGTIME(!!!).

Someone told me that all of the telecommunication services here in the country suck, too, because we are in a third world country. (SIGH!) . . . If Globelines and Bayantel still fail to deliver, I’m migrating to another country!