Stupetity

PLDT MyDSL Woes — The Continuing Saga (or Nightmare)

I have witnessed at how Michael Phelps carved his name into Olympic immortality with his record-shattering 8 gold medals, and I have marveled at how the USA “Redeem Team” has learned its lesson by making mincemeat out of every team standing on its way with its pesky defensive rotation and adoption to the used-to-be alienating FIBA rules. Yes, I have felt every stroke and every dive for that looseball — at least in all the news updates, articles and blog posts I have read over the internet.

And unfortunately, I failed to see those moments ON VIDEO. Why, so, if you may ask? Aside from the long, arduous commute that everyday delivers my exhausted body home very late in the evening and way after the news, it’s because of the ever-unreliable internet connection (video and audio streaming in the office where I work for is strictly illegal; and although caffeine plus other sorts of sweets are the main pick-me-ups at Starbucks, which is a typical hotspot, a crowded environment is not my cup of tea for me to focus and work on my daily tasks). THANKS to PLDT MyDSL, which is supposed to be providing broadband connection, I was not able to watch videos I want to see immediately. Basically, the connection is not the worth that I am paying for.

Actually, it used to be my cousin who shouldered the monthly subscription payments. But budget constraints led her to give it up and let me foot the bill. Although I am only paying for the entry-level Xperience Plan, but still, the 1 mbps connection speed could still give me a decent connection with a fast buffering rate. Sadly, a simple JPEG image at ESPN would still load for a couple of minutes. And when I tried to watch a particular video clip at Youtube, it just took me FOREVER to see a second of the entire clip. I calmed myself to give the benefit of the doubt by trying to call up 172 (or the so-called “Customer Support” hotline). But my cousin revealed to me that this dilemma had been going on for months. The story went like this: almost everyday for almost half a year, she had been calling up the customer support number. And everyday, it had been a litany of “we are already checking the problems, ma’am” or “system upgrades or maintenance are ongoing right now”. When it was my turn to call them up and tried to deviate the problem from a slow connection to a faulty modem, they said that I still had to pay an additional fee for the faulty (if its proven to be busted) modem if I really want to have it replaced. And we waited, and waited. For the longest time.

Realizing that this was to no avail, I resorted to browse online to look for ways to remedy it. Imagine the measly connection speed we had been getting for the thousands of pesos we have been paying for so many months, now. I wasn’t surprised that I belonged to the same boat of a multitude of irate, dissatisfied customers who vented their frustrations through hate emails and cuss-filled comments. Even the Internet Marketing guru himself, Marc Macalua, had this glitch got under his skin a couple of years ago, prompting him to subscribe to another provider. At Yugatech, there’s also a long list of some pretty bad experiences with the “infamous” provider. So is Pinoyblogero.

But Brian Magalong (Chunks of Sanity) has a different approach in claiming what is due to him. Two weeks into subscription, hundreds of calls to 172 Technical Support Hotline and many days of being stood up by the technical people from PLDT MyDSL to supposedly “check the connection”, Brian opted to e-mail the top honchos of the company to plead his case. And to his relief, his query had been well-received, with technicians coming over to his place and checking out the installations. And, voila. He’s got the connection he wanted.

As of this writing, I am googling (like what Brian has done) for the names and e-mail addresses of those people who can very well entertain my situation. Besides, I am just completely exercising what a customer should do if there’s something wrong and/or missing with the products and services which he/she paid for.

Let this be some sort of asking for help from you, my dear readers, if you have the information to contact these people. This has been going on for a long time, why can’t PLDT improve their customer service support for a bit?

How I wish I could still see with my very own eyes if there’s still another faking incident waiting to happen in the closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics in the coming week.

P.S.

PLDT guys, I am not trying to antagonize you or whatsoever. But I am a paying customer wanting for a commensurate service. Improve your services now before your subscriber base ninja vanishes while jumping ship to other carriers.

-30-

© 2008 Blournalist.