Wednesday, June 28, 2006

A Strange Company that PLDT Mob

PLDT the major Telco in the Philippines has been receiving some bad press of late. Over at the Sassy Lawyer’s Journal (see the link on the side bar) the Sassy Lawyer has been having a moan about the slow ASDL speed they are giving her and my web hosting service has been sending out emails stating that the lack of service their PLDT subscribers are experiencing isn’t their fault.

Fortunately I am not a PLDT subscriber, although that was through their efforts rather than mine. When I first arrived here and wanted to upgrade the telephone connection for the house to include an internet connection PLDT was the company I first approached. The existing pre-paid connection was with them and they are the biggest and were conducting a relatively aggressive marketing campaign for their internet services.

They told me that because a previous resident at the compound had skipped off owing them 6000 pesos they couldn’t convert the pre-paid connection into a post paid connection nor connect the internet until the out standing 6000 had been paid. My explanation that I was a new customer with no connection to the previous customer fell on deaf ears.

Left with no alternative, I wasn’t paying somebody else’s 6 grand bill, I went across the road to Globelines. Within a couple of weeks Globe had run a line down the street and we had our post paid telephone and an ADSL connection. The ongoing service has been good and in one instance outstanding. When we requested a new modem they had a technician on our door step within an hour of making the request.

Whenever I think of PLDT I still shake my head in disbelief. Not only are they still owed the 6000 pesos, which I figure they will never get, but they have missed out on the thirty odd thousand pesos I have shelled out over the last 10 months for my phone and net connections. Go figure?

Now, if I could only get an up to date telephone directory……………….

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know whether I should consider myself lucky or not, because I must be the only person I know who is not experiencing any problems with PLDT's ADSL service. Well, I do get disconnected from time to time, and it did take PLDT almost two months to install the Internet connection in our house.

Anonymous said...

Hey anna, i think being disconnected from time to time and takes 2 months to install your internet is quite a problem enough don't you think?

Anonymous said...

I don't really consider it enough of a problem because in a given week, my Internet lags on me probably only a couple of times. So, the incidence is quite negligible enough for me to ignore.

Admin said...

A year we were using PLDT's ADSL service but it konks out more often than not and since our business deals with the internet(online store) we just gave up on them and went to Globe. Globe isn't perfect either but its far better than what we got from PLDT.

EuroYank - Virginia Hoge said...

Great blog and ...

I'm enjoying reading your observations on everyday life in the Philippines from an expat's perspective. You write clearly and with an obvious passion for the Philippines and things Filipino. Your words have a wonderful ability to evoke images and memories.

Anomaly1974 said...

Seems to me we need more expats from here in the Philippines to post. As far as connections? I have a couple of projects I hope will bring me up to speed soon, but for now with dial up blasts connections I can not even make a 14.4 modem sweat :(

Anonymous said...

Coolest telephone directory resource on the 'net: telephone directory

Anonymous said...

Coolest cell numbers resource on the 'net: cell numbers

Anonymous said...

yeah pldt is just some dumb ass company who charge so much for their sub par service. when i tried calling their customer service they always say this all so common line we are dealing with the problem sir<<< OMGWTF that aint right