Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Letter from a Reader: Mixed-up My SIM

Image courtesy of www.englishbaby.com

Dear FP,

As an avid reader of your blog, I have found your site as a considerable way to get our voices heard as consumers. I am going to forward this as well to the attention of NTC, but I believe that flagging this to your site first will substantially draw the attention my case deserves.

My horrible experience started when I signed up for a new line under my existing account last Jan 2nd in one of the malls in Pasig. The expectation was set for 24 to 48 hours to have it activated. Last Jan. 4, when 48 hours elapsed, I decided to have my brother follow this matter on my behalf by calling the telecom's hotline. He was advised that a ticket was logged to record this delayed concern and feedback will be given soon.

Two days later, there was still no return call. My brother followed up again. Soon after, he sought my help to call back if needed after the committed callback deadline of 3pm, as the line is under my name. We waited until 3:45pm, and by then I took over.

To make the long story short, I was denied several times of speaking to a supervisor or manager in their call center (outsourced to a local BPO firm) up until I was adamant in having my request expedited. The agent and the supervisor advised me to contact the branch where I filed my request as my need was beyond the call center's capabilities. However, the supervisor assured me that my request was already being addressed.

After a few minutes, the mobile number that was already existing and the one I was personally using to call them went out of service all of a sudden. Having worked for a Singaporean telco myself in the past, I suspected that an error in SIM mapping might have been the cause. So I tried and checked the inactive SIM that was meant for the activation of the new line, and I was right. My mobile number was transferred to this other SIM.

Things would have been more manageable on my part if only I wasn't using an iPhone 4S that requires a micro sim instead of the regular sized one. Due to their error, I had no way of using this newly activated SIM on my unit.

With this development, I was already blowing off my fuse and on the way to the nearest center to file a complaint, the supervisor suddenly called. She had a cheery tone and perhaps was horrified to learn of how things got seriously messed up. I asked for the number of the branch to get in touch with the same manager that I spoke with when I signed up for this new line.

While driving to the branch, I was able to reach the manager. In the midst of our heavy discussion, she informed me she was in the hospital. I made it clear that I have no intention of stressing her out further, so I requested to speak to her branch assistant. A few more minutes later, I got a call from a woman who got me more irritated because it seemed she had no sense of the gravity of my concern. I was losing business because my mobile cannot be contacted due to their error.

I hope this brings attention to how poorly this telecom service is treating its customers. No wonder people are switching to the other telecom.

Yours truly,
P.G. 

56 comments:

  1. i feel for u...cos i got an iphone but not having problems with the sim.....other people won't understand how iphone works....and the sim....
    hope ur business is ok now... is it S or G, for the line u got?????

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  2. Sorry for the stressful experience...pero sa presinto ka magpaliwanag, wag sa FP.

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  3. And... what does this hope to accomplish?

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  4. It would be wise to specify the telecom company if you really want this elevated to the higher ups. Otherwise, you complaint is useless.. =(

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  5. is this from the G network? their customer service has been deteriorating.

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  6. Is this the company that Make Great Things Posible????coz if it is, they have a lot of complaint na talaga, myself include.....so happy with my service now with another network....kaya nag add ako ng broadband eh....bilis pa....

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  7. I can totally relate with this one. Had a lot of mishaps with this 'worldly' provider.

    One tip. If you have issues/complaints with their service (especially for postpaid subscribers), PROCEED to their BUSINESS CENTER. NEVER CALL the customer service hotline. Its an outsourced group. Limited access. Finite capabilities. Frustrated subscriber you will be at the least.


    That's all.

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  8. Only one telecom comes to mind. No initials in the title necessary. Their competitor's customer service is better to infinity. This telecom is truly horrible. Padded bills and lousy, inept customer service. Iba na talaga Mundo ngayon. Kaya nga I made the smart decision of having my almost 10 year old postpaid line with them cut. I'm now with their competitor and goodness I wonder why I wasn't with them in the first place.

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  9. this is g noh? they really have a crappy customer service.. tapus yung mga nag-aassist pa sayo, they talk as if they own the branch/place.. wala pang available na manager lage.. lageng wala.. all branches of g is like this..

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  10. I think you G nga to , tpos ung mga branches nla lagi offline.

    -dollY

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  11. they're really not smart in dealing with their customers ;)

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  12. G customer service is the lousiest i've ever experienced. i applied for a new line last month, it took them 7 days to activate.
    i guess, a lot of known celebs lang are using this provider. they are endorsing S, pero they are using G. proven yan, ( A.C, S.C., A.M., and many more. ) we just have to admit that their marketing strategy is really good, and the problem is they cant cope up with the demand.

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  13. I'm sure G ito. Super notorious sila for sh*t like that!

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  14. this is useless lol

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  15. for me i never experienced having postpaid, so i cant relate this matter...but happy to say im loyal prepaid subscriber of G for 15 years...hehehh...

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  16. G ito sure na alam ko nasa metro lng yung call center nila sa makati "ATA". Paano kc super liit lng ng sweldo dun minimum wage lang kaya kung sino sinong bobo lng accepted

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  17. And i wasted 5 minutes of my time reading this concern???? Please not to FP!

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  18. I have been with Globe for 15 years already and not once have I encountered a problem with their customer service. I have shifted from one Globe issued phone to another usually using my rewards and early last year I switched from my Globe issued iPhone 3G to an iPhone 4. Since it was a shift from the regular sized sim to a micro sim all it took was a 15 to 20minute wait to activate the micro sim in my new phone. By the time I left the mall I was already using my new phone. When I had a problem with my phone after upgrading to iOS5 I had to use my micro sim with an old phone, pwede naman I just had to fashion an adapter from an old credit card.

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  19. nasa logo na ata ang sagot.. hehe

    actually dami talaga errors ng telecom na to... i dont know why.. they keep saying pa na inimprove nila yun system nila to serve us better.. pero habang tumatagal nagiging bulok...

    ang hina pa ng signal sa ibang bansa kapag naka-prepaid ka... buti pa yun ibang network may signal.

    and several times na nagpa roaming ako, it was activated, but pag dating ko sa ibang bansa, wala akong signal.kainis ah...

    i wonder if ako lang ba ang may ganyang issue among prepaid subscribers, let me know if anyone had the same experiences before...
    (by the i do complain sa network everytime na umuuwi ako sa pilipinas, at sinasabi nila sakin lagi na wala naman problem sa network nila) asar ah..

    -a.c.

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  20. i've never been to all globe business centers but is it just me or do i feel like the people working there are full of themselves. mejo nahahanginan lang ako sa aura nila. and to think na they're having these problems na in their network. wishing them the worst of luck.

    and to readers, mas okay na siguro kung hindi dinidisclose yung name ng business so as it would not appear as a demolition job (although that network really deserves one).
    the emphasis is on the issue and not on the company itself. mas okay siya.

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  21. korek, G yan! ako nga may isang beses may tinatawagan ako landline mga 4x ako nag try using my cp , hndi ko nakontak pero kinaltasan nila ung load ko, when i called sa customer service nila sabi sakin ng operator ang missed calls daw may bayad. basta daw nag ring may connection charges na. pero nag try ako sa ibang cp na G din, hndi naman nakaltasan. feeling ko ung sumagot imbento lang nya un palusot lang kse nagkamali sila ng kaltas, binalik naman nila un kinaltas na load pero sympre nakaabala un,

    eto pa isang incident,after ko mag paroaming using G sims pag uwi ko galing abroad after some time bigla nawalan ng cgnal un cp,wala naman problema un cp, khit san cp ko ilagay un sim wala cgnal. tumwag ako sa hotline wala din daw problema ung network, nasira ung sim khit may load pa un di nila pinalitan , naka 4weeks ako ng kakafollow up sa hotline walang nangyari sira ang sim. ung 2nd time na nangyari un bumili nalang ako ng bago, ayoko na mag follow up sayang oras. Gusto ko mag S kso mga tao sa fon book ko konti lng sakanila ang S, so pagtyagaan nalang ang G.

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  22. It's G. The BLUE logo is the CLUE.

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  23. Wasted my time reading this. Wala bang bagong news?? Lol

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  24. Baka G 'yan, ako din until now puro sinasabi i-follow-up nila concern ko pero almost one month and a half na wala pa din. i emailed, called and twitted their customer service waley nangyayari, may lakas pa ng loob magreklamo ng merging ng 2 giant telcos instead improve nila service nila.

    sa ibang readers nag-share lang ng 'yung fellow reader ng bad experience, madami kse nagbabasa ng FP, may isang blog din nu'ng nabasa ng G sila ang nag-reach-out para ayusin ang concern. salamat.:)

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  25. Blind item ba ito? Hirap hulaan ah... ;-)

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  26. Yes please! File a complain to the NTC and tell us later kung anong nangyari. Hubby and I already switched to the other telecom cos they started to suck last year!!

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  27. Normal na ang mga complaints sa Globe Smart or Sun. So wala maaawa sa iyo or maiinis sa mga telcos. Kasi parepareho lang silang may problema. Kaya sorry ka na lang. Hindi sila nababawasan ng business sa mga sumbong mo. Belat!

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  28. If this is G, you're not alone. Nag-apply ako ng postpaid plan for my husband. Very accommodating sila at first. Halos everyday rin nila kong tinatawagan para iremind ako na magsubmit ng requirements. Nung may account-related questions rin ako regarding the postpaid plan application, finorward rin nila yung call ko sa Accounts Team nila. I even saved the landline number they used to call me several times. But after waiting for a week for the CI and another month for the plan to be approved, I cancelled the application. Kasi naman, four times akong nagfollow up pero yun at yun ang sagot sakin,"Nasa approval stage na po. Mag-eemail po kami sa CI for update. Bibigyan po namin kayo ng update." Nung pang-apat kong follow up tinanong ko na kung bakit walang reply from the CI eh 4x na kong nagfafollow up at 4x na ring sinabi sakin na bibigyan ako ng update.
    After a few hours, nakareceive ako ng tawag galing dun sa team na nag CI. Tinatanong nila ko kung sure na raw ba kong icacancel yung application kasi raw nasa approval stage na raw. (Wow!that was REALLY fast!)

    I understand na maraming nag-aapply at may process na pagdadaanan. What I don't understand is how can they have the time to call me everyday to follow up on my requirements but not have time to give me a decent update on my application.

    Very crappy service...

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  29. G's service is crappy. Its hit or miss. My dad has been a G subscriber for 5 yrs now, no problem experienced. But when I applied for a postpaid plan, it was hell. My sister experienced the same. We both applied for that Unlimited Service Postpaid Plan, mine took WEEEEEEEEKS to process, hers was fast. But the thing is, they put her on a different plan. So when her first bill came she was furious. P3000+ on her bill but according to her application its an Unlimited Plan. Mind you she doesn't have contacts from other networks on that phone, she has a different phone for that. They apologized and said it was error on their part. My sister asked for a refund. Guess what? STILL NO REFUND!

    So here's my theory, their service quality depends on your Plan. My dad was on a business plan while my sister and I are on Unlimited Call & Text Plan. Go figure.

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  30. I'm going to say this again... OUR CUSTOMER SERVICE HERE IN THE PHILIPPINES SUCKS. SAD BUT TRUE.. WELL NOT ALL NAMAN BUT MOST! I WISH OUR CUSTOMER SERVICE HERE IN MANILA IS THE SAME IN THE STATES. NO QUESTION ASK. THEY WILL MAKE A WAY TO FIX YOUR PROBLEM RIGHT AWAY OR CHANGE THE PRODUCT IF HINDE MO TYPE. DITO SA ATIN? HAY NAKO KULANG NA LANG SAPAKIN MO ANG KATAASAN TAASAN NG MANAGER PARA AYUSIN PROBLEMA MO. HIRAP KASI DITO KAILANGAN MO PA SIGAWAN OR MURAHIN TO ASSIST YOUR PROBLEMS.

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  31. YOU GUYS KNOW WHAT I HATE ABT G****???! THEIR ONLYN AND SOCIAL MEDIA. NAKAKATAWA ANG @TALK2G**** AT @ENJOYG**** SA TWITTER PWEDE BA @TALK2THEHAND NA LANG? HAHAHA! UNA DI SUMASAGOT. PANGALAWA PAMALI-MALI ANG PAG-TWEET. NUNG ISANG ARAW SPAM NG SPAM! HINDI YATA TINURUAN NG MARKETING HEADS DOON ANG MGA TAO NILA NG TWITTER AT FB. HELLOW? MAS MAGALING PA YATA SUMAGOT SI @KRISAQUINOSTD SA TWITTER KANILA LANG LAHAT!!! SERYOSO!

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  32. January 11 4:57 : WINNER KA! hahaha! honga sa pulis ka magsumbong, shonga!

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  33. Kasalanan to ng president ni G. Since ngpalit ng bagong president, ginawang BPO ang Customer Service nila, and that BPO company was owned by him. Almost new employees lahat, new process at ung mga old employees inofferan ng early retirement.

    #clueless

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  34. just would like to add- dont ever bother calling the customer service hotline 2** nor use the text feature to apply, activate and reactivate for add ons. been told that their call center service is bad- and this came from a staff from their business center. its better to walk in to their business centers.

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  35. Mundo yan for sure. Kaya kami sa sikat na araw kami.

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  36. nageexpang kasi yung G kaya ganun, yung S naman pangit din cutomer service, but not as awful as G

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  37. Based from experience, G's CS is very awful. EPIC FAIL. My phone was snatched earlier this week and my only way to contact them to have my line deactivated was thru their chat. Jusko!!! After entering all those st*pid, freakin OPTIONS, it's not the right "ACCOUNT SPECIALIST" who would talk to you. Ergo, you'll be transferred for nth times. The nerve to label themselves as "SPECIALIST" eh noh? I think they don't even know a single thing in troubleshooting account-related problems, they're just there, paid to say/type : "We're very sorry for the inconvenience Ma'am/Sir."

    And as if that would help.

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  38. kung magko complain ka rin lang, wag palaisipan, blind item pa. Banggitin mo ang inirereklamo mo para mapansin ang di magandang serbisyo.

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  39. Grrr i experienced the same with Mundo telecom.. i applied for a bundled service dec 26th thru 2**... i was advised to wait within 24hrs and ill receive a call. Got no call past 24hrs. went to their branch in ayala cebu. fill out a new application form. was told that service will be installed in 3-5 days... keep calling their hotline since its over 5 days and still didnt have service,,, the hotline is damn useless.. cant help me because they said that their resource is limited... after 1 week my service was installed.. dsl and phone worked for 2 hrs then after that it stopped. called their hotline for multiple times... didnt get someone who understand my issue. One of them said that my account is canceled. another said that its pending. i went to the branch and they cant locate my account. until a branch representative found out that my account and telephone number is different that what was installed. They said theyll send a report but after 24 to 48 hrs still got no call from them... Since im working on a call center and i am a tech support for a US tele company. I thought of calling back to their hotline, asked for the ppp username and pw. at first the rep was hesitant to give me even if i was able to authorize my account... i reconfigured the ppp creds stored on my modem and i got it working.... then, after 3 days they sent a technician to get my telephone workng... but after couple of hours, phone went dead again... they kept telling me theres an outage... after 4 days, thats when my phone was restored... 4 days of outage is unacceptable... G is really going down.. They have the worst service ever!

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  40. My whole family is with Globe, we have a total of 9 accounts with them. The first account was activated 15 years ago and we are happy and satisfied clients. My only gripe is the long wait in their business center which also happened to me when I went to Smart to purchase a pre-paid smart mobile broadband kit (the person was so masungit he hardly lifted his eyes to look at me and was non-stop talking to his co-worker and when i was asking questions he answered in mono syllables buti pa yung guard mabait sa kanya na ako nagpaturo) and when I accompanied my sister to Sun (where no one knew what they were talking about, sabi ng isa walang signal sa airport kasi madaming interference, sabi naman ng isa malakas daw) when she was inquiring for a second non-Globe line. I mean it happens to all telcos. Someone mentioned about the text feature if you want an add-on, I did that and got a call from a service agent within the day and when I missed one of their calls they sent an SMS saying that we tried to get in touch with you but etc etc. It's so sad because it's easy to go to the internet and complain about one bad issue but when you get good service 100 times people rarely blog or write about them.

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  41. CRAPPY SERVICE! Actually do they even know what "CUSTOMER SERVICE" means? G needs to have some restructuring and have a refresher on how to treat its customers right! Had several bad experiences with their customer hotline, and i dread calling them! Imagine, waiting to be attended to for 30mins and more. WTH.

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  42. BAKIT HINDI PA SABIHIN KUNG ANONG COMPANY GINAWA PANG BLIND ITEM O BAKA NAMAN SINABI PERO INEDIT LANG EH SANA HINDI NA LANG PINOST KUNG EEDIT DIN COZ HONESTLY WITHOUT THE NAME OF THE COMPANY THIS COMPLAINT IS USELESS. WALA NA BANG MAISIP NA BI KAYA PATI TO PINATULAN?

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    Replies
    1. galit ka sa MUNDO?? Hwag mong patulan kung ayaw mo..

      kiki

      Delete
  43. Dati akong G subscriber ok naman sila dati pero lately napag-iwanan na sila ng S at even by the other S telecom actually. Unahin na natin sa network. They have a crappy network. Maganda nga iPhone 4S mo wala ka naman signal?? Paano ka naman gagamit nyan, diba? Buti na lang S got the iPhone 4S na din. Lumipat na ako (and 4 of my friends actually) and the network is definitely better. G's marketing and branding may be good pero ano naman magagawa ng marketing if the service sucks big time? Natawa nga ako doon sa bagong resist campaign nila. Isn't resist a somewhat negative word? Whoever thought of that should be fired. Di ko maintindihan kung anong binebenta nila. Yun pala yung broadband stick nila. Gulo eh. Too bad I like the new endorser. Dapat kinuha na lang sya ng S. We don't need resist, we need ASSIST!

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  44. Ako nga months na, nothing happens. I advanced Php500 upon signing in to G, consequently, hindi nakaregister. I talked to online customer service, called my agent but no replies, and even went to mall outlet pero wala pa rin nagawa... haaaayyyyy..

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  45. i have a phonebook with 90% of G users, and i can call naman so i enjoy the unli service. I have a prepaid S, grabe sila, you can't call them if your account has zero balance.
    And i load my s every 3 months with 15 pesos just to keep the number.

    There are pros and cons for every company. I am happy with G pa din.At least ang endorsers, di naman killer ng sariling anak hahaha

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  46. G should get the Worst Customer Service award! We have the SUper Circle plan (3 lines in 1 account, 1500/month) for 6months now. In 3 of those 6 months, we have been billed 3K++ for 3 months (intermittently). I asked CS why does this keep on happening? Their reply? "Kasi Ma'am, nawawalan ho ng plan yung isang line nyo.." ??? WTH. THat should NEVER happen. Here's why... Super Circle plan works like this : For each line, you have the option to change "freebies" every month. I.E., 1st month = all text all call to globe, 2nd month = all text to all network(s), etc. If example, on the 3rd month you forget to change your plan, this should automatically REVERT BACK to your ORIGINAL (1st month) plan, which in this case, the all text all call to globe. FOr some reason, one of our 3 lines, would ALWAYS NOT HAVE A PLAN...which is IMPOSSIBLE. CS can NOT give an answer WHY this happens. I asked if I have the correct understanding of how this Super Circle Plan goes...sagot naman sa akin,

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  47. If this is G, their customer service really sucks. On 3 occasions that I called them last year over net issues, they asked what phone I was using and I told them it's an iphone. They then asked where I bought it and when I said I bought in China, they went to ask if it's dual-sim. I was like, seriously? Was that a subtle way of asking whether my phone was fake? It's ridiculous I had to drop the call. lol.

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  48. YOU KNOW WHY G HAS THE POOREST CUSTOMER SERVICE ON THIS COUNTRY?! BECAUSE ALL THEY DO IS PARTY! WHO CARES, REALLY?

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  49. We both have G and S accounts... S has the better customer service of the two... I had complaints with my net connection with S, so when I called their CS, they had a reference number so that when you followed up, whoever CS attendant you talked to, they can pull up your file based on the ref. no., so you don't have to keep on repeating your complaint and they can inform you right away the status of your complaint...

    with G, it was a business line that suddenly stopped working... after bringing up the problem with them, they said there was a problem with the line... after a week, still no update, so we complained again... then they said they were fixing something in the area... then a week after, we followed up again, they said it was because the line was disconnected because of non-payment (but we were up to date on the payment) when we checked the next day it was again because of some "problems" in the area... this took weeks and eventually months until we had the line cut off nalang, it was really inconvenient because we used this line for business... nobody from G customer service could give a definite answer on what the problem was or when it would be solved, it depended on who we talked to at that moment (and none of them seem to care about the urgency of the problem or that it had been weeks already)... and every time we made a follow up, we had to explain the problem all over again (as if it was the first time we made the complaint)... G has really bad customer service...

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  50. hindi ka nag-iisa. ako, simple lang request ko before, to transfer my broadband to my new address. after 6 months wala pa rin nangyayari. what happened is that they billed me pa sa mga months na wala naman akong natatanggap na service from them.

    sobrang poor ng system nila, nidedelete ata ng iba yung records ng request ko. sobrang walang kwenta. kaya hindi umuusad yung request ko.

    advice ko lang sa inyo, if ever mapunta kayo sa makamundohang situation na ito, take note of the names and the numbers ng makakausap nyong agent sa business center. wag na kayong umasa sa hotline nila kasi walang kwenta yung mag-aaksaya lang kayo ng oras. another tip, magpaka-irate kayo sa business center. especially if you're going to the greenbelt3 branch, na hindi umuusad yung numbers, what i did before, hindi na ko pumila nagpaka-irate na lang ako sabi ko 6 months kong hinihintay to, tapos may gana pa kayong paghintayin ako? (syempre ingles-inglesan yun kasi katulad nga ng sinabi ng iba dito, yung mga staff dyan they're full of themselves, dapat hindi ka magpapaintimidate, ikaw ang mang-intimidate!) effective naman. na-reverse/waive nila yung mga bill na pinagccharge nila sa kin. aber dapat lang kasi kung hindi magwawarla talaga ako dun.

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  51. If ever this happens again to anyone. Please know that you can go to any stores and they will cut the sim card from a regular sized simcard to a micro sim card. It's the same thing. That's what I had done before :).

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