Why Oh Why PLDT? Your service is nearing bottom pit

I am a very fair person and what you read here in my blog are my real sentiments. That is why alongside glowing reviews of islands and trips, restaurants I’ve been to, hotel I’ve stayed in, services I’ve availed of, I also share posts about tourist traps and issues encountered.

One of my aims for this blog is to tell things as is per my experience because I want that Penfires readers who happen to be persuaded to avail of a service, dine in a resto etc after reading a review on this blog will not be disappointed.

There had been several instances when after writing a glowing post, I backtrack and have to offer a new insight because the situation calls for it. This is one of those instances.

I never thought that I’d be writing this post after my first wonderful experience sharing about PLDT Home. But sadly I have to.

I was one of the lucky ones whose installation of the MyDSL P1,299 internet-landline package was a breeze. I later found out, this is not the norm. In fact, my experience was rare.

   My aunt experienced inept customer service from PLDT  personnel.

    Earlier this morning, I called PLDT hotline in behalf of my aunt. They have paid last April 10, and now it’s already May 1 and installation crew has yet to show up in their house. It’s been 21 days or 3 weeks since they paid at the PLDT Mactan Business Office.

   So I rung up their 171 Hotline spoke with a customer service representative and was very disappointed with what I found out.

   The CSR says that my aunt originally applied last March 20 but the job order for her application expired since payment was not made in the prescribed period. I asked my aunt if they know there is a prescribed period, she said no, she was not advised.  Then a PLDT staff called her up last April 9 to remind her to pay.

   The day after April 10 my aunt went to PLDT to settle a total of P1,600. Money was never an issue, but the lack of advise was. After settling payment, she relaxed thinking that now her PLDT MyDSL internet – landline package will soon be installed at her home.

   Lo and behold three weeks have passed ‘ni ha’, ‘ni ho’ from PLDT personnel ay wala. They called to remind the customer to pay, yet did not follow-up after. Their office just took the money.  😯

   And you know what the CSR said to me after I asked point-blank when they will set-up? The CSR said ‘ma’am I will endorse her application.”

  “What does ‘endorse’ mean and when can we expect the installation?”

“Our normal installation takes up to 3 weeks.”

I pointed to her that it’s been three weeks since payment was made.

She again uttered “I will endorsed her application” as if by saying that everything is alright.

It’s far from it, hello?! She did not even apologize for the inconvenience, or say that I will forward this to management so this case will not happen again. Bisag pakitang tao nalang unta. No nothing of that sort. Just plain ‘I will endorse her application’. She also keeps referencing the expired March 20 application, which to me appears that she is blaming my aunt for the delay.

I find the hotline csr lacking in customer service etiquette, sorely needs retraining too.

Nothing has been done on my aunt’s account even though payment has been made almost a month ago. My aunt has to wait another 3 weeks!!!! Dios Mio!

The CSR in Mactan Office of PLDT who received her payments last April 10 did not even note down that her payment has been made and her papers should have been endorsed to appropriate department right then and there. That would be good customer service which I am finding out is rarity in PLDT. Poor service is the norm.

So it appears now my aunt’s papers were just put on the shelves to gather dust. If a customer will not follow-up, PLDT will just be happy taking in payments without extending the service you pay for.

NOTE: So if you have pending installations and you have paid, call, call, call, call them again and again to follow-up. You can’t rely on PLDT Home staff to do their responsibilities.

Why I care about this? Because after my aunt read my first post about PLDT, she decided to apply for MyDSL. It was my post that influenced her to go for PLDT. Gahhhhh.

Now if you are going to argue that this is not my personal experience but that of a third person, well, let me share my own.

I always make sure that first week of the month, the money to pay my internet and phone bills are complete. But I am one of those who like to have the physical copy of the billing statement before I pay, this is for record purposes.

Last February and March, I’ve had trouble not receiving my PLDT bills. I’ve become an avid caller of the 171 Hotline. Apparently, the problem was with the third party delivery company that delivers the PLDT mails. Anyhow after calling 171, I also went to their Mactan Office and was dumbfounded how arrogant the csrs were and how uncaring.

So I went to the cashier thinking that since I have the account number, that would suffice and I can pay for my bill. Remember I don’t have a billing statement because PLDT did not deliver the statement to my home.

At the cashier, I was surprised when she said ‘you must get a bill from the customer service desk’.

Oh uh, okay, no probs. So I queue for almost an hour. I can take that.

Two customers ahead of me also had complaints about non-receipt of the bill, they were ‘dismissed’ unceremoniously. Was it because they look ‘regular’, well you know what I mean right?

 When it was my turn to talk with the customer service personnel in the PLDT Mactan office, I explained my situation of non-delivery. What the agent advised was ‘here is the number, call the delivery company if you want to complain’. It was another way of saying ‘delivery is not our problem because we have a third party service.’

So I rebutted with ‘aren’t you the customer service rep of PLDT and shouldn’t you be taking care of your customer’s problems?’

The guy at the desk did a double take, and for the first time addresses me as ‘ma’am’.

I requested him to file a report about the issue I was encountering and to relay this to their third party delivery agent. After all, the contract is between PLDT and me, and not me and the delivery company.

Those who availed of PLDT services are not the customers of the delivery company; rather we are customers of PLDT. That should be clear to all their CSRs.

Surprise, surprise last April I got my bill way ahead of time.

Now, about the internet speed?

Lol, so the fast speed I talked about on my first PLDT review was just ‘honeymoon period’ because now my internet has become slooooow.  I am expecting myself to be calling their hotline more and more as days goes by. Tsk.

There are other minor irritations I’ve dealt with concerning PLDT, service and its personnel, I can share on and on but I have to stop myself, not worth ruining the rest of my night.

Maybe you are now thinking that since I am not happy with the service, I should just end the contract. Well there’s a problem there – our market does not offer many alternatives. The Filipinos are held captive by few big conglomerates that care little about the ordinary man.

When can we have good, reliable internet in the Philippines backed by excellent customer service?

I hope the answer is not ‘when pigs fly’.