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SMART responds to Pinay and Money
Just two days after I wrote about SMART BRO (see Goodbye, SMART BRO), I received a letter from the Social Media Services of SMART. Here’s the full text:
Thank you for notifying us of your concern.
We strive to provide you with the best possible service, and when you feel that it fails to meet your expectations, we appreciate your feedback.
We are sorry that you received service that prompted you to contact us with a complaint, and we regret any inconvenience or frustration that the experience has caused you.
Nevertheless, your concerns are already being attended to and we are already working to improve our internal process.
We shall be more than delighted to be of service of you again, in the future.
Sincerely,
Social Media Services
Smart Communiactions
The letter is obviously a template letter and this is probably an auto-generated reply. Nevertheless, I’m glad to see that SMART is monitoring the Internet to see what its customers are saying about their products and services. I just hope that this letter is not just for show and that SMART is truly doing something about the quality of its products and services.
Tagged smart, smart bro, Social Media Services
Goodbye, SMART BRO
It’s goodbye to SMART BRO.
After two years filled with irritation, incompetent customer service reps, and thousands of payment, we have ended our contract with SMART BRO and decided not to renew it anymore.
I’ve posted an entry about our dilemma with SMART BRO (see story) and it hasn’t changed since then. A few months ago, my husband got a SUN Broadband and we find that SUN offers more value for our money with its plan.
At P800 monthly, the plan provides us unlimited access to the Internet. Sure, there are days that its connection is down but at least, I don’t fear that when I receive the billing statement, I would be charged with thousands in connection I have never used.
And because of SUN, we have stopped using our SMART BRO in the last three months. We just waited for the contract to expire so we can finally have it disconnected.
Here’s a side note to this. I posted my SMART Bro dilemma in one of the Yahoogroups I belong to. One of the members, a SMART employee, was kind enough to ask permission if she can forward my concerns to their Interactive Social Media Services Group.
A few days after, I received an email from Ashley John Villaroman. In a nutshell, he wanted to find a resolution to our dilemma and, in the process, convince us not to end the contract.
But I was hell-bent on ending the contract. My husband and I feel that we didn’t get our money’s worth with the plan. I thanked Ashley John for his email and told him that we’re not changing our minds. But because I want SMART BRO’s service to improve, I emailed him all my concerns.
We have four major issues with SMART BRO: incompetent CSRs, SMART Connect being not updated, absurd charging and intermittent connection, and its brand manager Ava Espanola, who simply doesn’t care.
The funny thing is that after I sent my email, I never heard from him again. Hahaha! He probably didn’t expect a mouthful from me. But I guess I’ve made my case why SMART BRO is not worth renewing.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate SMART. I have been a loyal SMART Gold postpaid user for the last eight years. And because of SMART, I have never bought a cell phone in the last eight years. I just keep renewing my SMART Gold contract every two years and I receive a new cell phone every time.
But SMART Bro is a different matter altogether. So, goodbye to SMART BRO and good riddance!
Spending New Year’s Eve at Sulo Hotel
Because my rhinitis acts up when I get exposed to smoke, hubby and I decided to spend New Year’s Eve in Sulo Hotel in Quezon City.
A 20-minute drive from home, we chose Sulo Hotel primarily because we thought it offered free Internet connection. Unfortunately, and much to my chagrin, the hotel charges a ridiculous PhP300 per hour for its Wi-Fi connection. What a ripoff!
We paid PhP4,500 for a Deluxe room, a 26.5-square meter bedroom that can hold up to three people. Another disappointment came when I surfed the Internet (using my personal SMART Bro) and checked Sulo Hotel’s website. The website revealed that the hotel has an ongoing promo wherein a triple occupancy bedroom only costs PhP2,009. The promo is in effect if you book from Dec. 15 onwards. When did I book our room? Dec. 1, thinking that the hotel would be sold out if we booked a little bit later.
Room 127 is okay. I don’t think that this was worth PhP4,500 though. One, there was only one toothbrush when we arrived and I had to call housekeeping to request for one more. There was also only one bottle of water (complimentary drinks) but I just didn’t bother with getting the second bottle.
Two, the hotel is quite old and anyone can tell that, judging by the chipped-off bathroom sink.
Three, the fridge is also in need of replacement. The inside door lacked a grill that would keep water from falling.
Fourth, there was no New Year’s activity but hubby said I shouldn’t expect much from a three (or four) star hotel.
The only redeeming value of the hotel is the bed, which was quite comfortable. We also maximized the money we paid for by charging all our mobile phones and using our laptop for several hours. Hah!
And of course, it provided me with protection from the smoke and dust from firecrackers.
Come Dec. 31, 2009, we will definitely not go back to Sulo Hotel to spend New Year’s Eve. I’m hoping hubby and I can spend it in a much better hotel, where the money we will shell out would be worth it. I also had to keep in mind that I’m spending time with my husband, which is what’s important.
Happy New Year to all!
Tagged internet, new year's eve, quezon city, smart bro, sulo hotel, wi-fi
SMART is not so smart
For the last two weeks, I’ve been trying to check the balance of my SMART Gold’s postpaid account. Three times a week, I would text BILL? to 211 in the hopes that I will know how much I need to pay the next paydays.
Lo and behold, I still haven’t checked my balance yet. Each time I text 211, I get the same auto-reply, “This transaction is currently unavailable due to ongoing system enhancements. Thank you for bearing with us.”
Fed up that I still haven’t checked it (the hard copy of the billing statement hasn’t arrived either), I called *888 to inquire.
For two consecutive times, and to my much consternation, I was automatically put on hold for at least 15 minutes. The first time I called *888, I hung up because my ears were hurting. The second time I called, I was still on hold even though I already chose the option “Lost cell phone.” This was terribly annoying and inconvenient. If some unscrupulous cell phone robber really took my cell phone, he could have made at least PhP1,000-worth of pasa load because it would take me a long time to have the line cut off.
And then there’s my SMART Bro account. The cutoff of my SMART Bro is every 25th of the month. And because I registered my SMART Bro online, I can access the billing statements via http://smart.com.ph/Corporate/Support/Smart+Bro+Online.htm
In the previous months, I was able to view my billing statements three to five days after the cutoff. But it’s already Dec. 4, almost 10 days after the cutoff, but SMART Bro still hasn’t updated my billing online.
Really, is this a smart way to treat SMART’s customers?
Tagged *888, 211, bill, cell phone, pasa load, postpaid account, smart bro, smart gold