(GUEST POST) A break-up letter to Globe Telecoms

I am lending this space to one of my good friends, who is cutting off her long-term relationship with her mobile provider. For non-Philippine residents, a bit of a background: in this country, you have two options if you want to have a local mobile number — either go for Smart or Globe. This is a rivalry that has spanned decades and across various marketing and promotional platforms. Similar to Filipino’s loyalty to their favorite television networks, people in this country are either die-hard Smart or Globe subscribers. Yes, there might be other players but we all know that they were also belong to any of these two brands and their respective parent companies. Before I give my two cent’s worth, I am ceding this space to my friend. Let’s call her Stephanie.

*Letter edited for length purposes only

Dear Globe,

I don’t know where to start? Maybe let’s begin on the fact that I have been a subscriber of Globe way before the trend of mobile phones sky rocketed. To be exact, that was in 1999…that’s fourteen years! THAT is how long I have been loyal to you. I was even happy when, because of my loyalty, you gave me a platinum card for being a good subscriber over the years. And to further prove to you my loyalty, I even got three (3) post paid accounts under my name. I even convinced my family to ditch the competitor and switched to Globe services. Mind you, we are a big family.

Over the years, you started to change. When you revoked my Platinum membership reasoning out that my consumption does not exceed a certain amount, I let go. Yes, I was disappointed, I thought my loyalty to you over the years earned me that privilege. Yet, I shrugged off that incident — rules change, right?

And even when I started hearing bad things about you, even friends trying to convince me that the other networks is better, I still stuck by you. I have a habit of being loyal to a brand… Call me old school but that is how I am.

I didn’t know that this was just the beginning. Early this year, I noticed that upon receiving my billing, during the course of several months, indicated was an outstanding balance from previous pay cycles. At first, I ignored it, thinking that the succeeding billing cycles will be corrected. But I was wrong. Soon three (3) billing cycles have passed–and lo and behold–I still have outstanding balances. How this could be? When I have always been paying you in full and on time?

Searching for answers and more than willing to give you a chance to explain your side of the story, I decided to call your customer service. So much for fast, efficient service–I had to wait 45 minutes before a customer agent took my call. His name is Joe Peñaflor. His shift according to him starts at 8PM to 5PM, from Monday to Friday. Nonetheless, I was grateful that a human will be addressing my concern.

I explained to Joe my problem, to which he replied that “they” apologize for any inconvenience that I have gone through. Over the course of our conversation, I started to feel that he was listening halfheartedly to what my problem was. This made me mad and upset. I told Mr. Peñaflor that he was hired by Globe Telecoms to actually be sympathetic and understanding of the problems of their clients. I understand that was the reason he was being paid his daily rate! I pointed this out to him, and he had the gall to tell me that it was because I was just repeating myself over and over again. I flared up. How dare he! I told him that the reason why I kept on repeating myself is that he is not addressing my concerns at all. Frustrated, I asked him that if I paid what was indicated in the bill, will I still expect the same problem? He said no. He assured me that all my billings will be correct.

A month later, I received my Globe statement, I still have an outstanding balance. The due date was July 15, I paid July 9. But according to the Customer service agent that I spoke to, system has reflected my payment on July 17. How is that even possible! I paid through a bank. To add further insult to injury, I waited 45 minutes AGAIN just to be able to talk to a customer service agent.

I’ve had enough. Because of this, I will start terminating all my postpaid accounts. Because of the rudeness of Joe Peñaflor, who can’t seem to be bothered to listen to your customers, I will make it a mission to convince people to change their post paid accounts to another network. Hence, I am guest blogging on this post and I will seek other friends who will be glad to publish my post.

Globe, because of your very rude and inconsiderate customer service agent, JOE PEÑAFLOR, you will start losing accounts. Accounts that have been loyal with you for more than 10 years.

I feel sorry for you, I thought you were different, it turns out you’re just the same as any other company. Uncaring.

Your now soon-to-be ex-subscriber

I am also a Globe subscriber, and fortunately (touch wood), I have yet to experience what my friend went through. The last problem I had with this company is that I wasn’t able to receive my billing for the last two months, but thankfully this has been resolved. I don’t know what will happen — maybe I’ll ask Stephanie if she indeed cancelled all her postpaid lines. I know this woman — she has the patience and loyalty of a saint. For her to reach this boiling point, then Globe definitely pushed her to her limits.

What made this more timely is that based from the recently released studies and performance tests by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), Smart is edging out Globe across all five parameters of service tests.Of course, Globe questioned the results of the bench marking tests, but horror stories experienced by loyal subscribers such as that of my friend, has a way of underlining a really bad customer service experience.