cellphone service providers steal our money - the philippine experience

this is the life of a cell phone service subscriber in the philippines:

• texting (SMS) is cheap P1.00/text.
• we get a lot promotional text that we do not subscribe to
• for some of these promotional texts, we get charged for every text our cellphone receives even though we did not subscribe to it
• if we do not reply, the texts don't stop, the charges continue
• instructions on the messages say to disable them, you need to send a text reply that says "STOP", some of them charge us for asking them to stop sending us text
• some don't stop sending you texts even if you already send a "STOP" disable message to them
• some of the steps in disabling them don't even work. checking what you are "subscribed" to will tell you are still subscribed to it even though you have a disable text a few times already
• to get relief, we call customer service
• when you call customer service, you are asked to wait a few minutes as they are still serving other subscribers
• when you finally get to talk a customer service representative, she tells you you should have not subscribed to it
• we correct them and say we never subscribed to any of it in the first place
• they give you instructions on how to disable it
• you tell them you have done that a few times already but it has not worked
• she repeats again this thing about not subscribing to these services
• once again you correct them that you had not subscribed to it in the first place
• throughout the conversation she will repeat this accusation and each time you correct her until you get really pissed and order her to stop saying that as it is very irritating
• you ask what will happen to money they took from you on a service you did not ask for
• she says she will make a report and she will get back to you in 3 to 4 days
• you complain why it will take them 3 to 4 days to resolve it when everyone knows it is a problem with their service and that you are not the only one who has complained about it
• she says it will still take 3 to 4 days
• having had enough of it, you ask to speak for a supervisor
• she tells you the script - her supervisor is busy entertaining another customer
• you don't budge and tell her you will wait. she puts you on hold.
• she comes back after 3 to 7 minutes and tell you he supervisor is still busy with another customer
• you raise your voice and you say you will wait. she puts you on hold
• after a few seconds, a supervisor talks to you
• you have to repeat to the supervisor everything you said
• the supervisor repeats everything the agent told you
• you are now mad and insist she returns the money they stole from you
• the supervisor says it takes 3 to 4 days to return the money that they took from you on a service you did not ask for and did not want
• you get even more mad and you insist you want the money back now
• you tell her this has happened to you before and other supervisors were able to return your money instantly
• after some heated words, she relents and returns the money to you
• this whole session will last anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes
• this whole thing will happen again and you will once again repeat the whole thing with another agent and another supervisor

the philippine cellphone service market is mostly made up of pre-paid subscribers, around 80% to 90% of all subscribers. and most of these subscribers are ordinary people who will not have the time or the courage to talk to customer service agents to complain. and many of them most likely are not aware their money is being stolen by the cellphone service providers. sadder still is that most load up their cellphone with only P20 to P30 per day. getting an unwanted text of say 3 to 5 a day means 15% to 30% of their money is being stolen.

and that is why we love senator enrile for telling a lie for us. senator enrile is standing up for cellphone service subscribers like us. he told a lie but it's ok, we forgive him. we don't mind that as long as he helps us and stop the cellphone service providers from stealing our money. read here: http://bit.ly/jLtOH