REVIEW – Our experience with Globe Telecoms customer service
Readers of The Filipino Scribe know that I have a love-hate relationship with Globe Telecoms and BayanTel through the years. We’ve been a BayanTel subscriber since 1997, and we still use the same phone number to date.
We began availing of BayanDSL service in 2012, paying P1499 per month for 3 mbps of Internet speed. Last year, Globe Telecoms completed its acquisition of BayanTel from the Lopez family. And frankly speaking, the customer service under the new management has been less than satisfactory.
For the past years, TFS have pointed out many persistent problems including the late or non-arrival of monthly billing statements, the inexplicably long waiting time during bill payments, the difficulty customers endure before getting through their hotline, the unstable Internet service, the closure of three Globe stors here in Quezon City, among others.
This month, our family had what we can describe as our worst experience as a Globe/BayanTel subscriber. We lost our phone connection from September 2 to 14. Apart from that, our Internet connection has also become highly unstable since tropical depression “Maring” affected the Metro.
The fact that our relatives from the United States can’t contact us for that long period of time bothered my Mom no end. And as a blogger, having unreliable Internet connection delays the work that I do. I contacted Globe Telecoms via Twitter by September 4, and they gave us September 12 as a schedule for the on-site repair. (By the way, contacting them via mobile isn’t easy cause the call always gets dropped and it takes too much time before an agent speaks to you.)
Because it was raining hard on that day, the technicians weren’t able to come. However, instead of rescheduling us for the next day, we were given September 18 as our new date for the repair. That’s when I decided to take the nuclear option, so to speak.
In the early hours of September 14 (Thursday), I decided to make a lengthy post about the problem through Facebook, with me tagging someone I know who works for Globe. The reaction was swift. By late morning, I was told by that contact that a high-ranking official from the company has read my post and that she has asked her staffers to look into the matter.
By afternoon, a technician finally came to our house and repaired our telephone line by replacing old cables. Two days later, another technician replaced our five-year modem, which has been blamed for the unstable Internet connection we are experiencing.
Although I appreciate the all-out attention we received from the company, I am aware that a lot of Globe subscribers who do not know people working there isn’t as lucky as we are. That is not fair. It is imperative for the company to continuously improve on their customer service. Mentioning that we’re getting P100 or P200 in deductions from our monthly bill won’t erase the fact that for every day there’s a disruption in their service, the resulting inconvenience is simply unacceptable.
For now, it appears that everything’s working perfectly again. I just hope that I won’t have to do everything that I have done in the past week or so anytime soon. Let this honeymoon period of sorts last long.
(Before I end this, I wanna thank the following people from Globe for their kind assistance and patience in attending to our family’s concern: Ms Marge Dizon, Mr. Kurt Silvano, Mr. Rence Parinas, Ms Grace, and Mr. Ramil. Apologies to the latter two for not getting their surnames.)
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