GLOBE FAIL, PART 2

Not a food post, but one that concerns a number of us.

I have an iPhone 4 that I purchased myself and I have been using it with my Globe subscription since October 2010. Around mid-2011, I noticed that the signal on my phone would drop, especially when I would enter the basement of a building or an elevator. To get reconnected, I’d had to turn my phone off and on. This became an annoyance and finally in December 2010, I took the bother of going to the Globe Business Center at the Shang Mall to have my problem fixed once and for all.

I was lucky to have been attended by Gladys Rojas. She even gave me her cell number so I could call her if I encountered any problems with my phone. She explained to me as someone who was herself an iPhone user, she had experienced the same problems that I described that day. A day or so after my visit to the Globe office, the signal on my phone improved.

Early this year, the signal went awry once again. Having had a pleasant experience at Globe’s Shang office, I went there again. This time around, I was attended by another CSR, who tried to bluff herself through my problem. It was obvious that she knew next to nothing about my problem, and I asked for a supervisor. Ms. Rojas assisted me and she changed my SIM, changed some settings on my phone and asked me for feedback. Again, she told me that my problem was unique to iPhone users. I asked why nothing was being done about this problem and she said that Globe was addressing it. For a time, the signal was good. Then it went kaput again. And again, I went to Globe’s Shang office. This time around, Raj Rendez attended to me. He gave me the same explanation: that iPhone users had been complaining about weak signals, dropped calls, unreceived text or that was shown as sent but did not reach the intended recipients. Again, he promised to keep me updated on the progress of my complaint. On January 26, 2012, he sent me a text telling me that he had endorsed my complaint to technical and that he would keep me posted on any progress. So far, I have not heard from him again. On February 2, I texted him for a progress report because my connection problem persisted. I did not receive a reply.

In the evening of February 3, 2012, I was in Trinoma and my signal went bonkers again, despite the fact that I did not enter any basement area or elevator. I turned my phone off and on. A little while later, I received a call from my sister, wondering why I had not texted or called back, or why my number had been unreachable since the evening of February 1, 2012, after my Mother had an accident. This really upset me. For two days, I was clueless as to what had happened to my Mother, because of Globe’s continuing failure to provide me the service that I contracted them for. I immediately called Mr. Rendez. His phone was ringing, but he was terminating the call at each of my attempts to call him. The same went for my attempts to phone Ms. Rojas. I even texted them, informing them that their failure to update me on my long-time complaint and the failure of Globe to provide me the service that I had paid for had caused me grief.

So what does a hapless consumer like me do? On the one hand, I want to terminate my contract immediately. But what option is then open to me? Proceed to Smart, where the service is not any better? Should I file a breach of contract suit against Globe, and be a foolish David to their smug Goliath?

Today, I’d had to turn my phone off and on twice.

And the saga continues.