Essential Newborn Care Protocol: a Must Know for Parents and Would-Be Parents

I tolerated PLDT's past customer service transgressions, like i) our application gotten misplaced on a supervisor's table that caused one week delay in installation, ii) misleading items (and explanations) in the application form that led to an inconvenient suspension of NDD calls, and iii) plain lack of concern for customer's needs by PLDT representatives, and it's because we've been getting reliable broadband internet service in the two months of subscription.  Read about our search for broadband service by clicking here.

But not today...I cannot just let the day pass without telling everyone about another encounter with PLDT's poor customer service.

It happened in a business center that houses both SMART and PLDT (these two being sister companies).  I found many customers already standing and a backlog obviously piling when I entered the center mid-afternoon today (not the first time I personally witnessed this, by the way).  The security guard, embarrassed with the malfunction of the machine that dispenses priority numbers, politely continued to accommodate incoming customers and keep it organized at the door.  It eventually became clear to me that it was not really a malfunction but the device probably got overwhelmed with the flow of customers as it would respond to the guard's prompting and dispense new numbers when few older numbers are called to be served.

Of course, when the service is slow and customers keep flowing in, the system gets flooded.  The contrast is so stark between these sister companies.  SMART customers get served faster as priority numbers are called with more regularity.  In fact, there was no backlog in SMART's cashier.  In contrast, PLDT's cashier (and there were two counters open, compared to just one for SMART) has backlogs that reached more than 30 customers when I arrived.

To illustrate, I got served by SMART's cashier within 5 minutes of arriving and within 15 minutes after I was transferred to SMART's Customer Service by the cashier.  So I was already finished with two transactions with SMART when my PLDT priority number was called a little under one hour of arrival!

If that was not bad enough, when I reached PLDT's cashier, I was informed that I cannot use my credit card that time as the device has been out of order since this morning.  This after waiting for almost an hour and to think that I specifically asked the guard that I am going to pay using a credit card (which was accepted with no problem at all by SMART).  As the wait was really long, I even got the opportunity to double check with a PLDT representative (who was not really pleased to answer me) to make sure that I can use my credit card and that my wait would not amount to nothing.

So all I could say in exasperation was "why didn't the guard inform me that payments using credit cards cannot be facilitated today." All the cashier could say is "try na lang ninyo uli bukas, sir".

I replied in a soft voice but not hiding my disappointment: "I waited for a long time...I waited for a long time".  She has this to add "di na kayo kailangang pumila bukas."

It's lack of concern plain and simple...and the attitude of most PLDT representative is not of service but of an official dispensing favors that the customers would be lucky to get and should be thankful for.

I've been avoiding any relationship with PLDT or with other monopolistic companies of the past ever since I had the power to purchase or subscribe. But as elaborated in my story about comparing broadband service installation, I had no choice but to settle for PLDT and now I have to live with poor customer service.