It's been 3 weeks since my phone line cum DSL line went down and until now, it wasn't yet fix. I've been calling the phone company's repair service since the 30th and I still get the same response, "Yes sir, I will report this to the repair service" or "Sorry sir but we are just the call center representatives but I will personally follow it up for you." Crap! 17 days! 17 days!! And my phone line is still out. I got so impatient about the inefficiency that I went to the branch 2 weeks ago to report my complaint and the explanation I got was that the lines were totally messed by the last typhoon. Ok, in that case, I thought that it is understandable for a certain bit of delay but when things didn't improve last week, I got so pissed that I decided to try an "alternative" method. I got hold of a line man's number and asked him point blank to fix my line in consideration for a "tip". The line man agreed and we had a deal but as thing turns out, he didn't show up. When confronted, the line man told me that the phone company is undergoing a restructuring with plans to totally "remove" the repair service department and outsource it to a third party. Guess what? Who is the third party? None other but the former company line men. Pretty bright idea indeed. Turning your employees into your contractual partners and consultants and in one swoop transform your fix cost into a variable cost since the contract line men get paid on a per phone line fixed basis. No overtime pay, no benefits whatsoever. Pretty bright (I would have done it the same way) except that their employees don't buy it! The result is that the line men are initiating a work slowdown to "voice" their protest over the scheme. Their work has grind to almost a halt as a consequence with only 10 lines repaired per day against 200 assigned per team. Talk about efficiency. Damn! I am sandwich in between a labor dispute and my phone line is held hostage by both the nincompoops who thought of the bright idea in the first place but didn’t provide a backup plan in case the entire scheme backfired and the overtly sensitive, egoistic, uncompromising line men! Because of this work slowdown, the phone company’s management has initiated a strict monitoring system, so much so that the line man I’d dealt with couldn’t “manage” to take a time off to fix my line. Damn!!! Talk about customer service. If this case were in the States, probably the Trade department would have already intervened to protect consumer interest but as it turns out, I’m in the Philippines and the only thing I can do is suffer, fume, curse, and write a blog about it!
2 comments:
17days....and counting. That i assure you. Not that I would like to fan your fumes, but, my bloody phone just got repaired last week. And that took about hmm...close to 2months! Pffft.
Anyway, you may want to try deluging them with irate mails over at customers@pldt.com.ph They'll get your message & will make up some apologetic response & promise you that they'll forward your concerns to the department concerned. *snicker*
But do you know the good thing about that? Well, at least you have proof of your communication / correspondences, so that you can charge them for the days wherein your phone's not working and reduce your phonebills.
Done that, about deluging with calls! I don't actually worry about paying the bills or not having a phone, I had other phones. It is just that I couldn't surf the net with my DSL line and I sorely itch to write something! = (
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