The trouble with SmartBro is not the speed of its internet connection but the speed of its troubleshooting.

I’m a new SmartBro subscriber and had SmartBro installed in my father’s house a month ago in San Fernando, La Union (The service contractors came at around 8:30 p.m. on a Saturday, imagine that). A week later, the internet connection became errant and then later on there was no more connectivity; if there was any connection, it would only be for a couple of hours in the wee of morning.

Everyday for two weeks I kept calling SmartBro’s hotline to request somebody to fix the problem. I asked the hotline representatives to have the contractors come on a specific time of the day (in the morning) as I was using the connection for my home office. The service contractors came twice unannounced though, without texting they were coming to fix the connection (and always after 5 p.m., when I was out). Attempting to solve the problem, the service contractors said that the problem was with my computer and that I need to have it reformatted. Without leaving a report behind, as I was out, they said they were coming back the next morning to speak to me. Of course they didn’t the next day. I was ready to have my pc reformatted and have another one configured to Smartbro. I needed to speak to the contractors because it seemed that my pc was running well with a Dial-up why doesn’t it with SmartBro?

Frustrated, I called the hotline and asked the customer service for the Smart Wireless contact number in our area (the number doesn’t work). We then went to the Smart Wireless office. The personnel there promised to have the contractors fix the problem. For the nth time they didn’t.

I told someone from the hotline that I was going to write SmartBro a “Letter of Complaint, with a Demand for Disconnection and Refund” and that even if I have a one-year lock in period, any pretermination of the contract would not amount to my breach of the contract with Smart (instead it is the other way around). Someone from Smart Wireless in Manila called to apologize and promised to send someone fix the problem on a Saturday. Again, nothing happened.

Monday, I called the hotline to say I’ll make good my intention to preterminate the contract and that if everyone in our place hears of this misfortune, I’m sure it’s bad PR and advertising for SmartBro.

Finally, another set of contractors came and fixed the connection by replacing the cables. Yun lang pala ang problema bakit it takes too long for Smart to troubleshoot? It seems that it doesn’t care for the subscriber once he has signed the contract, thinking it could get away with the so-called “lock in period of one year”. Well, “lock in period for a year” doesn’t spell a thing if SmartBro itself can’t perform its end of the contract. We ain’t stupid.

Popularity: 2% [?]