Last year I went on a vaction with my relatives in the states. They had a DSL connection with SBC which was very good. No disconnections for the 3 months that I was there. As with everybody else, once you go FAST (meaning DSL fast) you never go back. Prior to my US trip, I was Try-Isis Platinum subscriber, (they also have a lockin period, but they waived mine even if I dont have complaints on their service), so when I got back I immediately applied for a DSL connection.

My first choice actually was Globe, second Zpdee and third was anyone else available (PLDT is not included) The first two companies is not available in our area, which was quite odd since I live in Sta Mesa, Manila and if there is anyone who could afford DSL, im sure you can find a LOT of them in our area. How about myDestiny? I had a preconceived notion at that time that their service was lousy and unreliable. A lot of my friends in college who resides in the LasPinas/Alabang area had bad experiences with them, also our neighbor here in Sta Mesa has nothing but negative things to say about them. Ofcourse now, I heard their service had improved, they now provide the best bang for the buck broadband connection according to some.

And so I was stuck with no other alternative, I had reluctantly signed up with smart, hoping that I could be one of the few subscribers who could boast in online forums of a flawless connection along with a screen caps of my bandwidth tests.

This is where my beef with smart begins. I go to SM centerpoint to sign up. When i got there the lady asked for two ID’s. Then she asks me to have it photocopied, which as far as i am concerned, I shouldnt be doing especially when I see a photocopy machine in their office. I had to look for a photocopy machine just to fulfill their requirement. I forked over the P1500+ P988 first month advance. Then the lady asked me to call a specific number to tell them that Ive already paid. Again, shouldnt the Smart people be the one to do this, for godsakes, I just gave you 2500.

So I call the number (which was for the canopy delivery) it took atleast 3 days for it to arrive. Then when I received it, they again asked me to call smart to inform them that I already have the equipment with me. I may not be an operations efficiency expert but i took up 3 units of engineering production management, and from what Ive learned, this smarts “sistema” is not efficient.

So the installer came, they were hinting that I need to add an extra tubo for 500 bucks. Since I just spent 2500, and the thought of parting ways with another 500 was excruciating. I declined their offer and proceeded in saying that Ill just observe for a while, ill just call them when ive deccided to add an extra tubo. The contractor even gave me his cellphone number so that I could contact him directly without having to pass through all of Smart’s red tape.

I got connected in january, first couple of weeks, iwas averaging 120-140 kbps. I send a couple of emails which promptly bounced back after a few minutes. Youve got to be kidding me! where in the world can you find an ISP whos email would immediately bounce back to you because they can not handle the volume of emails coming to them. Speaks volume doesnt it? In the event that your email does go through though, dont hold your breath, they might not answer you at all. I had just sent their customer service department two weeks ago, the gist of the email was essentially the same, until now no reply. You’d probably ask why I didnt I just call, during that time i dont think they had the call queing system yet. So I would consistently get busy tones. Also have anyone of you tried leaving a voice message? Guess what? It doesnt work either.

Sometime in february, a much publicized system upgrading was being done by smart. They informed us to expect a somewhat diminished quality of service. But am i not getting crappy service from the start? Or are they stuck in a fantasy world were all is well with their subscribers?

March and April were good months. I was even congratulating myself for beleiving in my gutfeel , that smart would eventually improve and they are just suffering from birth pains.

May is the start of another saga in my roller coaster smart wifi experience. I began experiencing intermittent connections. I couldnt even have a decent 30 minute conversation with relatives in the states using skype. This intermittent connection then morphed into frequent 30 minute to 1 hr downtimes. Its useless to call their tech support, because by the time I get connected, which is about 30 to 40 mins ( i timed it), the connection would go back on and they would have nothing to fix. Then finally last friday, the huge downpour knocked out my internet connection for good. I was hoping at that time that it was only because of the rain and everything would be back to normal the next day. To my surprise it wasnt, until now I have no internet connection. Im back in the stone age, using dial up internet. I called their tsr, after going through their script, the girl i was talking to decided to refer me to higher level support. The guy I was talking to asked me when they could send the contractors to check my connection, I shot back at him “ASAP”. The reply was “Ok sir, Ill check if there is a slot available for Sunday”…. “Im sorry sir but the only availble slot is on Wednesday” I agreed but I asked him first what time would they come by, he could not give a precise time. Do they expect us to stop everything were doing and wait for them to show up (mind you sometimes they dont). I told him Ill be home only in the morning since I have to attend to something in the afternoon. So in short it looks like they wouldnt be able make it on wednesday.

Im fed up with this company, the things they do to their subscribers is like highway robbery. The fact is, broadband is getting cheaper by the day and we should expect nothing but the best from one of the country’s top telco. If sun cellular was able to improve its service (which i beleive is a more expensive undertaking owing to the fact they have more than a million subscribers, why cant smart funnel in some of its resources to Smart bro and save itself from further embarrassments. I cant wait to get out of my contract and switch to another broadband provider.

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