PLDT Sucks

PLDT Sucks!

Our broadband service was interrupted last Saturday. I thought it was just because of the heavy rains. Power was also interrupted at home so I didn't worry too much about the internet service interruption.

On Sunday evening, we still didn't have internet connection.

So I called Smart Bro to check. This is where it gets interesting...

I hate those friggin' idiots! The first thing they asked was If I had paid my account! They always assume that it was the customer's fault - that customers do not pay their bills so they get cut off. Presumptious little pricks!

It turned out that yes, they indeed cut off our connection on the ASSUMPTION that we haven't paid our bills. It just so happend that we pay using credit cards and that the payment goes to some other office of theirs and that it's their internal communications that's inutile. But we have paid our bills in advance - one month in advance and we were still treated that this way.

The saga isn't over at this point... not by a long shot.

Smart Bro finally gave us an activation key to be able to reconnect to the service. We were able to look at our transaction history.

To our surprise, we found out that for the last 2 months, we were being given Plan 999 with 354Kbps internet speed. This wasnt what we applied for when we got the service from myDSL (before they transferred us to a subsidiary, Smart Bro). We were supposed to get the plan 1995 with 700+Kbps from myDSL! We were cheated out of valuable bandwith! That's not the worst of it. All this time that Smart Bro has relegated us to plan 999, we were still being billed for the plan 1995!

We were cheated out of bandwidth and were being billed for the higher plan!!! Our contract says we are to get plan 1995 but we got only 999 for the past 2 months. Plus, we were billed for plan 1995 even though they gave us plan 999! This isnt only breach of contract, its also fraud!

Having established these though wasn't even half of the story. Having pointed these out to the guy on the phone (presumably a call center representing Smart Bro) we were given the run around as per usual call center tactics. (I also hate call centers!)

We are demanding that the 2 months in question be reversed in terms of money paid since we were getting only plan 999. Plus, we wanted the plan reverted back to 1995 as per contract.

Good luck to us on that one. We are just customers, they're a big conglomerate. What power do we have?

At least I can say F**K YOU PLDT!!!

.... oh and we are now in the process of applying for Globelines Broadband internet.

The Modern Man by George Carlin

I'm a modern man. A man for the millennium, digital and smoke-free, a diversified, multicultural, post-modern deconstructionist, politically, anatomically and ecologically incorrect; I've been up-linked and downloaded; I've been inputted and outsourced; and all the upside of downsizing and all the downside of upgrading. I'm a high-tech lowlife, a cutting-edge, state-of-the-art bi-coastal multi-tasker and I can give you a gigabyte in a nanosecond.

I'm new wave but I'm old school, and my inner child is outward bound. I'm a hot-wired, heat-seekin’, warm hearted cool customer, voice activated and biodegradable. I interface with my database and my database is in cyberspace. I'm interactive and I'm hyperactive and from time to time I'm radioactive.

Behind the 8-ball, ahead of the curve, ridin’ the wave, dodgin’ the bullet, pushin’ the envelope; I'm on-point, on-task, on-message and off drugs. I got no need for coke and speed. I got no urge to binge and purge. I'm in the moment, on the edge, over the top but under the radar; a high-concept low-profile medium-range ballistic missionary; a street-wise smart-bomb; a top gun bottom feeder.

I wear power ties, I tell utter lies, I take power naps, I run victory laps. I'm a totally on-going big-foot slam dunk rainmaker with a proactive outreach. I'm a raging workaholic, a working rage-aholic - out of rehab and in denial.

I got a personal trainer, a personal shopper, a personal assistant and a personal agenda. You can't shut me up, you cant dumb me down coz I'm tireless and I'm wireless. I'm an alpha male on beta blockers.

I'm a non-believer and an overachiever; laid back but fashion forward; up front down home, low-rent, high maintenance; super sized, long-lasting, high-definition, fast-acting, oven-ready and built-to-last. I'm a hands-on, footloose, knee-jerk, head case; prematurely post-traumatic.

But I'm feeling, I'm caring, I'm healing, I'm sharing; a supportive, bonding, nurturing, primary-care giver. My output is down but my income is up. I take a short position on a long bond and my revenue stream has its own cash-flow.

I read junk mail, I eat junk food, I buy junk bonds, and I watch trash sports. I'm gender-specific, capital intensive, user-friendly and lactose intolerant.

I like rough sex, I like tough love. I use the F word in my email and the software in my hard drive is hard core - no soft porn. I eat fast food on the slow lane. I'm toll-free, bite-size and ready to wear and I come in all sizes.

A fully-equipped, factory authorized, hospital tested, clinically proven, scientifically formulated medical miracle. I've been pre-washed, pre-cooked, pre-heated, pre-screened, pre-approved, pre-packaged, post-dated; freeze-dried, double-wrapped, vacuum-packed and I have an unlimited broadband capacity.

I'm a rude dude but I'm the real deal; lean and mean; cocked, locked and ready to rock; rough tough and hard to bluff. I take it slow, go with the flow I ride with the tide, I got glide in my stride. Drivin’ and movin’ sailin’ and spinnin’, jivin’ and goovin’, wailin’ and winnin’. I don’t snooze so I don’t lose; I keep the pedal to the metal and the rubber on the road. I party hearty and lunch time is crunch time. I’m hangin’ in, there ain’t no doubt, and I’m hangin’ tough, - over and out.

Doldrums

For the last three weekends, I've been cooped up at home with nothing to do. I haven't been to the movies in ages. I've never been to the mall except to park my car for a long time (I work near a mall and park the car there every workday). You could say, I have no social life right now.

I've been trying to rationalize this phenomenon for some time now. Does this mean I have no friends? Well, at least no friends that are physically able to meet me. They're all galivanting all over the world.

The few friends I have here in Manila are too busy with their lovelives to even bother having drinks. One even told me that he has changed (he no longer drinks to get drunk. He's now a social drinker) due no doubt to his new girlfriend's rules. Why do women fall in love with us and then try to change us? Doesn't that defeat the purpose for which they fell in love with us in the first place?

The last drink I had was last Thursday, but I don't consider that as real "drinking". It was work afterall since it was a company sponsored cocktail reception (My boss' rule #1 for the cocktail - don't get drunk).

I've also exhausted all possibilities of online interaction (purely for chat purposes, nothing else). I've managed to antagonize the few remaining people demented enough to chat with me. Hey, can I help it if i'm opinionated? I also relish the fact that I can disagree with anyone, whatever his or her position is given any topic under the sun.

So nowadays, I spend weekends cooped up in the house, surfing the net, trawling for porn on which I've lost any semblance of sensation, physical or otherwise. I am afraid I might not regain the full use of this desensitized piece of anatomy.

I also watch a lot of TV nowadays. I've yet to succumb to watching koreanovelas or pinoy superhero serials. I'm desperate enough to try. But I try to stick to Discovery channel and JackTV.

On weekends, I don't make up my bed anyomre since I'm spending too much time in it. It's so comfortable watching TV and surfing the net with one's feet up and a comfortable pillow under one's neck and head.

Maybe I'll start crocheting next weekend.

Un-Christian

I got this from the August 7 special issue of Time Magazine...

In an article titled "Keeping the Faith" by Tim McGirk writes,

Wajeeh Nuseibeh has one of the world's more unusual jobs: his business card reads: 'Custodian and Door-Keeper of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.' The Sepulcher, in Jerusalem, is Christianity's holiest shrine. Believers say it houses Golgotha, the site where Jesus Christ was crucified, the Stone of Unction on which Christ lay, and the tomb from which he rose again. Yet, for centuries, the guardianship of the Sepulcher has lain with a Muslim family whose latest representative is Wajeeh. "Nobody in the whole world" he says, "is alloweded to open the church but me."

Imagine that! a Muslim is the only person allowed to be custodian of the holiest shrine in all of Christendom. McGirk further writes,

Roman Catholics, Greeks and Armenians own 70% of the property. Each group professes to be the rightful heir to the shrine. They loathe one another in a most un-Christian fashion, contesting every angel's hair-breadth of holy space inside the cavernous basilica. A few years ago, some 500 Greek and Franciscan monks brawled for hours, tossing benches and clubbing each other with giant candlestick holders, all because one sect might have tresspassed on another's sacred property. Centuries of suspicion and envy have made it so only a Muslim can be trusted with the Sepulcher's keys.

Think about it.