Globe signal has been terribly weak early last year due to their infrastructure upgrades. Globe has been my only mobile phone carrier since 2001. I transferred to them from my old Smart line which I had since 1997, a company issued phone, not because Globe was any better than Smart, but because most people I know are on the Globe network, and I will save more money staying on the same network.
I never wanted to get a second line as my usage has greatly diminished from my old IDD calling days. My Globe bill has a credit limit of P15,000 which was way beyond the P2,500 limit and yet I have been diminishing my Plan from 10 years ago where I usually spend P10,000 a month for phone calls now down to Plan 299.
I have been texting and video calling loved ones for free across the globe using Apple's iMessage. I may have spent P30,000 on my Phone, but the corresponding savings it gave me in terms of Telecom bill reduction, has been extremely rewarding and cost efficient. You can reason out that I can get the same free calls and text using Android devices, but I've been there, done that, and Apple's iOS is my preferred platform over Android. And besides, I use OS X Mountain Lion as my Operating System so the integration is way better.
And then I saw online that Smart has a Freedom Plan. It is akin to their old Plan Zero, except it was like a Postpaid Plan that works like a Prepaid line. You can text in the service that you want for a certain month, and other months that you have no usage, you actually don't have to pay anything and they will never cut the line ever even if it has no usage. So that means, even if you go outside the country on trips or vacations, you don't have to worry about keeping your local line. Wow, what a Smart idea!
So I decided to revive my old Smart line. I went to one of their branches near my residence. I quickly filled in a service request and asked if I can use my old line, to which the Representative informed me that my old line is no longer available and they use special sims for the Freedom Plan, which has phone numbers pre-assigned. Without questioning, I agreed to have the new number and I got my new sim card which was activated within a few minutes. Wow again, that was fast :D
When I got home I kept pondering at the Representative's statement saying that my old number is no longer available, so I tried calling it just to check who owns it now. And lo and behold, it was still available. So I called Smart and requested that my number be changed, they kept insisting that it was not possible.
Being the persistent person that I am. I shooted an email to Dave Fernando and Orlando Vea, Smart founders. Both emails went through, but within a few minutes I received a reply from Mr. Vea sent from his iPad, asking how I am, and that he will work on the matter, so I can get my number back. Apparently, the said number is a Special Number reserved for their Smart Infinity clients that reach monthly bills of P5,000 and above as it was classified as a vanity number falling under the 09188XXXXXX series. They said it was special and very few are left and reserved for special clients. So that was the reason why, as the other staff never informed me. They had to release the said number to the Smart Gold plan so the system will allow me to use it on my meager Freedom Plan. Mr. Vea is already the CEO of Sun Cellular at that time, although is indirectly working for Smart.
I was also curious why Dave never replied as he is closer to me, the email did get through. I have walked his office floor and talked to him a lot in the past. At Smart, all the pens get lost all the time, that I even joke around saying I'm sick of my pens getting lost that I will place property of dtf on my pens just so people will not pocket them. I was informed that he died during the Ondoy flood. Condolences to such a great man.
There is a reason why some companies succeed more than others. And it is the likes of OB Vea that companies like Smart are so successful.
No comments:
Post a Comment