Sorry Sir, We Are Now Offline

I decided to stop off at a Globe store to pay my phone and internet bill. Not wanting to stop at the  busy mall I visited a tiny out of the way store where there is usually not a crowd.

The doorman handed me a number and I sat down to wait. Number 9. Third in line. The first person was done transacting business shortly after I arrived. The next customer took about 10 minutes to process whatever he was doing.

Then number 8 was called.  I have no idea what he was doing but he pulled out all of his receipts and dumped them on the counter looking for something. Finally after about 15 minutes he pulls out a 1000 peso bill and his transaction looks as if it is almost over.  

But then the lights flashed and the roar of the air-conditioner became silent.

A power outage!  A POWER OUTAGE! 

I asked the cashier, "Did the power just go out. Will I still be able to pay my bill."

"Sorry sir, we are now offline but you can come back later."

"So I just wasted 30 minutes for nothing!!!", I shouted and stormed out.

I had to walk back to the store because I left with my numbered ticket. I will never return to that store.  It's actually not the first time this has happened. There have been a few instances when I have arrived at opening time only to be told they are offline and please come back later. 

Why don't they have generators or some way to insure they are never offline or only briefly? It's bad for the customer and the business as it stops work completely.

Globe Telecom Follies

For two years now I have been using Globe landline and WiFi services. Mostly it's been pretty smooth sailing.  Not a lot of dropped time or slow service.

But it did not start out that way.

When they first installed the WiFi it was extremely slow. Several calls to customer service got nowhere.  It was always the same old thing.  Turn off the router.  Count to ten. Turn it back on. Do a speed test and tell us the results. Tales of how they are upgrading service or working on the towers and that's the reason everything is slow. Technicians came by more than a few times and they were left scratching their heads.

Finally, after so many calls, the head technician was sent over to investigate.  He took out his tools and ran all his tests.  Same results.  So then he goes outside and takes a look at the antenna and he just about goes apopoletic.

The root cause of all the trouble was that the original installers did not install the antenna correctly.  

They installed it on the side of the house!

He called them up and ordered them over but they pleaded it was lunch time and that they would eat first and also that they needed to find a ladder long enough to reach the roof.  The excuse they gave for not properly installing the antenna was that they did not have a long enough ladder.  

The head technician was not hearing it and he threatened to call them out on it to management if they did not come over right away and properly reinstall the antenna.

So they did.

And there hasn't been any problems with the Wi-Fi since.

Do you know what this means?  It means that every single time the representatives from Globe were giving out wrong and faulty information. Working on the towers?  Turn the router on and off?  It was all bunk!  Even the technicians who came over at first to investigate but did not care to look at where the antenna was placed were spouting nonsense. One time Globe said we could get an extra 50GB a month for free.  So we signed up for it and when the new month rolled around we used up all our data very quickly. We called them asking what happened because now we have 50GB of data. Turns out we did not have 50GB because that program is not offered in our area! So why did they even offer it to us if it's not available?

I don't even understand why installing the antenna on the side of the house was causing problems.  Shouldn't the device still be able to pick up signals? Is the Globe Wi-Fi singnal so weak that the antenna must be on the roof?  I can use my cellphone inside the house with no problems and without having to climb up on the roof to get reception. What's up with that?