Globe Telecom: Customer service… hilo?!

IS IT fate? Or is it coincidence?

At that very moment that I had given up on Globe Telecom’s customer service — specifically its Twitter engagement — this item comes in to my Facebook timeline:

the grand announcement from Globe… click to see their press release

Naturally I was surprised. No… shocked, dumbfounded… just plain… ugh

To quote Globe’s press release: Globe was awarded Best Customer Experience for its innovative customer service program that harnesses the power of social media. Globe launched a social media strategy geared at significantly changing the way the company provides customer service through social networking site Twitter in a manner that is engaging, meaningful, and personal. This strategy created an avenue for honest and sincere communication, enabling the brand to proactively build lasting relationships with customers through their social networks.

Part of the strategy is to also transform the company’s social media presence to be the right customer service channel for end-to-end support, which includes hand-picking online specialists with a unique personality and having them monitor the official Globe Telecom Twitter account 24/7, defining what customer service should be.

With this, Globe achieved its goal to deliver a state-of-the-art customer relationship management system through social media. The company has provided a seamless online communication process that caters to its growing Twitter audience. Through an innovative approach to customer engagement, Globe continues to delight and gain the loyalty of subscribers by means of personalized communication and dedicated customer service.

Rewind to a few years back, back before Facebook and Twitter… back before social media took over texting as the communications medium. For all these years I quit all subscriber or post paid services from all telecoms simply because I hated dealing with customer service. They kept me on the line with that stupid music and ads and recorded messages that they would get back to me shortly only to cut me off after forever; they treated me with the utmost disrespect for one who was paying their salaries and; their guaranteed action and satisfaction rating left much to be desired.

And the reasons for dealing with them are almost always the same: billing problems, service inadequacies, lack of action…

So all these years I used a prepaid account. You simply chuck the service (or SIM card)  if you don’t want it.

Fast forward to today, I’ve found that having a regular mobile phone for calls and texts and a separate decent sized android smartphone for social media, email and internet access as a good combination for my mobile work lifestyle. All still prepaid of course. The smartphone has WIFI and dual SIM features which gave me the choice of the best online access  available.  And that includes harnessing the awesome GPS features of apps like WAZE and Google Maps as well as the MMDA’s traffic monitor while out on the road.

I’ve been using Globe’s wireless broadband service Tattoo dominantly because it interlocks with the rest of my lifestyle, like loading the prepaid service through my bank’s online access. Made it all the more easy and practical.

But in the past year service has just deteriorated. It became slow, and they explained this was because of their systems upgrades. But in the past three months it has become so unbearably slow that I had to just complain… call it ranting if you will. But it was too much. Productivity had gone to almost zero.

This caught the eye of Globe’s Twitter operators — oh, excuse me, Globe’s AWARD-WINNING Twitter operators — who decided to engage me in that social media platform. So first @talk2globe followed me on Twitter.

Then got a message from @KenofGlobe asking me what my phone model was. I thought it was a weird question since it was their service I had a problem with (and also my wife and some other friends and relatives) and not my phone. But I answered him anyway. I said it was an android smartphone. He insisted on knowing the brand, which I thought was, again, weird. The following is their award winning response, and our exchange:

The link Hero was referring to was some sort of FAQs on Globe’s service and what was possibly wrong… but none of them applied to my case because my phone was connecting to their service, except that it was so slow that the servers I was accessing — facebook, twitter, bank… whatever — would eventually give up.

But no, the issue it seemed was with me, the customer, and not with them, the service provider.

 

So this Hero insists that I use procedures and fixes not applicable to my case. It was like talking to a thick, cold concrete wall.So at this point I decided to do a screen capture on my answer to Hero’s tweet using Globe to show what was actually happening. At this point I don’t think it registered in his thick skull that I was exchanging tweets with him via cable internet/WIFI and not through Globe…

 

But sadly, not. He didn’t get it. So I decided to play around with Hero just for my own sanity… also to check if I was tweeting an actual person and not an automated moron… you know, like the ones that write to you and say “this is a computer generated letter, no need to reply.”

After everything… not being able to get anything done on Globe and telling him (insulting him?) that I was tweeting him on my Smart line, he wanted me to send him 3 speed test results. Hahahahahahaha… I simply gave up after that.

Meanwhile, back on facebook I just had to react this, their award-winning service press release to which, apparently, people of no small consequence agreed with me.

It’s 2014… are we better off than we were last year?

Oh, and Smart, Sun, PLDT, Maynilad, Manila Water, Meralco, PAL, Cebu Pacific, Air Asia, whoever else… even Malacañang and Congress… just because this is Globe-centric doesn’t mean we’re not keeping our eyes on you. This goes out to you guys as well:

WE PAY YOU! YOU FIX! OKAY?!