Beeps.net Updates

I went out of the country and brought my sun for roaming.
1) It was more expensive than what they said it would cost.
2) They temporarily increased my credit limit which was good but they changed it back even before they sent me the bill to settle so when they did that, my account was automatically disconnected for being over the credit limit. How stupid can their programmers be for not figuring out a way to revert the credit limit after the due date of the next cut off?
3) 2 out of the 3 customer service people i spoke to cant get what i was trying to tell them about the problem.

As regards Philips, i got a Philips S660 from sun for my brother. A few months later, it wont charge due to the fact that some parts turned out to be corroded. I brought it back and they said that it would cost me 1300+ to have it repaired even if it was still within the warranty period. Talk about a rip off right? Later on, another customer service person from sun said that there were quite a number of complaints about the Philips S660 as regards corrosion. It seems that even the simplest act of taking it into an air conditioned place for some time and bringing it out causes the Philips unit to corrode. I was also told that the LG has similar problems. I was glad that my phones are all Nokias at that point.

I am considering the cancellation of my sun service. That would at least bring down my cellphone count to 3

There are a few new mobile services that came out fairly recently. These were the mobile landlines from globe (speak and surf), Digitel (mango) and the Bayantel Span (recently renamed into the Bayantel Wireless Landline). Basically they all use the CDMA format and are basically a portable phone (some, like bayantel span, have nokia cell-phone type units) that have 7 digit landline numbers instead of the 11 digit cellular phones. The advantage of this is that you can be reached by any landline without NDD costs but still be mobile.

Globe speak and surf has been getting a lot of complaints. These range from slow connection speeds, expensive startup costs (7000+), 995 monthly cost, long wait for activation and problems with texting.

Digitel’s Mango doesn’t seem to be very well marketed. Very few have heard of it and they are slow in rolling out those Base stations and thus the network coverage is very limited.

I personally got a Bayantel Span because of the larger network, cheaper units (therefore, cheaper startup), delivered to you pre-activated, and good monthly costs (php 699). It also has unlimited calls to landlines, unlimited texting to other bayantel phones, cheap internet rates and pretty good customer service.

You can check out the bayantel Span’s features and phones at http://span.web.ph.

Makati, marikina, the fort and manila signals are high. In Cubao, i have been getting 1-3 bars but it is sufficient to make calls and receive them. I got cut once while travelling along edsa but i was able to reconnect immediately.

Oh, one good thing about span is that they offer a 15 day money back guarantee.  I guess, after reading the negative feedback from globe’s service (im not surprised), i made the right choice in getting Span.

Nokia is replacing problematic BL-5C batteries that are made by a specific manufacturer and made at a certain date. Please check the link below to get instructions on how to check your battery if it needs to be replaced. It also has a serial number checker to see if it is specifically one of those that they need to replace.

http://batteryreplacement.nokia.com/batteryreplacement/en/

Sadly, 2 of my phones use that battery and one needs to be replaced.

Details are in the article i posted called Per Second Calls. Anyway, it is irritating that they keep coming up with promos that may seem nice but mistakes will get costly. At least with smart and bayantel, it is all unlimited. Speaking of which, i’ll write about bayantel here soon.

My friend had her cell stolen last saturday. It got snatched. She had a prepaid smart sim on her phone in that bag. We know that it is possible to have a sim programmed with the old number and even the existing load through smart (globe prepaid users do not get this privilege). We got the affidavit but we failed to get a replacement because we couldn’t find a proof of ownership. She has lost her PUK unblock code slips or the card that came with the sim.

Moral of the story is: keep those sim packs and PUK codes.

We got a smart multi line sim to figure out where a person harassing us is getting our number. One number was given to office people and another was given to family and friends. Anyway, we had trouble with the prepaid line. We could not pasa load the account. After 4 visits to a smart wireless center, they were able to figure things out. The multi-line sims cant be switched by, in cases of Nokia phones, pressing the # key for a long time. You have to dial in to a number to switch and dial to another number to check which line is active. Easy enough to program into a phone but a little bit of a hassle as compared to long pressing a key. Still, the trick worked. We localized the leak and in the process of tracing the S.O.B.

When globe doubled their rates for unlimited text, i decided to just select days when i will use it.

The first time i tried it, they only activated it at midnight, 6 hours after i wanted to use it. They did change it though. Now it is 24 hours as soon as an hour after requesting. However, i didnt know that the unlimited text day and the nighttime thing was only for prepaid! Post paid users are only allowed the unlimitxt 20/40/80 which was for 24 hours. I dont intend to send all day.

Why are they being nasty to post paid users? Is it because were stuck with you till the contract expires?!?

For prepaid, use unlitxtd15, unlitxtn10 and send to 2870. Everybody can avail of the 24 hour thing by sending unlitxt20 or 40 or 80 to the same number.

Just got off the phone from talking to the Smart Customer Service Hotline. There were a few things i learned.

Messages will only get through if there is at least a 3 bar signal. If you dont have it and a message comes in, goodbye message. Sad to say, its not like globe who will somehow try to keep it in their servers until it does get sent.

If you have leftover credits and it is about to expire, forget loading a new load in an attempt to extend your credits. It wont work. Your leftover credits will still expire at the set date despite your new load. You should just use up everything or pasaload everything to another sim but that will only be good for 3 days and you either use it up or pass it again.

Side note, a friend, a smart reseller, went to smart to buy a 300 peso load in an emergency. They said if it is just for personal use, they would rather that you dont use your reseller status to get a discount. Sheesh! I know business is business but if you cant even treat your resellers well, i dont think you will succeed.

Sun seems to have no problems. All my messages are received. I hope they keep up the good service and constantly improve.

An alert sent by Txtpower is that there is a consolidated bill on telecoms being drafted. The title is: An Act to Regulate the Operation of Telecommunication Sevices to Protect the Rights of Celluar Phone Subscribers. This is the consolidated bill from HB 3407, 2654 & 1485. However, they say that only the telecom people were invited while the bill was being drafted. Being in the Philippines, i suspect that some pockets were lined and only the Telecom’s interest will be served. I hope and pray that i am wrong.

Some people in an egroup of mine suddenly discovered that Globe was charging them for balance checks when they call 222. No notice was sent until today. Here’s an email from mike:

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Looks like Globe just wised up:

I got an advisory just a few minutes ago -

“Starting May 13, balance inquiry by dialing 222 will be charged P1. To inquire balance for FREE, text BAL and send to 222. Thank you.”

Mike
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Im sure millions have been charged from people’s accounts for the late announcement. I wonder what the Globe Management are thinking. Im sure people will soon realize what this company is doing. I hope they do shape up though, for the sake of the Filipinos who are still with them.