Customer Service: PLDT myDSL. The worst.

Two months ago, my fiance decided to transfer to another house near my place. With this, he thought of terminating his 10-year old PLDT account since he is already leaving the area and saw some reviews that transferring to another location will take some time — really long time. But before he made a move for the termination, he thought of trying to request for transfer of location instead of cutting the subscription permanently. He’s giving PLDT a chance to prove all negative reviews wrong. He also thought, “sayang, 10 years na rin naman ako sa PLDT, wala namang naging problema.” That was THEN.

April 12 of this year, he requested for transfer of location through the PLDT website. No reply. 

April 15 he transferred to his new place. 

April 16, he called 171 to follow up his request to transfer. The CSR said she will make a request for it and the processing usually takes 2 to 3 weeks before transfer will actually occur. She also asked us what type of transfer are we getting — simultaneous, the service will not be cut and we will still be billed even if we’re not using their service; and disconnect-reconnect, which will temporarily cut the service and reconnect it once transferred to the new location. Fiance asked the CSR which is faster, she said the SIMULTANEOUS. 

And because we are in a hurry, we opted for the simultaneous, believing that it was FASTER.

We’ve been calling 171 for a week for almost everyday to follow up. We’re getting the same answer, “2 to 3 weeks pa po sir”. I told fiance to stop calling 171 and just wait for 2 to 3 weeks and if nothing happens, that’s the time to nag the CSRs again.

Come May 8, which is the start of the fourth week, we called 171 again and asked for an update. They said that the matter is already forwarded to the branch that is assigned to the area where fiance transferred. Asked when will the “real” transfer happen, “Sir/Ma’am, hindi po kasi namin maassure sa inyo kung kelan kasi wala pa pong feedback from the technical team.” OKAY. 

May 9, fiance finally decided to break up with PLDT. He called 171, requested for termination of subscription and applied for Globe Tattoo Broadband. 🙂

From then on, we’ve been calling them everyday to follow up. And guess what? The termination of subscription can not be processed because they still have to cancel the transfer of location request and we still have to pay P700+ because we still got billed for choosing the simultaneous transfer. 

171 is our everyday phone pal since then. Fiance got his Globe Tattoo Broadband connected, enjoyed his fast internet and landline plan while PLDT has not yet moved on from cancelling his request for transfer of location. Great!

May 18, finally! Oops, don’t be too excited. Finally, the cancellation of transfer request has been processed! Okay, I know we are not done yet but hey, you’ve read the story right? Of all the requests we made, this is the first that they actually finished! Now we can move on to the termination of the account.

Been calling them again EVERYDAY for status update. And we’ve been getting same shits everyday. The account is still active and the request is still in process. We’re trying to have it terminated the soonest time possible because we don’t wanna get billed again and pay for something we haven’t used.

June 4, I called, talked to a guy CSR, asked for an update, got same answer. I asked him, if we get billed again, are we supposed to pay? He said no. I answered, “so kahit isang taon pa bago niyo materminate ang account, hindi na kami magbabayad?” He said yes. End of conversation. 

June 11, (imagine, we called them everyday from May 18 to June 11. Grrr), fiance called 171. CSR Michelle got his call. When he asked about the status of the termination, she said that the request for termination was cancelled. There. The bomb exploded. He asked for another contact number where he could bring up this matter because 171 is no help. Unfortunately, the CSR said there was none but this 171. He almost threw the handset back to the unit. This. Is. War.

After an hour, I decided to call again 171. This time, it was me. John Frias got my call, I inquired, he made me wait for 3 or more minutes, got back to me and said that the line was already DISCONNECTED. He gave me a service order number, made it clear that we do not have to pay anything anymore, that if a bill comes, we’ll just have to disregard it. Disconnected? But our old number is still ringing, I said. He said, “Ma’am ok na po yun, maka-cut na po yon at kahit nagriring pa naman po sya, hindi na po kayo mabibill.” I asked him if we need to follow up or call 171 again. He said “NO.” I said bye and thanks.

My take? The service is still active. They just decided to tell us that it has been disconnected to avoid further nagging. It may already be in process but they have not completed it yet. The lady told us the request was cancelled and this guy told me that our account has been terminated. The request was cancelled and after an hour, the account was already terminated?! That was fast! PLDT, you kidding me? Maybe because they know that the process will take years and they don’t want to hear anything from us again that’s why they released a statement that it has been permanently disconnected. 

I have read a lot of same reviews regarding PLDT. And this is just one of them. Very bad. If you’re too happy and you wanted some stress? Call PLDT’s 171. You’ll never get disappointed.