A post in msforums.ph gave me a lead to this recorded conversation of an irate customer allegedly calling up a PLDT MyDSL customer service representative(CSR). I can’t completely verify the authenticity of this conversation, but I do have my own experiences with PLDT’s customer service (or the lack of it).
Warning: The conversation contains words not suitable for young audiences.
I’ll tell you my experience with PLDT:
We’ve once lost our phone line with PLDT for 5 days. It was so big a hassle since not only were we using the phone line for calls, I was still in dialup then so our internet was out as well.
I’ve called 171 (or was that 173?) for 4 consecutive days but no lineman came — they were always busy doing service somewhere else and they can’t be sure when they’d be available. On the 5th day, I did the “irate caller” act and told the CSR on the other line to tell me where the lineman lives so I can pick him up myself. Only after that call did a lineman arrive to check on our line.
Fortunately I held myself together enough so that I didn’t need to swear.
I do not know if it should take an irate caller to produce prompt service from PLDT. But that’s my experience so far.
No one can ever justify the guy’s using of the PI word for his call. But if you’ve ever been in a dire situation, can anyone guarantee that they will have no similar emotional reaction? Properly trained CSRs should understand that once a customer uses the PI word it means that frustration is setting in. It’s the job of CSRs to appease such people, and to make them feel that they are properly being acknowledged.
I’ll tell you of a good CSR story:
The past 4 days we’ve lost our internet connection with Destiny. What does the CSR do? She goes out of her way to call me up on my cellfone (last Thursday), informed me of repairs being made to the signal amplifier in our area, assured me that it will be up soon, and then requested me to call them up once the internet went back up so that they could issue rebates for my account. When it went up again yesterday, they called us up before I could, asking us if everything was okay and again assuring us that they will check their systems for our downtime so that they could issue proper rebates.
See the difference? With PLDT CSRs, it’s always someone else’s problem. It’s always “we don’t have control of the situation.” And when the guy was asking for rebates the CSR told him to call 171. With Destiny, the CSR went out of its way to appease me.
So in the end it’s not about who sweared or cursed or what not. It’s about the responsibility of CSRs to go out of their way to appease their irate, frustrated customers. And the customers deserve that. They pay for these services. They cannot even disconnect from PLDT MyDSL without having to have some exhorbitant fee attached with a disconnection notice in their phone bill.
As far as my book goes that’s tantamount to extortion. And CSRs, as frontliners, have to assure these frustrated customers that they are not being extorted in any way, to appease their frustrations, and to assure prompt action, or at least assure them that they’ll make up for the lost service in some way.
15 responses so far ↓
1 bugsybee // Oct 15, 2006 at 7:23 pm
Hi Jon. A friend forwarded that recorded conversation to me and, just like you said, there’s no justification for the PI word. Maybe it was frustration but it should have ended at that - this guy was out of control and went out-of-bounds. Though we pay for the services that they give us, I believe there are other more ways to let them know how frustrating their service is/was, Tirahin na lang ang service. Kawawa naman ang operator - operator lang sila, di nila hawak yung operations, repairs, or whatever so ang labas, nagiging “shock absorber” sila when in fact, wala naman silang magawa other than to answer our calls and give us an assurance that they will try their best to do something about our troubles. Ang dapat sumagot sa mga phone calls na yan ang mismong mga supervisors ng repairs and maintenance …. grrr! ewan ko lang kung mapigilan ko ang sarili ko.
2 Jon Limjap // Oct 16, 2006 at 9:10 am
Hi bugsy,
Ang opinion ko naman talaga is ang culprit dito is yung company nung CSR — both the CSR and the customer are victims in this scenario. Victim yung customer ng substandard service, plus victim yung CSR for 2 things: lack of availability of proper information to relay to the customer, and more importantly, lack of proper training.
In most outsourced call center companies part ng training ng mga call center agents yung maghandle ng customer na mura nang mura at sobrang unreasonable. The CSR in this recording seemed not to have the slightest inkling that she might encounter such a customer. Tapos she sounded so…. naive. Parang walang wala talagang training at walang experience makipagusap sa tao. I don’t think anybody should hire CSRs like that, or at least they should’ve been given ample training.
3 PreTTy GurL // Oct 18, 2006 at 9:21 pm
yupz there CS in this scenario showed very bad customer service..
but come to think of it.. CS’s are also tired & fucked up taking all thoe kind of calls.. for sure at that time there are lot of calls waiting, na so frustraing then a complaint will add-up..
sana customers should also try to understand Cs’s feelings.. inde porket they are taking calls eh we can just curse them & blame it to them when it is that it’s not their fault..
to the CS gurl eh try as well to have a long thread of patience, inde ka pwede gurl sa Call Center kung inde mo kayang maghandle ng ganyang cal..
4 Jon Limjap // Oct 18, 2006 at 11:13 pm
PreTTy GurL,
Unfortunately for tired and fucked up CSRs, it’s really part of their job to get callers like this. Does the customer know that the CSR is having a bad day? Does the customer know that the CSR is sensitive? Does the customer care about the CSR? In all cases the answer is no. All a customer cares about is that they want their service back to normal.
One thing I learned from a management training I had before is that when you’re facing a customer, it does NOT matter what your personal sensitivities are. To the customer YOU are the company. You are that inanimate entity. To that irate caller, Kathy IS PLDT. Nothing more nothing less — and perhaps kaya siya nagmura.
Again I’m not justifying the caller’s actions but, for the CSRs that do read my blog, it’s very important to note that fact.
5 Crissy // Oct 22, 2006 at 5:21 pm
My Mom & I have experienced talking to really lousy CSRs. One time, my Mom said she’d like to talk to the supervisor and was asking for her name. The CSR didn’t even know the name of the supervisor.
There was a time last month that our phone wasn’t working for weeks. I would call them at least once a day from the office. It took them nearly 3 weeks to finish it. What really irked me was the time a CSR said “Maybe the lineman was trying to call you”…uhm, hello? our phone’s not working! Out of all the people I talked to (assuming it was a different one everyday), only one of them was helpful…he was even surprised that it’s been more than two weeks before anyone came by to check on our phone.
Hay..
6 Starirai // Oct 23, 2006 at 12:36 pm
I have been victimized by the horror story that PLDT DSL is. Based on the numerous times na tumatawag ako sa customer service nila (dahil wala ka namang ibang pwedeng tawagan), sa palagay ko, authentic ang recording kasi kabisado ko na ang spiel ng mga CSRs nila. I think this issue should be brought up to the NTC. I am no fan of Philippine bulokracy, but I am still hoping against hope that there is a chance that PLDT could get penalized for a number of things if you actually file a complaint: (1) PLDT rolled out a 24-h service that they cannot suppurt 24 hours. Magkakaroon ka ng service disruption in the middle of the night and then CSR (Infocom to be exact) will be there to take your crap pero wala silang magagawa kasi tatlo lang ata ang line men nila sa isang city so overworked na sya. Ang masakit pa, meron kaming experience sa isang PLDT technician na nagpunta sa bahay namin to fix yung tatlong araw na naming walang DSL only to tell my dad that he cannot verify if my modem is working fine kasi hindi nya mabuksan pc namin (duh!) (2) They hired the CSR agents sa Infocom so they can lie for PLDT and just eat PLDT’s crap every day. They are the hapless agents na walang magawa kundi tanggapin ang lahat ng reklamo pero hindi nila madala sa PLDT kasi taingang kawali sila lahat.
7 Lockey // Oct 26, 2006 at 3:06 pm
I’d say the CSR forgot to press the Mute button. All would have been fine.
8 Pao Ancheta // Oct 27, 2006 at 1:45 pm
Bullshit talaga ang pldt n yan, pag nasira phone mo aabutin ka n ilang linggo bago gawin ng taga pldt tapos wala ka pang rebate na makukuha, kailangan talaga isumbong na sa NTC yang ginagawa nila hindi komo monopoloize nila ang linya eh ganyan na sila, fuck them
9 Jon Limjap // Oct 27, 2006 at 11:46 pm
Lockey,
That’s true. Katangahan na lang niya na hindi niya napindot yung mute button.
Then again it goes back to what I said earlier: she wasn’t trained properly.
Crissy, Starirai, Pao,
I’m really wondering what the NTC is doing about PLDT. Kasi imposible naman na hindi pa nila alam yung nangyayari. Numerous columnists have published their woes regarding PLDT’s services this past year alone.
Makes one wonder kung malakas talaga ang kapit ng PLDT sa NTC. It won’t be surprising if that’s true: for all we know revolving door lang yung nangyayari, because I would think that some NTC officials came from PLDT.
10 Fred // Nov 1, 2006 at 2:58 pm
We also ou MyDSL connection for about a week, and had to send a strongly-worded letter before action was made.
Ssalamat nga pala, Jon, sa pagdalaw sa site. Sana ay nakabalik na ang iyong mga minamahal.
11 OFW // Nov 13, 2006 at 12:58 pm
Wala talagang kwenta ang serbisyo ng PLDT. Kawawa ang mga CSRs nila na tumatanggap ng masasakit na salita from the subscribers. The latest experienced I had with PLDT CSRs ay nakakadismaya talaga dahil ngayon marunong na silang magsinungaling. Kesyo sasabihing nawawala ka sa linya kapag cellphone ang gamit mo…imagine ibat-ibang network na ginagamit namin at talaga namang may signal pero sasabihin nilang walang signal…napakawalang kwenta talaga ang seribsyo ng PLDT..nagreklamo na din kami sa NTC pero wala ding aksyon…kung naiiritate na ang mga CSRs ng PLDT mas lalo na ang subscribers na nagbabayad on time and yet walang makuhang tamang info sa PLDT CSRs kapag may complaint…ang masasabi ko INUTIL ang pamunuan ng PLDT na ang gusto lang ay magkamal ng limpak limpak na salapi….mga GAHAMAN!
12 teodora // Sep 15, 2007 at 11:47 am
I asked my daughter in lw to call pldt angeles city to fix my landline> The answer they will see on it. After 2 days nobody came to fix it. There are times when i am not home somebody called a sking if I have paid my due account. Bullshit di ba? Why ask the customer rather than asking their office if such account had been settled already. How do my housemaid know that information.
As of now I am furious for not servicing my landline for 4 days already. I am asking for a rebate or discount of my monthly dues prorata with the number of days of no service in a month time. If this is not possible then do the action immediately once your services are called for
13 Repairman // Sep 17, 2007 at 10:56 pm
Isa po akong empleyado ng kumpanya na yan. Kung me problema ako madali ko sya masusulusyunan…kasi taga loob mismo ako. kung me tanong po kayo, sabihin nyo lang po. At sasagutin kopo.
14 Repairman // Sep 17, 2007 at 11:02 pm
email lang po kayo: repairman79@yahoo.com
15 Repairman // Sep 17, 2007 at 11:05 pm
empleyado po ako dyan kaya pwede nyo po ako tanungin patungkol sa mga problema ninyo. Kung makakatulong po me…nahihiya nga rin ako sa sinasabi nyo. Kasi empleyado ako dyan pero di ko pinagkakait na tama kayo sa hinaing ninyo. Alam nyo na? Me pinagdaanan kasi ang kumpanya na ito. Nung panahon pa ni Marcos ganyan na talaga sila. Kaya wag napo kayo magtaka.
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