Tell Me Lies, Sweet Little Lies (Acknowledgment Letter from Globe)

I finally gotten a an email reply from Globe Telecoms and although they indeed acknowledge that there is a problem it says it was only last week. I can't believe that Globe Telecoms are still sending out this lies to their subscribers. If you would read from Mobility Philippines and Wifely Steps that this is not the only time lies were given out by Globe Telecoms. Until now I am still experiencing slow connection and connection time out, and reading the Globe Visibility Support Thread (Broadband On-The-Go) forum, service is not fully restored to pre-May 7, 2007 parameters.

Mobility Philippines Robin Lim is offering his services to us Visibility subscribers for free in his capacity as a lawyer to file a complaint with NTC regarding this predicament that we are all in. We need to form a group and he will be representing us. Globe Telecoms is not moving fast enough to restore it services and maybe this action is what's need for Globe to expedite their network upgrade.

One of those who posted a comment in my blog is asking if leaking this issue to the media would help in knocking some sense to Globe Telecoms people. I agree with him.

Hey What's With All This Restriction for Visibility

To those who have not subscribed to Globe Telecoms Visibility may this serve as a warning to you and for everyone else who already have Visibility read on.

First is all your outgoing mails must use their outgoing mail server(mail.globenet.com.ph) and this is kind of a hassle for those who have or their company has their own outgoing mail servers. Why is this a hassle, well for starters when you have your own or your company has its own domain (www.yourdomain.com) and usually it has its own outgoing mail server(smtp.yourdomain.com) you would need to change your email client/software settings to use mail.globenet.com.ph which is Globe's outgoing mail server whenever you use Visibility. Now if you have another provider or your office has its own provider and you will be sending emails you need to change this settings back to smtp.yourdomain.com. PLDT's WeRoam doesn't make it necessary for you to do this changes because it allows you to use your own outgoing mail server. I think other ISP's also would allow you to use your own outgoing mail server.

Second is not allowing you to use Virtual Private Networking (VPN) connection unless you are on corporate subscription. Take note that corporate subscriptions for Visibility is cheaper than personal subscription. Personal would cost 2,000.00 pesos per month whereas corporate would only be 1,700.00 per month.

I don't understand why Globe has all these restrictions when on their advertisment they say its like having your office where you are.

A Call for Action

I think its time for some action on our part as subscribers to let Globe Telecom know our grievances. Okay there's the support hotline (2199) which I think most of you like me have been calling up and telling them our present predicament and how terrible their service is. They usually give us their pre-canned reply that everything is being done to fix this problem and they would escalate it. They have been escalating it since May 7 and until now it is the problem of having a slow connection that has been escalating.

Like me most of you have been posting, reading and commenting on blogs that has the Visibility problem as their topic. We have been very patient with Globe Telecoms slow response to our current predicament but until now no solid response has been given to us and even a simple acknowledgment they can't even muster.

I don't know if you will agree with this suggestion but here it is anyway. Let us all meet at Robinson's Pioneer in Mandaluyong and as a group, we would march our way to Globe Telecoms office. I think it is about time that we haul our asses off our seats and take some actions ourselves. That way they will know that we won't take this treatment anymore and we demand some actions on their part. I know someone has suggested it already and was given a negative reply and that is the problem with our country right now all we do is complain but we don't take any action. Why don't we go there and at the very least if we have the numbers we would get notice.

Updates on Visit to Globe Telecoms

As stated on my previous post that I will be posting whatever the outcome of my dialogue with Globe Telecoms be it be good or bad news. The simple answer to the problem that all of us is experiencing at the moment is that there is not enough bandwidth to go around. Globe Telecom had and still is OVERSELLING their network capacity. This was the answer that I got from the Customer Service Representative that I talked to.

He continued to say that they have been receiving mounting complaints from subscribers experiencing the same problem as those who sent me emails and posted comments on my blog. The sad thing is that until now, although they have elevated these complaints, the network people are still not giving any feedback. All they can do is to accept the complaints and forward them to the network people.

I am asking for any suggestion from other people who is experiencing these problems with Globe Visibility on what we should do to make them these people do something about it. I was thinking that we should form a group or come as a group to their office and ask them what they are planning to do. I feel that if we go there individually, they will just give their normal pre-canned reply that they are doing everything they can.

Continuing Saga with Globe Visibility

It seems that I am not alone with my struggle with Globe Telecom's Visibility. I have been receiving comments on my blog and links to other peoples blogs like Mobility Philippines regarding the same problem with this service. It was further solidified yesterday when I was at Globe's Platinum Lounge in Glorietta and doing some surfing but using WIZ since I can't get any decent connection with Visibility. I overheard a guy asking the customer service representative if there is a problem with Visibility and the reply was there is sometime a problem with Yahoo! I don't know if Globe had trained this people regarding their Visibility service. I then approached the guy and asked him if the problem he is experiencing is the same as mine which are connection timed out, page cannot be displayed, server taking a long time to respond error messages and he said yes.

I went to Globe Telecoms office in Pioneer St., Mandaluyong to asked them if they can help me out with the bad connection that I was getting and sad to say they were saying that they are having problems with their 3G service that they hence they can't help me. I am going back there again today and I will post here whatever they would say or do with regards to my problem.

Updates on Globe Visibility

I still can't get a decent connection from my Globe Visibility up to this time of writing. Globe's Corporate Solutions Department which handles the Visibility account still can't find an answer to this problem of mine, and just recently I found out that it was not only me who was having this kind of problem. I am getting frustrated with this kind of service from a company who prides itself of giving quality services to its valued subscribers.

I did my own testing just to find out if the problem was isolated in my area because one of the customer service representative suggested to me that it could be related to the location. I went to Greenbelt 3 to test my Globe Visibility connection using my Huawei E220 modem. I had a 5 bars UMTS signal strength as indicated by Mobile Connect and so when I connected it was HSDPA. Lo and behold I still had the same connection problem. I then went to the Globe Platinum Lounge situated at the Digital Exchange in Glorietta and tried it also there and still the same problem persisted. I then tried using Globequest WIZ and I got a very good and fast connection and no more of those timed-out error messages.

So my last step is to go to their office at Globe Telecoms Tower in Pioneer St., Mandaluyong and have them take a look at it themselves.

Connection Timed Out!

I woke up at around 5 a.m. today just to check on my hunch that Globe Telecoms have been overselling their Visibility service and thus there's not enough bandwidth for all of their subscriber to share. I started my Mobile Connect software to connect to their servers and just like any other days I got an HSDPA signal. After launching my Firefox browser, I started browsing the web particularly to check my web-based email accounts, like Yahoo!, Hotmail and AOL and to my relief everything went smoothly no more of that connection timed out or the server is taking too long to respond error messages.

I continued with my surfing browsing bandwidth-hungry websites like YouTube and NBA.com and I was so happy that my download speed is fast and constant like it was before. At around 9 a.m. I began experiencing the usual problem that I have been experiencing the past few days which are timed out connection or server is taking too long to respond or worse page cannot be displayed errors and to make matters worse I can't even sign-in to my Instant Messenger accounts both at Yahoo and MSN.

So I called up Globe's Customer Service Hotline to report for the nth time these problems I am experiencing with their service and I was not a wee bit suprise that I got their usual pre-canned answer: "We have noted your problem Sir and rest assure that it is being looked upon by our technical department." It has been 4 days now and counting that I have been getting this kind of answer and so I asked the person on the other end that maybe they don't have enough bandwidth to serve their Visibility clients and the reply that I got was that it could be one of the reasons. At the very least this confirmed my suspicion that indeed they don't have enough bandwidth to serve their growing number of Visibility subscriber.

I trusted that Globe Telecoms would provide a better surfing experience for me that my PLDT WeRoam being that it is part of the Ayala Group and as far as I know the Ayala Group is known for providing quality products and services. I am now having second thoughts on this notion of mine but if Globe and PLDT can't provide dependable and reliable service then somebody tell me if their is anyone else out there that will. IS THERE NO ONE ELSE?

Invisible Globe Visibility

To those who are suffering a very slow connection or timed out connection with your Globe Visibility plan, you are not alone! I have been experiencing this problem for three days now and counting. Until now no one can give me a definitive answer on why this is happening or what is causing this or what steps they are doing to remedy this. The best advice they can give me is to switch my Huawei E220 connection from HSPDA to GPRS, well that's one great advice (NOT!). If I wanted to have a slow connection then I would have sticked with a dial-up or at best PLDT's WeRoam. I do get an HSDPA connection which from their ads I should have a download speed of up to 1.4 Mbps, but sadly I don't. What I get are error messages like "Page cannot be displayed, or "Timed Out", or "website taking too long to respond." In other words no data is being downloaded!

Another thing to note to those of you planning to switch or get a Visibility plan is that they don't have a technical support hotline. They have people to answer your call but these people are not trained specifically to answer technical queries regarding their wireless data service. I salute these people for trying their best to give me an answer, but this is not what I expected from Globe. They charged everyone who avail of this service 2,000 pesos for installation fee without installing anything but they should at the very least spent that money to train people to assist us, Visibility subscribers.

I am publishing this to serve as a warning to those who are thinking of switching from their current fix wire broadband connection to Globe Visibility. Don't do it just yet, basing it from my experience with Globe they still are not ready to support this type of service. If having an Internet connection is a necessity for you please veer away from getting this service, stick to fix wire broadband connection.