Satisfied Bayantel, Not Satisfied Smart Bro Subscriber
First thing to consider when chosing a DSL provider, check their customer service. Make sure that when there’s a problem, you can call them up and someone is answering the phone call. Unlike other DSL provider, “mapudpod na ang kamay mo sa kakadial or tenga mo mainit na - wala pa din sumasagot”
I subscribed to Bayantel for both my home and internet cafe DSL requirements. Initially, I only have Meridian Telekoms (now known as Smart Broadband) for my internet cafe. Problem is Meridian Telekoms frequently have lots of problems (downtime) mostly when it rains. Perhaps this is due to their being wireless. Antenna problems? Anyways, my real score is that when you have problem with their DSL connection. You will definitely have a hard time calling their technical service. No one seems to be answering the phone. Moreso, if someone answers the phone they will only give you a scripted one sentence “May problem po sa base, wala pa po kaming feedback”. That’s it. Deadend. And you know, when you’re business relies so much on the internet. A few hours of no internet connection means a big loss already! Miraculously, if someone immediately answers the phone. That means they feel that there is no problem. Eventhough there is a problem they will insists that the problem is on your side not theres. Or, they will ask you to do a lot of stuff which I presume is an SOP like switch off the thing that connects to the antenna, reset your router and blah blah. If the end, there still a problem they don’t know how to help you anymore. Such as waste of time!
Last time, when I got bayantel as my backup. I immediately switch to bayantel. Well, I just want to check if there’s already internet connection using my laptop. So, I connected the cable to my laptop. Gish! still no internet connection. So, I called Meridian tech support. Did you know, upon giving my account number. The tech support guy gave me an accusing tone “Eh naka off po kasi ung router nyo eh” Is that how they suppose to react first. They did not question me first, about it. They just accuse me. I told them I connected it with my laptop since Im not sure if ther’s a internet connection already. So, the guy ask me to do some commands on my laptop to display the MAC-ADDRESS. In which, I gave him my MAC Address. After a few minutes, there’s internet connection already. So, I told the tech support guy. What to do if I want to put it back on the router. The guy simply told me to call again. I told the guy I really have a hard time contacting your tech support. Can’t you just put back the MAC address of the router. Since, right now my router is connected with Bayantel. And, I can’t interrupt cause there’s a lot of customer already. The guy simply told me to call again. Arrrgh! Since according to him - “useless daw” Grrrrr. I told him, If I’m going to switch back to Meridian. And call your tech support, I will be asked to do a lot of things aagain. Like turn off the antenna, turn off the router and blah blah blah. Which I think is not necessary anymore. Because we already pinpointed the problem - which is the MAC ADDRESS. (MAC ADDRESS - hardware identifier - I think each network devices has a MAC ADDRESS - with Meridian setup they lock it with a specific MAC ADDRESS - so if you want to connect their cable with other network devices you need to call their tech support) Okay, so I have no choice, I have to call them again if I’m going to switch to Meridian
That evening, I have several customers - all wanting to watch youtube.com, download from limewire, video conferencing and lots more that require large bandwidth. Since I only subcribe to 256kpbs with Bayantel (since this is just a backup ISPs), the customers started experience slow connection. So, thinking that Meridian is okey now. I decided to switch to Meridian Telekoms. I called their tech support. Since I’m already connected with Meridian. Alas! There’s someone who answered my call. But, it sounds like the guy hate the job. Because I want to instruct the tech support guy to just change the MAC address without going to their SOP again. I simply told the guy please just change the MAC address because I put back the Meridian cable to our router. Also, I explained to him that earlier I already talk to one of the tech support guy and told me to just request to change the MAC address because the MAC address currently configured is the MAC address of the laptop. Did you know that deciding to switch to Meridian at that time was a total disaster? My wanting to switch to a better conenction to retain my customers. End ups customers leaving/logging out because the tech guy does not believe me and still wants me to do the SOP. Grrrrrrr.. Okay, I don’t have a choice so I followed his instruction just to prevent further agruments. A supposedly 2-3 minutes tech support ends up taking 30mins!!
Bayantel customer service is different. Rest assured that there will always be someone from their tech support who will answer your call. Whether there is a problem or not. There will always be someone to answer and explain the current situation. In fact, this afternoon, I called their tech support. I told them the DSL lights on my modem is not blinking but there’s no connection. The tech support guy ask me to reset the modem. which I did. Still there’s no connection. Immediately, the tech support guy told me that there will be a support guy from Bayantel that will be coming over to my shop to check what’s the problem. That fast. After 30 minutes, a group of tech support guy came. They replace my modem. Still there’s no connection. They told me they will come back and check the main box of bayantel. Okay, I just waited for about an hour. Then, they gave me a call to check if there’s connection already. So, I checked my internet connection with Bayantel. Tadah, fast connection.
on September 30th, 2006 at 6:17 pm
thanks. now i know which company to describe for dsl service….
i wish you gave that smart guy a piece of your mind that he’s a stupid idiot who doesn’t deserve the job. hehehe…
on October 1st, 2006 at 9:32 pm
hi, thanks for reading my blog.
going back to that incident, when the guy asked me to do a lot of things. like turn of antenna, turn of router and blah blah. did you know in the end he asked for my MAC ADDRESS. So, we just went around the loop. If he just only listened to me in the first place.
The problem should have been solved sooner.
on October 2nd, 2006 at 11:41 pm
hi abby! next time alam ko na san kami magsusubscribe ng dsl hehe.. how are you? ang techie ng blog mo :p
on October 2nd, 2006 at 11:43 pm
btw.. i got this error when trying to click on the links sa category section
SELECT DISTINCT * FROM wp_posts LEFT JOIN wp_post2cat ON (wp_posts.ID = wp_post2cat.post_id) LEFT JOIN wp_categories ON (wp_post2cat.category_id = wp_categories.cat_ID) WHERE 1=1 AND (category_nicename = ‘internet’) AND post_date_gmt
on October 3rd, 2006 at 1:29 am
hey wanda,
my dear friend. thanks for dropping by and readling my blog. technie ba? hehehe….
thanks for mentioning about the bug on my blog.. =)
abby
on October 13th, 2006 at 8:12 pm
pero bakit ang tagal mag-process ng bayantel ng application for a new dsl connection. kailangan ko ba talagang mangulit?
nice blog.
on October 18th, 2006 at 5:35 pm
hi, abbie!!! thanks for this. i’m a smart wi-fi subscriber myself and have been experiencing slow to no connection for the longest time already. i called their tech support last week and when they answered my call (it took me several tries before they finally answered), i was told that they are having technical problems within my area and to call back at the end of the week if connection difficulties persist. Well, it’s the following week already and, still, i’m experiencing very very very slow connection. i will be calling them soon to bitch about it and if they don’t do something i will definitely follow your lead and switch to another provider.
love your blogs. techie nga lang sobra!!! hehe!
on October 21st, 2006 at 2:05 am
to herson,
i admit my bayantel dsl connection also took quite sometime bago na-activate. infact, they made me pay the setup plus one month advance first. i was skeptical but gave in. i think i waited for two weeks before i was able to get connected to them.
thanks for visitng my blog =)
abby
on October 21st, 2006 at 2:07 am
to stef,
they’ve become bad to worst…. wag na kayo mag smart 3g. so slow daw. better get the globe visibility package.. though im not a globe visibility subsriber yet. but i tried globe gprs ang bilis so i expect mabilis talaga globe visibility only 2k a month.
hello, how are u. long time. hay nako smart bro tech support. wala na talaga
abby
on October 14th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
damn you almost made a bio out of that thingamajig,,, i do agreee in the truest sense i got 2 subscriptions of smartbro one at manila and one at quezon city,,, both are real disasters,,, 10 mbps,, what you can do with that,,?? while other brodbands are up about a hundred,,,, smartbro sucks!!!!! i guess ill quit it even though im not yet thru with my lock up period,,, hello D.T.I. or N.T.C. you must do something about this
on February 13th, 2008 at 10:33 am
god damn, I still have until may with my smart bro lock in period and I read in the newspaper that bayantel is offering P899 with speeds up to 1.2mbps unlike smart bro, only up to 356kbps. shit talaga! I cant wait. on top of my smart bro, Im still paying P700 for my pldt landline connection, I also read that with their plan P899, just add P300 and youll get a phone line. The only dilemna is they make you pay installation fee of P2000 but when I computed I still save P4000 in a year on top of that I get better DSL connection. Is it June yet? Gimme my bayantel DSL.