Mysterious phone load deductions

[Zeus]

Enrile eyes political fundraising in mysterious phone load deductions

05/27/2009 | 11:33 AM

MANILA, Philippines - Mysterious deductions from his cellular phone load in the last three days have led Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile to suspect the trick could be telecommunication firms' political fundraising tactic for the 2010 polls.

Enrile raised his suspicion at a hearing of the Congressional Oversight Committee on Comprehensive Tax Reform Program at the Senate Wednesday.

“As a politician, I have experienced it for a period of over four decades. Is it possible, now they are going to face a stiff political contest in the country, some of these public utilities, telcos especially, would be expecting a lineup of politicians going to them for help and so are raising funds through this system? At least they got from me almost P1,000 in three days, so that they can put this in a slush account not in their regular book from where they will draw the money to support favorite politicians," he said.

He suggested that the government impose a heavy tax on telecommunications firms, and use the tax instead for public service.

“Why should we tolerate this? Why don’t we impose a heavy tax, let government take that and use it for public service," he said.

A separate report by dzBB’s Nimfa Ravelo said Enrile will summon telecom firms executives to explain the sudden disappearance of his mobile phone load.


Enrile said he noticed his P387 prepaid load “disappeared" last Monday, prompting him to reload his phone with P600 Tuesday.

But he said that on Tuesday evening, the load went down to P519, without him using his cell phone. On Wednesday morning, he said the load was down to P445.

“Now this is a senator of the republic. I’m sure that many cell phone users are experiencing the same thing. We who understand taxation and accounting, all of this went to the treasury of this service provider. If they were not used by subscribers that is income to these people, a windfall. It goes into the profit margin," he said.

Upon learning from the Bureau of Internal Revenue that there are some 52 million mobile phone subscribers in the country, Enrile said telecom firms can get billions a day using of this scheme.

He computed that if just two million subscribers are targeted to raise funds for a purpose and are milked of P20 a day, it could mean some P44 billion a day.

Enrile said this is aside from the “unlimited" call schemes of telecoms firms that involve deadlines where a load will expire after a certain period.

“From here all the way to the campaign period they can easily raise billions of pesos to support their favorite candidates," he said. - GMANews.TV

Narinig ko na ito dati e, mabilis ang bawas sa mga load ng mga prepaid kahit di masyadong ginagamit, at di alam kung ano ang kaltas

[impulzz]

kahit naman sa post paid pwede ka nila dayain. sa bill makikita mo lang naman total SMS sent, so what's stopping them from adding a little para kumita. even sa call kahit na naka lista mga numbers ng tinawagan mo they can just insert 2-3 mins sa isang number na tinawagan mo.

nangyari na yan sa akin dati, way back when cellphones were just becoming popular. i had 200 mins. free under sa plan. nung minsan bigla na lang ako sinipagan bilangin yung free mins sa bill ko. and dun ko nadiscover that only 158 mins was free, at 159 minute, they started charging. so nag complain ako and they said adjustments will reflect daw sa next bill. Come next bill, the adjustments reflected but nung binilang ko ulit free minutes. sa 175 naman sila nag start ulit.

this happened for 3 months, until i got so fed up i faxed them.

PLEASE FIX THE SM*RT COMPUTER, IT'S NOT SO SM*RT ANYMORE!!!!

after that tumama na billing ko and a computer generated letter of apology was sent to me.

[afrasay]

Ako naman na charge ng 3,000php plus for usage of internet daw.
Nag file ako ng complain ayun ni-refund nila, kasi makikita nila sa bill ko around 300php lang ang normal usage ko sa internet.

[CVT]

Wala pa naman akong ganyang ka-grabeng experience from both Globe and Smart..... Hhhmmmm,- mai-check nga....

8000:borg1:

[renzo_d10]

Ako before, nakaltasan ako ng P53 w/o no reason. Tumawag ako sa smart then i asked for a refund then after an hour or two, nandyan na load ko

[flakez]

hindi ko napapansin na eh. hehehe. pero ngayon sa postpaid ko ok naman. kaya ayoko bumalik sa prepaid dahil sa issue na yan....

[kinyo]

He computed that if just two million subscribers are targeted to raise funds for a purpose and are milked of P20 a day, it could mean some P44 billion a day.

sus ... mali naman kwenta nya eh

[badsekktor]

madalas ko maexperience yan sa prepaid. kakaload mo lang biglang check operator. mas frequent sa Globe yun experience ko. yun mga promo message nila eh charged sa iyo pala yun

[Zeus]

Telcos face franchise review -- senators

By Maila Ager
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 17:27:00 06/16/2009

MANILA, Philippines – Senators warned telecommunications companies that their franchises could face review due to growing complaints from consumers over “vanishing” pre-paid load, unsolicited multimedia content, and drop calls.
Officials of telecom companies told the Senate committee on trade and commerce on Tuesday that they received hundreds of reports on “vanishing” loads.
Smart Communications receives 100 complaints on load balance everyday, said Ramon Isberto, the company’s public affairs head.
Senator Manuel Roxas, chairman of the trade committee, estimated the number of complaints received by Smart at 35,000 a year.
Rival Globe Telecom, on the other hand, said it received 238 complaints on “vanishing” loads from 2006 to 2009 – 59 in the first quarter of this year, 77 in 2008, 70 in 2007, and 32 in 2006, said Caridad Gonzalez, the company’s head for corporate and regulatory affairs.

William Pamintuan of Digitel Mobile Philippines, Inc., which operates Sun Cellular, reported no cases of “vanishing loads.” He said subscribers complained of network coverage.

Gonzalez explained that the missing loads went to value added services, such as ringing tones subscriptions, like what happened to Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile.

Enrile earlier complained about the P389 load in his pre-paid line, which he loaded in the morning of May 25 but disappeared in the evening even if he did not use his phone.

Enrile’s complaint prompted the Senate investigation on the telecom carriers.

“Seven ring tones ako? Talaga? [I got seven ring tones? Really?] They are robbing my pocket,” said Enrile.

“How can it be that I’m enrolled [to a ring tone subscription] when I have not signed anything?” he said.

Enrile reported other complaints from consumers including frequent drop calls and delayed messages, weak signal and blind spots resulting in disconnection, unsolicited multimedia, and spam messages, among others.

At one point during the discussion, Roxas and Senator Joker Arroyo warned telecom companies that Congress could amend their franchises to protect consumers.

“At the rate your fighting the government, you are provoking so the chairman of the public services now is nanggigigil na eh [very angry]… We want to amend your franchise because what could we do? You handcuffed the NTC [National Telecommunication Commission),” Arroyo said, referring to Senator Ramon Revilla Jr., chairman of the committee on public services .

Roxas said: “What you really don’t want is Congress writing your operations manual. Because if you’re not responsive to the needs of the public we will come in and write your operations manual.”
Unsatisfied by the explanation of telecom officials, Revilla said he would spearhead a review of their franchises “if they do not shape up.”

“One thing is for sure, the telcos may have unlimited power right now but they are not untouchable,” he said in a statement after the hearing.

“I would like to remind them that since a franchise is merely a privilege granted by the government through Congress, it would be tantamount to a gross violation of their franchise if such claims be proven true. May this be a message sent clearly to them,” he added.

Ernile said Congress could step into the issue by enacting legislation that would strengthen the power of the NTC in order to protect the public.

Kumuha daw ng 7 ringtones si Sen. Enrile kaya nabawas ang load niya

[jeanpierre]

Smart ang maraming hidden load deductions sa experience ko malaki na ulo nila ngayon. Isipin mo ba naman na yong mga nagpakahirap na magpakalat ng smartload nila noon eh tinanggal na nila at decline nila na they exist tapos hand over ng smart sa mga bigtime dealers na lang. Pag metro manila lang Sun na lang gamit ko then pag probinsya bhaye ko na walang signal ang Sun cell, saka ko gamit globe or smart.

[carlo_41786]

Nagdownload daw ng careless whisper na ringtone. Joke...



Siguro sa mga mayayaman bumabawi ang smart, globe etc since hindi naman sila nag-uunli unlike me/us.

Na sakto lang lagi load at piso lang sumosobra sa load kapag nagunli.

At dahil sa sobrang dami ng katext. Yung 30 na load, makakapagunli for 2 days. at aabot ng thousands ang sent text messages. hahaha.

[CVT]

Kumuha daw ng 7 ringtones si Sen. Enrile kaya nabawas ang load niya

Baka 7 versions ng Careless Whisper na ringtone ang naibigay sa kanya....... :hysterical:

8101:oops2:

[vito corleone]

kahit naman sa post paid pwede ka nila dayain. sa bill makikita mo lang naman total SMS sent, so what's stopping them from adding a little para kumita. even sa call kahit na naka lista mga numbers ng tinawagan mo they can just insert 2-3 mins sa isang number na tinawagan mo.

yup, this is a possibility. . .i always review my phone bills if the niumbers called are actually numbers that are familiar to me. . .then it occurred to me one time that they can add calls to the usual numbers that i didn't make. . .i don't keep track of the calls everytime i make them, who does? more so with text messages sent. . .lusot na sila. . .

[Rev!t]

Update:

[SIZE=3]'Text Brigade'[/SIZE]
COMMONSENSE By Marichu A. Villanueva
(The Philippine Star) Updated October 23, 2009 12:00 AM

It may have come after a long delay but it was a good thing that the National Telecommunications Commission has finally come out with a public information campaign it dubbed “Dealing with ‘vanishing load,’ text spam, and text scams.” The NTC came out with warning in a full-page advertisement yesterday at The STAR, in collaboration with the two giant telecommunications companies, Smart and Globe as well as Sun Cellular.

The paid ad came out several months after Senate president Juan Ponce-Enrile denounced in a privilege speech the case of “vanishing load” that he personally experienced. For security-conscious people like Enrile, I was not surprised to learn from him that he uses a pre-paid simcard for his mobile cellular phone. The case of “vanishing load” is the bane among pre-paid simcard users whose loads are eaten up by unwanted or unsolicited promotions of certain unscrupulous service providers of telcos if you respond to them.

What irks me with this “text brigade” is their lack of common sense to keep sending me these unwanted text messages even while I was abroad. For about a week while I was in Italy — as can be gleaned from the datelines of my previous columns last week — I got at least 21 text messages from the Philippines that came from different numbers but obviously from pre-paid simcards.

It turned out, however, my relief was short lived. When I got back here, I checked with my friend at Globe Telecom who told me that the toll-free text applies only to those who buy Kabayan pre-paid card promo that Globe offers to OFWs. They came up with this promo as their way of helping OFWs spend less for their communicating back home with their respective families in the Philippines.

This really enraged me. Come to think of it — I’m going to pay as much as P735 for these 21 unwanted text messages that will be charged in my Smart billing next month. If it is any source of consolation, these nincompoops who sent me these text messages paid also at a much higher rate and not just P1.

More than the paid ad campaign, I think the NTC should find a way to protect the millions of post-paid subscribers from being at the mercy of political spam “text brigades.”

SMART new slogan:
Simply AmaSSing Load..

full text of the article:
http://www.philstar.com/ArticlePrint...ticleId=516631

Note: I opted to post it here kahit may konting politics issue

[boybi]

This really enraged me. Come to think of it — I’m going to pay as much as P735 for these 21 unwanted text messages that will be charged in my Smart billing next month. If it is any source of consolation, these nincompoops who sent me these text messages paid also at a much higher rate and not just P1.

Afaik, P1.00 pa rin ang charge sa mga nagtetext from the Phils. to a roaming number.

[MaxAJ]

Ako naman na charge ng 3,000php plus for usage of internet daw.
Nag file ako ng complain ayun ni-refund nila, kasi makikita nila sa bill ko around 300php lang ang normal usage ko sa internet.

OT:
Kung ganito din ba ang mga Pinoy kasipag sa pag file ng complain sa mga government offices edi naging kasing ayos ang managment ng government natin katulad ng mga wirless tele-communication giants.

Wala pa naman akong ganyang ka-grabeng experience from both Globe and Smart..... Hhhmmmm,- mai-check nga....

8000:borg1:

suwerte mo

Update:

SMART new slogan:
Simply AmaSSing Load..

full text of the article:
http://www.philstar.com/ArticlePrint...ticleId=516631

Note: I opted to post it here kahit may konting politics issue

not to be biase, pero hinde naman. Kikita sila naman wether or not they deduct your loads.. Kasi ZERO cost if you guys text or call within the same networks. May lokong politiko nag pass ng bill na puwede sila mag charge ng texts daw.

[A121]

not to be biase, pero hinde naman. Kikita sila naman wether or not they deduct your loads.. Kasi ZERO cost if you guys text or call within the same networks. May lokong politiko nag pass ng bill na puwede sila mag charge ng texts daw.

I beg to disagree. You pay for the use of their equipment to transmit your messages or call. Hindi naman tumatakbo using free energy yung mga site nila. You also need to pay the people maintaining their network.