Thursday, November 30, 2006

Randy woke up late but, we're able to recite the rosary via skype voice chat before he left to work couple of minutes ago.

While talking with the kids, I have noticed that it started to rain outside. Super Typhoon Reming entered into the country this morning and Metro Manila is under Storm Signal No. 2 while Albay, Catanduanes, Camarines Province, Southern Quezon, Marinduque, and Burias Island are under Storm Signla No. 4.

Today is Bonifacio Day but who cares even though Gloria Arroyo rescheduled this holiday tomorrow? Classes at all levels had been suspended anyway and kids were happy playing Rose Online.

After Super Typhoon Milenyo badly hits Metro Manila on September 28th this year, we're more concerned now how this typhoon would affect us tonight (and tomorrow). Randy told me about this typhoon earlier and sent me through email this map showing areas Reming's possible landfall.

Ouch! We have power failure right now and will continue blogging later. UPS will soon shut down my pc. Hope everything will be fine....

Friday, November 24, 2006

The 7,401 km distance between me and Randy didn't stopped us from celebrating Thanksgiving Day together online! In fact, we started it early right after we recited the rosary together, we watched the NBC's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Special held in New York from 9 am until 12 noon NYC time, via Skype video, while Randy was busy preparing ingredients for his special dishes. It was about 3 am (Manila time) when I was sleepy and decided to go to bed.

I had slept for few hours only and I cooked spaghetti and fried chicken strips. Paul Denise and Pearl were able to eat before going to school and I logged in at past 7 am. His laptop was in the kitchen while we're video chatting. I had thought to take some shots of what he's cooking without his knowledge:

Randy had been busier this time running here and there while our webcams were on.

Devilled eggs took pride to be one of his dishes tonight.

Sliced Hams toppled with Pineapple and cherries were ready to serve.

Pickles and Olives were all set as well.

Randy's mashed potatoes specialty dish.

Pieces of flavored bread were stuffed in his yummy roasted Turkey.

This roasted Turkey looked yummy.

Randy celebrated Thanksgiving Day with daughter Judy,
Judy's Carlos, his son, David, and of course,
I was online with them eating, too!

When the foods were set, each one of us shared three reasons why we're thankful and celebrating Thaksgiving Day. Then, we said the blessings and we all had fun eating.

Both Randy and I are looking forward to spend next year's Thanksgiving Day together. I hope everyone had a great one this year, Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

I submitted today demand letter addressed to PLDT - Muñoz Branch asking for rebates for failure to deliver PLDT DSL and phone line services... all clerks abandoned their posts and had an emergency meeting with their supervisor to discuss my claim.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

After whole day of collecting facts and figures yesterday, Randy finally corrected the PLDT complaint letter I drafted. Then, after Pearl printed them for me, Pacette and I dropped by to PLDT Business Office and settled with MS. ADELIZA M. ISIDRO my disconnected phone line before doing my shopping to celebrate my son's birthday.

I was fortunate that customer ticket no. 78 was assigned to her as she was the representative who received modem instrument I surrendered on August 11, 2006, when I terminated PLDT MyDSL subscription due to frequent downgrade / interrupted bandwidth speed. I let Ms. Isidro acknowledged the 3-page complaint letter I submitted with subject line: DISCONNECTED PLDT PHONE LINE XXXXXXX.

Ms. Isidro and I spent almost three hours of discussion over how much I should pay so my disconnected phone line could be restored. At first, she told me to pay over 6k, after ignoring DSL charges billed in my account but I told her she's charging me back the disputed amount we already settled in August until she came up with over 4k. Nervous, I already raised my voice and I stood up and asked if there's anyone among other representatives or clients can help us with the computation.

I told her to follow the figures in my letter and have it marked so they can understand well how much I have to pay only. She seemed annoyed already and insisted that she only followed their system computations which made me more nervous. I told her if that similar situation happened to her, what she's going to do about it? Since it's my money and I know how much I have to pay for the phone line basic charges plus IDD/NDD toll charges, I asked her to write the following, to understand better how much I have to pay:

• For September statement: Php 29,715.49 (current charges) less Php 28,224.01 (September DSL), that's Php 1,491.48 I have to pay.
• For October statement: Balance forwarded, Php Php 1,491.48 less Php 773.73 (adjustment), that's Php 717.75 (Sept balance) plus Php 1,046.21, that's Php 1,763.96 I have to pay for the months of September and October phone line with IDD/NDD charges.
• After issuing the check, I remembered that I have to pay for the splitter for Php 200.00 so I cancelled the check and issued another in the amount of Php 1,963.96!
• I reminded Ms. Isidro that for three consecutive months (May, June. July), I paid Php 2,500.00 monthly for DSL subscriptions that they failed to render. Since I expected rebates, they should reflect them in my October bill but, instead, they disconnected my line for not paying 'September and October DSL charges' which they billed in my account even though I terminated already my subscription since August 11.

I told Ms. Isidro that I need an apology from the billing section whoever made a mistake charging me Php 28,224.01 for September. That's equivalent to eleven months of internet usage! I also told her not to charge me for reconnection fee since I didn't owe them anything. As far as payment is concerned, I still have money with them which I paid in advance for DSL service that I didn't get for three consecutive months. Ms. Isidro apologized to me and she said she represented the billing section as well.

After Pacette paid the bill, she gave Ms. Isidro the OR no. PLAOR000013644 so she can request for reconnection of our untimely disconnected line. Then, Pacette followed me in Jollibee where we had our lunch. I called Randy that we would go straight to SM North after we're done eating. He's happy that I didn't pay the ridiculous charges PLDT billed me in my last two statements.

We went to Cyberzone and inquired about SMART's retention plan and they handed me models of cell phones I can choose from when I want to renew my current subscription plan. My mind is numb worrying too much what to prepare for tonight's dinner. So, I just decided to pay Bayantel SkyDSL NetBasic bill and accompanied Pearl, who met us while in Bayantel. We spent so much time looking for USB mouse for her new laptop. I got myself a keyboard light which is perfect also for her laptop.

I'd thought we're not going to have time to do the grocery shopping but, thankfully, my daughter made up her mind what item to buy. Electronic items these days are so fashionable that it's hard to select which style best suits the budget and its usefulness.

Grocery budget had been tight for this month because I have three students helping me spend the money. After doing my shopping, it's late for me to cook so I bought 3 layer birthday cake from Goldilocks, two stuffed family sized pizza from Pizza Hut, Birthday noodles from Super Bowl of China and some chick-n-chips in a basket from Shakey's.

Kids were starving when I arrived home and we had our happy dinner together. HAPPY 27TH BIRTHDAY, Junjun!!!

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

I received this warning alert from Load.com.ph and I had thought of sharing this to all of you:

WARNING TO ALL LOAD.COM.PH AND YAHOO USERS!

Recently, there has been a lot of attempts to illegally access ones Yahoo mail or Yahoo messenger account. Once fraudulent users gain access to a Yahoo account, they pretend to be the owner of the account and maliciously ask for account information, such as passwords, from other users.

PLEASE DO NOT ENTERTAIN THIS TYPE OF USERS!

The Load.com.ph employees do not and will not ask for your password. Do not give your password to anyone!

Because of these recent events, Load.com.ph has also decided not to use Yahoo messenger anymore. We will look for other more reliable options for online instant messaging.

A NOTE OF CAUTION

If you happen to own a Yahoo account, please assume that fraudulent users can gain access to it if they want to. Considering this, please delete all emails you have in your Yahoo account that has passwords in them! Even passwords for other websites.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

DHL delivered DELL Inspiron 6400, Intel Core Duo processor T2300E (2MB / 1.66GHz / 667MHz) Randy purchased for Pearl this afternoon.

Daughter's excited and happy that she got a new laptop. Gloria's eVAT, however, made us Php 6,396.00 poorer...

Anyway, thank you very much, Randy, for fulfilling my daughter's wish! You're indeed a wonderful man and I was so touched with the way you care for my children. Wish God will return the blessings to you a thousand-fold.

Behind the overwhelming excitement we had this afternoon upon receipt of my daughter's laptop, PLDT had been always a kill joy! They disconnected my phone line for not being able to pay over Php 34,000 for phone line subscription only for which amount was intentionally charged into my account for giving up PLDT myDSL subscription in August 2006.

If the media would like to investigate the irregularities this giant telephone company had been doing against their subscribers, I would love to furnish them my complaint letters and proof of statement of account wherein I am supposed to be given a refund instead of charging me their monthly DSL fees, even if I already surrendered the unit in August and had been given up on hoping they will be able to fix their service.

I was wondering how many subscribers are suffering like from this PLDT telephone company!