yet another sun cellular hate post

i think i've mentioned before how sun cellular and i go way back. i think it was sometime in december 2003, at one of those bazaars, when i signed up for sun cellular's i-text 250.

this was before call and text all you can.

this was before half of metro manila had a second cellular phone.

at that time, all i wanted was an alternative to my globe line which was giving my wallet a heartache each and every single time the bill arrived.

over the years, i've given up my globe line, switched to smart prepaid, then gave up prepaid lines for a while, then once more got a globe prepaid when they started offering the unlitxt promo, then switched globe prepaid numbers because of a phone stalker. one thing, however, has remained constant: my sun cellular phone line.

and, no matter how many loyalty promotions and what not they offer, i always choose not to avail of the promo since that would mean giving up my itext 250 plan, which i love to bits.

i don't mind the lack of signal whenever i head out of town - i lost my signal at the bee farm in bohol, at certain places in palawan, in calaguas, camarines norte - or even when i'm in my room at home. i think i've learned to live with the fact that no matter what phone i use, my sun cellular sim would never have a signal as strong as a smart sim.

i also didn't mind the fact that there are times when the bill would arrive late, and i wouldn't pay it cause it hasn't arrived yet, and then my line would be cut. after a while, i got to fix that problem and it never happened again.

as a matter of fact, i was so in love with sun that i even opted for their sun landline (which i paid so much money for but hardly got to use, again owing to billing problems) AND their sun broadband prepaid (which i paid P1,888 for but, again, hardly got to use, this time cause of signal problems).

i must however state for the record that once more, sun cellular has done me wrong.

a couple of days before we were supposed to leave for HK, i checked the sun cellular website for their roaming options. and, i was quite happy with it. i thought it was very informative.

it simply said that all i had to do was to call the sun hotline number and to update my account.

now, since i had paid my last bill in full, and the upcoming bill hasn't arrived yet, i thought i was good.

wrong.

i called the hotline number as i was in line at the check-in counter. turns out that since i had used my phone a wee bit more this month than in the months past, my unbilled charges were somewhere in the P800 range.

not bad, i thought, considering that my credit limit was P1,500.00.

apparently, that wasn't good enough for them -- i can only activate roaming if my unbilled and outstanding balance was below half of my credit limit.

now, where did they say that in the website?

even crazier was the fact that the person on the other end of the line -- who sounded as if i had waken him up from a gory dream -- told me to settle the bill that day so i can activate roaming. and, oh, he told me that after i had already mentioned to him that i was at the airport already.

boo, i say, boo.

needless to say, i spent the next four days in panic over the fact that i couldn't be reached since i had specifically (or stupidly?) put in my memo of pending work (something that we have to prepare for the office should we be going on leave) that i can be reached by phone. so much for that.

of course this had to happen when i left my globe prepaid at home -- i could've easily loaded that and went on roaming using that phone.

and of course if i had assistants and what nots i could have asked someone to go to the mall, pay my bill, and activate my roaming for me. but i didn't -- taong bayan lang ako - so i was stuck with silently fuming against the poor call center agent i had woken up from his leisurely slumber.

and, before you could say it, it was indeed stupid of me to have waited until the very last minute to activate my roaming when i could have done it in the days leading up to my vacation. yes, i agree.

well, now i at least know. so when i visit vietnam in august, and kuala lumper in september (yihee! travel spree this year!), i'd know better.

but sun cellular -- you have been warned!