Bad Day

This morning I woke at 0700 for a CE. To make the 0830 call-time, I'd need to leave the house by 0730 (which I did). It took ten minutes to walk to the MRT station where I stood on the platform and waited with a hundred other people. One by one, trains rolled by -- all full of people. It's not unusual to let a train or two pass during rush hour, but I stood there for 40 minutes, not moving from my position. An invisible man (and who's apparently omniscient) apologized over the loudspeaker saying there was a shortage of trains that day. Finally, at 0820 a near-empty train hissed to a stop to the shouts of "Hurray's" of many. I got to school at 0910. I ended up not sharing at the CE.

Later that day I got a retail SIM card for Globe** for my Marketing class. So, in order to send load you need to type in an MPIN to authorize a transaction. When K. Rey gave me the PIN at the bookstore I heard him say 3456 (in a mumbled manner). I figured the PIN would come with the SIM, so when I tried typing the number in it kept saying incorrect PIN. So I thought, "Ooookay." I tried typing in the PIN that was under the scratchy part, but that was wrong as well. I ended up locking the PIN.

I called customer services and got this guy with a squeaky voice who reminded me of my first accounting teacher. In the end, he couldn't help me.

After lunch, I walked to Metrobank to withdraw some money. I stepped up to the ATM machine to find out the thing was OFFLINE. So I went to the UCPB ATM at school and withdrew money -- or so it said. After dialing my PIN, I typed the amount I wanted and waited. First my card came out, then my receipt . . . but no cash. The receipt even said I had withdrawn money.

So there I was, back on my cellphone calling customer services. It's hilarious, both banks/customer services have the same script. And they always apologize after listening to your complaint, as though the fault was theirs and theirs alone. The sad thing about customer services is that despite wanting to help, they can't right away. Instead they give you a references number to your complaint and tell you to call back in 5-10 working days to solve the problem.

I checked my phone balance after these calls and found out I spent P110 pesos. Apparently, customer services is not toll-free.

So I had to do something.

I went back to the bookstore and waited in line while a handful of other Marketing students got their retail SIM cards. So after a few minutes I approached Rey and apologized to him for botching the PIN code. He gave me a disdainful look, and I read these words in his eyes, "Kid, you're wasting my time." He ended up calling some person and got my MPIN reset. (Sweet, one item down!)

I took an FX home but first checked Metrobank again to see if they were back online: they were. So I withdrew my cash and found out that UCPB didn't credit my withdrawal from my account.

Thank You God!!!

**I'M SELLING LOAD NOW! PURCHASE P300 WORTH OF LOAD AND I'LL GIVE YOU A BITESIZE CHOCOLATE BAR. (note: conditions may change without prior warning)