Smart Padala Woes

There's a fellow who posted his Smart Padala Woes on Migs Paraz's blog... Smart Padala Remittance - an e-commerce option?

He tells of using Smart Padala and finding out that there are problems with the system's compatibility with his SIM. He was told that there is no procedure for refund the amount and send it via the traditional method. Here's Eleazar's story and my reply to him ...

I received a Smart Padala from CBN London on August 11, 2004 with Smart Money No. 5577512482684103. The next day I went to Banco de Oro, McDonalds and SM Dept. Store all to no avail.

I was referrred to Smart Wireless Center and willingly go your Sta. Lucia East Branch in Cainta. A litany of problems were mentioned i.e. Non- 64-k SIM Card, celfone model and they even suggested that I buy a new Super SIM 3 which I did. All of these proved futile. A certain Sheila Buendia from Smart (Head Office?) even called me several times and that they are trying to upgrade my SIM (installing a Smart Money Menu) via remote.

Despite all of these, I still have to get my much needed remittance. Frustrated after more than a month with now solution in sight, I surrendered and contacted my remitter in London to just ask for a refund from CBN and just remit to me the money in the old traditional way - thru a bank, which normally take no more than one day!!

To my surprise, I was told by my remitter that you have no fund recovery/refund procedures in place and was advise that I just call Smart Money Hotline (again!!I) I obliged and just this morning I was told by a certain Doreen Dabon that she cannot do anything and that I will have to go back to Smart Wireless Center again to repeat the same procedures all over again with no guarantee that I will finally get my money stucked with Smart since August 11, 2004.

I dont know what to do now.
Comment by ELEAZAR A. REYES — 9/22/2004 @ 9:25 am

Unfortunately, Eleazar didn't leave his contact email. Nevertheless, I posted this reply on Mig's blog...

Wow, eleazar! It's good that you wrote about your experience. The people at Smart should have this noted already and troubleshoot against having the same problem in the future.

And Wow ykcor! hope your reply helps eleazar.

(as per my understanding... ) eleazar, i think the fundamental problem was -- prior to remittance, the system *should* *have* checked if your original SIM was a 64K SIM.

When your remitter sent the amount, it was sent to your original cellphone number which, it turns out, is not 64K and CANNOT accommodate the SmartPadala Service.

1.) If your original SIM is post-paid (subscription), there is a way for Smart make a 64K SIM for you and retain *the*same* cellphone number. THAT new 64K SIM with the old number is what you can use to retreive your remittance.

2.) If your original SIM is pre-paid, there is no "normal" procedure for creating a 64K SIM with the same original number. Therefore, I think Smart will have to bypass some procedures and provide you with an "ab-normal" procedure of making a 64K SIM for your pre-paid number.

I don't have any solid figures, but out of the 12Million++ Smart subscribers, there is a very small percentage (probably less than 1%) of subscribers using a SIM that's less than 64K.

Eleazar, my guess is your SIM is more than 2-3 years old, correct? Sorry to say, Eleazar, but i think Smart wasn't able to adequately disseminate their procedure for handling the kind of problem you're encountering.

If i were you, eleazar, i would call Smart Padala. Your case is not in the regular call center representative's codigo. You should ask to talk to the _TEAM LEADER_ of the hotline or a _TECHNICAL_ person handling Smart Padala.

(Call Smart Padala hotline +632-845-7788; *7788 using a Smart Cellphone; 1-800-10-845-7788)

Hey, eleazar, hope to hear about the results of your quest! Goodluck

Edwin
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