N.B. – This was published in The Lobbyist (June 28) where I write a column (Subtext).
Consider this a weird case of product placement and open denouncement.
Established in 1903, this particular investor-owned electric utility definitely has a long history of serving the needs of generations of Filipinos. It is not surprising that from simply providing “electric light and power and an electric street railway system to Manila and its suburbs,” its franchise area is now reportedly “home to 24.7 million people” nationwide (http://www.meralco.com.ph/aboutmeralco/corporateinformation.html).
As one of the roughly 25 million Filipinos who subscribe to this company – and, modesty aside, always pays his bills on time – I expect nothing less from the power distributor whose major objective is to “(p)rovide…customers with the highest quality products and services, consistent with their requirements and with international standards.”
Imagine my surprise last Wednesday night (June 22) when I got a frantic call from my wife while I was out of town. While she was cooking food alone in the house, the lights went out without any warning. She checked all electrical outlets and there was clearly no power.
We knew there was something wrong as all of our neighbors did not have any power interruption. Since it was already late at night, we decided to just contact an electrician the next morning, even if it meant that she had to be absent from work.
The morning after (June 23), an electrician went to our house. Upon his recommendation, my wife bought a circuit breaker worth almost P1,000. When he installed the new circuit breaker sometime late in the afternoon, however, the problem was still not solved. It was then that the electrician recommended calling the electric utility as he thinks the problem is with the electrical connection outside.
Since I was the listed subscriber, I was the one who called the customer care hotline even if I was still out of town. After several attempts of dialing the number, I was finally able to talk to a customer care representative at around 8 p.m. I got a commitment that a crew will go to our house in two to four hours. The customer care representative even got the directions to our house as well as our contact numbers. Care to guess what happened next? My wife stayed up all night and no one went to our house!
In the morning of Friday (June 24), my wife decided to go to the electric utility’s office to personally follow-up our request. She repeated the directions to our house and (again) gave our contact numbers. Again, there was a commitment that a crew will go to our house. When Friday evening came with no crew around, I called again the hotline and I got the same reply that our house will be visited eventually. As was the case the day before, no one came!
Of course, there could be an objective explanation for this as the heavy rains brought about by the storm last week may have increased the crew’s workload. You may even argue that there could be residents who, at that time, were more in need of the electric utility’s help.
Anyway, I finally returned to Manila early afternoon of Saturday (June 25) and the very first thing I did upon arriving at our house was to call the hotline. When I asked why the crew we requested last Thursday has not yet arrived, the customer care representative said that a crew indeed tried to go to our area but our house cannot be located.
Yes, our house is allegedly not in the electric utility’s map even if we are visited by the meter reader periodically and we receive our statement of account monthly.
This was the time when I was forced to raise my voice out of frustration for two obvious reasons:
- It was easy for the crew to call us for directions as we gave not just one but several contact numbers. If, for some reason, one mobile phone cannot be reached, there are other numbers that could be accessed.
- The crew could easily coordinate with the concerned units which regularly conduct meter reading and deliver our statement of account. For sure, there is a way to trace the employee or employees who go to our house.
In not so many words, I told the customer care representative how unacceptable the situation is. I stressed that our complaint should not be ignored just because our house cannot be located (though I find this hard to believe). Actually, the customer care representative was flustered when I repeatedly asked why we were not called through our contact numbers if the crew indeed got lost on the way to our house.
Spending Saturday night without electricity, I decided to send a text message to a broadcaster who was doing board work at that time for his highly-rated radio program. “Joy and I are listening to you right now. Paki-paringgan mo naman ang Meralco na wala pa kaming kuryente mula noong Miyerkules ng gabi pa.”
As a favor to a good friend, he said on-air that the electric utility should look into our situation. It may be just a coincidence, but I got a phone call in the morning of Sunday (June 26) from the crew saying that they were on the way!
I waited outside to be sure that they won’t be lost. Upon arriving at our house, they went up the post and fixed a loose connection in the wiring. In less than five minutes, they solved the problem and electricity was finally restored in our house.
Yes, we waited from Thursday to Saturday for the electric utility to do a job that takes less than five minutes. I find this inefficiency unacceptable for a 108-year old company that has a vision to become “a world-class company and the service provider of choice.”
I don’t want to think that the electric utility was forced to immediately act on our case just because a broadcaster made an on-air remark about it. At any rate, I can only imagine the sorry situation of other subscribers who need technical assistance but who do not have the patience or energy to continuously follow up their requests. Obviously, they would end up waiting for Godot.