Friday, March 19, 2010

Smart Bro- good or bad?

Smart Bro (formerly known Smart Wifi) stands for Smart Broadband and is a wireless service offered by Smart Broadband Inc., a subsidiary of Smart Communications.

We won't be complaining here. What we're gonna do is tell you our experience with them. Please take time to read everything. Then you assess for yourself if you want to have Smart Bro or not.

What we have is the "999 unlimited plan". Having the internet connection installed was really easy. It so happened that the building we lived in that time didn't require us anything. We just had to call the Smart hotline and within that week they sent their installers.

Internet-speed-wise, it was okay. It wasn't 2Mbps but it was fast enough for us to watch movies in YouTube and we're not really very patient people. Sometimes it has it's bad days but which company doesn't.

After a year we moved to another building. So we went to their wireless center, applied and paid for relocation. While applying for relocation, we made sure we gave them the following info: that we have already deployed the antenna ourselves, our new address and our preferred days of re-installation. They told us to wait for 7 days which we did and that someone will call.

After a week, no one did. We called their hotline. Smart said they'll forward the issue so we have to wait 24 hours and that someone will call.

After a day, nothing happened. So we called the hotline again. This time Smart said they don't have a record of our application and they can't really solve the issue because they don't have the means and that we have to go to the wireless center about it.

We went to their center again and they said they'll give it priority since we have waited long enough already.

After 3 days, technicians sent us a message asking if we already have permission from the building to have the Smart Bro antenna installed. They also told us via SMS that if we don't they can't.

Our mistake was that we relied on our experience the first time we had it installed wherein no building pass was required. We didn't even bother finding out because the new building is of the same company as the previous one and it's just right across.

When we were applying for relocation, the person we spoke to could have brought that up. We think that's vital information that every customer must know.

Anyway, the building pass was a hassle so we decided not to have Smart Bro anymore. We called their hotline and we were informed that we should do termination on paper.

We weren't able to cancel it right away and Smart continued to bill us. Just to end the nightmare, we paid a month worth of un-installed internet.

During the application for termination, they told us they'll send technicians to get the antenna. We told them that we don't have time during the weekdays so it had to be on a weekend. We also made sure they had our new address. Good thing we did because we saw in their computer they still have the old one. The agent from the wireless center we spoke to said he'll call us.

Two days later, we got a message from Smart customer care saying their installer is scheduled to pullout the smart bro antenna on March 19, 2010 - a Friday!

Today(Friday), while waiting for them we got another message from their installer asking us where our new address is and another message from a Smart agent informing us that their installer came and that the guard from the previous building informed them that we moved out a year ago.

That's our experience. So what do you think is Smart Bro customer service good or bad?

FYI we are now using Globe. Their customer service is great and the internet is way faster. The 3 days worth of download with Smart is only overnight download with Globe. However we think the connection speed varies on location. Our suggestion is for you to try the companies' (Globe, Smart, Sun or what-have-you) prepaid service first for you to check how good the connection is in your area.

Thank you for reading! Have a great day!

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Ape Academy (PSP)

GAME PLAY: The player must work up from junior class to senior class by playing mini games and meeting the criteria for each class. In each class, there are 9 mini games to complete. Failing to meet the criteria rewards you with an X, while meeting the criteria rewards you an O. You then have to form a line consisting 3 straight Os horizontally, vertically or diagonally similar to the game Tic-Tac-Toe. Each level has a certain number of lines required to move to the next class.
How do we like this game? We like it. It's funny. It's cute. Some of the mini-games can be a little annoying because it doesn't really give a detailed instruction on the controls. But you don't have to be a genius to play this. Even without the instruction, it's pretty easy to figure after 1 to 2 tries. We like the variations of the mini games. It is definitely more fun to play compared to the usual card games. Graphics-wise, it's very "cartoony" which we think suits the game play.

Ape Academy is not exactly a must-play. But if you can try it, then that would be nice. :-)


Saturday, March 6, 2010

Kamen Rider Den-O Hana Figure

Yay! Shirl got a new doll! She's Hana from Kamen Rider Den-O.

Manufacturer: Banpresto
Material: PVC (can't really afford resin yet)
Height: 18 cm.