Is Smart Ripping People Off?
By Rico, 12:12 pm Sat Mar 15 2008 - Rumors - 2 Opinions
We received an email accusing Smart of overcharging their cellular subscribers by as much as 6 pesos. It wonders why PLDT can charge only 1 peso per minute for their new wireless landline service, when Smart charges much more than that. Smart Communications is a subsidiary of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, and both telcos use the same network to handle traffic for their respective wireless services. Here’s an edited version:
PLDT inadvertently reveals huge profit markup on SMART’s cellular service
In case you were wondering how SMART can afford those massive advertising campaigns…
- Smart’s prepaid cards are about Php 6.50 per minute rounded to the highest minute
- Smart’s best postpaid plans come to about 4.58 peso per minute but you would would have to pay for 3500 pesos worth. 764 minutes or 12 3/4 hours.
- PLDT now offers what they call a wireless landline but it uses Smart’s cellular service as its carrier.
- PLDTs but they charge only 600 pesos for 600 minutes (10 hours). Even if you go over 600 minutes they still only charge you 1 peso per minute. Local Long distance is 5 pesos. Calling a cell phone is 6.50 per minute which makes me wonder why considering it’s the same system they charge 4.58.
- Even Smart to Smart is still a whopping 3.56
- Smart and PLDT can still make a profit charging you 1 peso per minute, and yet for reasons that seem wholly arbitrary they will charge you 4-7 pesos per minute. A 300-700% markup just because its called a cell phone
- PLDT is offering a SIM that you can put in any cellphone to avail of 50 free 5 minute calls and 2 pesos a minute there after.
- The ultimate insult to SMART subscribers is that their current system isn’t configured for lots of calls, mostly its for texting, but with PLDT burdening the system with cheap talk, Smart subscribers will increasingly find good connections to be a thing of the past.
Charging more for the same service is nothing new. But thanks to technology, spreading information about the alleged consumer-hostile practices of companies is easier than ever. Is a boycott of Smart merited, especially when reports of Globe’s (Smart’s main competitor) unreliability over the last two days?
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