A week ago, this post from Cody Bret was shared by a friend on Facebook, and I saved it. I wanted to comment on my friend’s post, but I was pressed for time. So I just saved it. Thinking that I’d leave a comment later.
But I never got around to doing it. And today, I thought maybe I’ll just turn my comment into a blog post.
Because back in 1998, I found my someone.
Here’s that post I’m referring to…
Find someone like this.
Find somebody who is willing to fix their mistakes when they are in the wrong.
Find someone who knows that date nights are mandatory.
Find someone who never punishes you for the mistakes made by the ones behind you.
Find someone who you have amazing chemistry with.
Find someone who is willing to graduate to a real lasting love with you.
Find someone who is willing to navigate the ship of life together.
Find someone who knows that not a single person on the face of this earth sits high enough to look down on anyone.
Find someone who doesn’t make you fall for them without intending to catch you.
Find someone who would rather spend a Sunday morning with you, rather than a Saturday night.
Find somebody who’s quick to put their ego aside, and are willing to listen and grow with you with every day that passes.
Find someone who chases you …. long after they already have you.
Find someone who will never let you fall asleep at night wondering if you still matter.
Find someone who makes a reservation at your favorite restaurant unannounced.
Find someone who has genuine intentions with you from the very beginning.
Take my advice and …. find someone real enough to treat you …. like they can never replace you.
The last time I wrote anything on this blog was in March 2020. That’s a long time of neglect.
But today is special. Because today is the birthday of my someone.
Instead of posting a greeting on my Facebook page as I have always done in the past, I just had this inspiration to write. Because what I want to say is a tad long for a Facebook post.
Oh, yes. I have found my someone. He is everything described above, except for the part where he makes a reservation at my favorite restaurant. He’s never done that. Because our favorite restaurant does not require reservations. In fact, we don’t have a favorite restaurant at all.
Where we’re both at is our favorite. We can eat anywhere and say it’s our favorite place. For as long as we’re together.
On World Oral Health Day, Cleene CLIO invites everyone to celebrate by practicing proper oral healthcare with their families.
A product of proudly Filipino company PHILUSA Corporation, Cleene CLIO has been an ardent supporter of this global oral health initiative, especially with oral care given less priority during the pandemic when accessibility to dentists and visits to oral health facilities were challenging at the height of the lockdowns.
To emphasize the importance of good oral health practices at home, Cleene CLIO has partnered with Manila Water Foundation and Philippine Dental Association to provide oral health kits to various barangays and schools as part of this year’s World Oral Health Day activities. Over 2,000 health kits containing Cleene CLIO toothbrushes and Dental Floss Premium from Cleene CLIO and PHILUSA were distributed to 12 barangays and to the chosen hygiene facility in Dinalaonan Elementary School in Pangasinan.
And as a special treat for World Oral Health Day on March 20, selected Cleene CLIO products will be sold at 20% off exclusively in Mercury Drug stores nationwide.
Cleene CLIO continues to be the partner of every Filipino family, mine included, in promoting good oral hygiene by offering a wide range of affordable and quality toothbrushes.
Cleene CLIO toothbrushes are made with MicroFine Soft Bristles that help penetrate and clean hard-to-reach areas for better interdental cleaning and a gentle brushing experience. The tapered bristles penetrate between teeth and gums for a thorough cleaning, while the rounded shape of the bristles removes plaque and prevents teeth and gum damage.
There is a Cleene CLIO toothbrush for every member of the family that is affordable and has world-class quality. For those wanting extra care and protection for your teeth, Cleene CLIO offers its Refreshing Green Tea and Ultimax Charcoal under their Special care line. While for those needing specialized care, Cleene CLIO has Kiddie and Junior as well as 40+ for sensitive gum and teeth. It also has its economy toothbrushes for general oral health care for any age.
Cleene CLIO is available at Mercury Drug, leading supermarkets, drugstores, and other retail stores nationwide as well as on all leading e-commerce websites: Shopee, Lazada, and the PHILUSA Online Store.
About Philusa Corporation
Established in 1957, Philusa Corporation remains one of the country’s leading marketers of high quality and competitively priced personal care, household care, baby care, and selected pharmaceutical products, making it the source of pride for its customers, business partners, employees, and shareholders.
Now with 10 branches in key cities nationwide, Philusa Corporation is a market leader or major player in different categories like cotton (Cleene), cotton buds (Babyflo Gentle Buds), wound care management (MEDIPLAST), bathroom deodorizer and air care (ALBATROSS), home care and muriatic acid (Gleam and Apollo), home remedies (RHEA Alcohol, RHEA Aceite de Manzanilla and RHEA Hydrogen Peroxide), and uni-branded generic medicines (RHEA Generics).
Philusa Corporation continues its operations, guided by the core values it lives by —championing sustainability; placing its customers’ needs first; achieving the best possible results through innovation, continuous quality improvement, and teamwork; taking proactive steps in delivering its commitments on time; acting with integrity by doing what is right; and having a genuine concern for its customers, employees, and the company itself through taking initiatives in helping one another.
The photo below is of me and someone I totally don’t know.
We did not exchange names, just a few words. “Thank you.” And “God bless your giving heart.“
I was at SM Hypermart Batangas on December 30. We stopped to grab a few things to add to our almost empty pantry on our way home from another errand. Lines were long and everyone’s cart was full. The usual last-minute shopping at year-end, you can say. As for me, I only needed sandwich spread, some tuna, and tomato ketchup. Most of what’s in my cart were cookies for the kids.
The Prestige line was also long, so I took the line that my husband deemed to be fast-moving. He decides for me like that. It was a Big Cart lane, but due to the long lines, they sort of disregarded that particular line protocol.
The man who took the line behind me was carrying a basket. With just a pack of Graham Crackers, a small refill pack of pineapple tidbits, a pack of All-Purpose Cream, and some chicken. One can guess what they’re planning to make.
The man was with a boy who appears to be his son. I don’t know, but as I was looking at him, I felt a tug in my heart, and I started to think of what I could possibly give him. In my cart were some Meiji Panda items. I told my husband, “Dad, I want to give that boy something, ok?” And of course, he said go ahead.
So I decided I’d give him a Choco Panda. But I had to wait until I’d paid for the items.
Then I thought I’d go buy some cake slices from Goldilocks.
My turn at the cashier finally came, and after paying, I handed a Chocolate Cake Slice to the boy. Until then I haven’t even noticed the lady behind me (after the man with the basket) on the line. But after handing the boy the cake, she asked the man, “Yan po ba ang handa n’yo sa bagong taon?” The man simply nodded with a small smile, while telling his son to say thank you to me. Then the lady said, “Ako na po magbabayad lahat n’yan.“
The man tried to refuse, but the lady insisted. And although we were in a hurry to leave after my things were bagged, I just felt a push to ask the lady for a selfie, and took the opportunity to thank her for what she did. Then my husband and I left.
I did not even know I was going to write a blog post about it until today. I originally planned to post the photo on Facebook with a shoutout to whoever the lady is. But here I am, looking back at something that happened so randomly, but has given me a massive inspiration to continue doing good, giving back, and paying it forward. I’m thinking that maybe, this post will inspire you, too.
At some point in our lives, someone has been kind to us. Let’s keep that kindness going. You’ll never know who and how many you can inspire with just a small act of kindness. Even to strangers. Especially to strangers.
Let me just share with you our sad, frustrating experience with PLDT Home. Let’s call this post “our PLDT woes.”
I’m not writing this post to discredit the provider, but to document our frustrations on how they are handling our calls for support, and maybe, just maybe, they will strive to update their playbook on how to attend to fault tickets.
I can only go as far back as January, as it will be too much to include the reports we submitted back in 2020. It’s 2021, folks, so let’s focus on the current year. That is not to say that we are only experiencing this now. We have been at the mercy of PLDT’s inefficient service for a looooooooooooooong time. There are not enough o’s to express how long we’ve been suffering.
So let me share the series of fault tickets we have had since January this year.
A litany of fault tickets
January 25: 37154743 – we received confirmation of the report telling us we will receive an update within 24 hours, but we never did. The connection somehow restored, although on a crawl, but I’m all for looking at the bright side. Better a slow connection than no connection at all. So we did not call again. Saved us at least 30 minutes of listening to bad music.
February 11: 37416708 – we received confirmation of the report telling us we will receive an update within 24 hours. But only on February 13, at 7:37 am, did we receive an update that it was finally assigned to a field service team. Two other updates were received, telling us that our ticket has been assigned to their field service team, at 9:41 am and 1:31 pm on February 13, respectively.
Obviously, the fault was not resolved, because on March 1, we again called in a report.
March 1: 37689599 – this was not resolved. We called to follow up on March 2, because while the connection has improved from being intermittent at about 20 times a day, we are only getting disconnected at around 10 times, and when we are connected, it’s crawling.
Now here is the funny part, and I’m being sarcastic here, coz it’s not at all funny.
The person who took my husband’s call, Janice, had the audacity to tell him. “Sir, di ba ang report n’yo is wala kayong net? Meron naman ngayon e.“
So what was she implying then? That we don’t have the right to complain of a slow connection? Be thankful that we have connection? Yes, I think that’s what she meant when she said that.
Great customer service!
March 5: 37750639 – this was not resolved. And although we received a notification that they will send us an update within 24 hours, they never did. On March 7, someone called. He asked, “Sir, ok na ba ang internet n’yo?” To which my husband replied, “Sa ngayon, may connection kami, pero sobrang bagal.” The guy who called just said thank you, and ended the call.
March 10: 37825355 – We called again, to follow up on the March 5 fault ticket because why else would we call? The problem was not resolved! It’s not like we have time to spend waiting for someone to take our call.
But lo and behold! The March 5 ticket, according to the one who took the call, this time named Ice, has been closed. Closed! Without being resolved! When my husband asked when it was closed, Ice said it was closed on March 6. That was the day before that nameless guy called on March 7.
Why I think they are closing tickets
So, guys, this is how PLDT gets to avoid rebates for non-delivery of service. I don’t know what their Service Level Standard is in terms of fault resolution. Nobody from PLDT’s customer service could answer me when I ask them this. But in an ideal world, when a subscriber doesn’t get the service they’re paying for within a certain period of time, they should get a rebate. In fact, the old telecommunications company servicing our area before it were bought out by PLDT had a Service Level Standard of 72 hours. Meaning, your fault report has to be resolved within 72 hours, or you don’t pay for each day that you’re out of service in excess of 72 hours. But here is PLDT closing fault reports even when it has not been resolved so that if and when a subscriber complains, they will not be compelled to issue rebates.
This makes me wonder. I read on social media some people experience no service for weeks. Are they getting a respite from paying services not delivered? Hey, you’re welcome to comment below if not.
Intermittent connection
Our main problem has been the intermittent connection. Let’s not even include here the slow connection when we are fortunate enough to be connected, because again, I’m all for looking at the bright side. Being grateful for the little things.
Have you ever experienced opening an email and then not being able to send a reply because you just lost connection?
Or seeing that notification on Gmail saying “you are not connected, try again after xxxx seconds?”
Or being on Facebook and seeing that notification that says “you are offline?”
That’s how an intermittent connection manifests.
Troubleshooting
Please don’t think that we, as subscribers who are badly in need of internet service, were just sitting twiddling our thumbs while waiting for PLDT to give us the service due us. And may I mention, service we are paying for, on time, and in full?
My husband has been actively looking for ways to have our problem resolved from our end.
I know that I’ve said earlier that we are not going to include 2020 anymore. But it’s important to note back in December 2020, our modem was replaced after so many reports. And it somehow resolved the intermittent connection, at that time.
So during the call with Janice on March 5, my husband asked her, “Ano ba ang operating temperature ng modem n’yo?“
Sadly, she didn’t know the answer.
But my husband is my personal MacGyver. So he went ahead and got a mini fan just for the modem, and put the modem on top of two bars so that the modem is not touching the surface, allowing air to freely circulate and help keep the modem cool.
The intermittent connection was resolved, no thanks to PLDT.
But wait, there’s more!
Are we on intranet?
My husband and our son, Jude, now closely monitors the temperature of our modem.
But although it has resolved the intermittent connection, the speed (or lack thereof) is another matter.
Yesterday, I took time to capture this.
Folks, we are paying for a plan that is supposed to give us 50 Mbps. And that screen capture above is a sad version of 50Mbps.
So here again is a funny thing… and again, it’s not really funny at all.
Remember Janice? The one my husband was talking to on March 2?
By the way, my husband always has his phone on speaker when calling. I am the subscriber, but my husband is always the one to call them, because between the two of us, he is the coolheaded one. I avoid calling PLDT at all because I just might die of a heart attack even though I don’t have any heart ailment.
So on March 2, Janice, who introduced herself as a a tech support, asked us to do a speed test. And we did, using a Singapore server. At that time, we were getting just 3 Mbps. Janice insisted we should do the speed test using the server nearest us, which is PLDT Lucena. My husband said, “That will not be realistic, Miss. If I do a speed test using just another PLDT server, then we are staying within PLDT. That’s not internet. Do you understand what I’m saying here?”
And apparently, Janice didn’t, because until the call ended, she was saying, “Sir, hindi po talaga namin ina-advise na mag speed test kayo using international server.” What the fudge!? Are we on intranet!?
But please allow me to show again yesterday’s speed test. Notice which server I used? And the speed is still not reaching 10 Mbps?
Should I be happy and dancing the jig because hey, it is at least not 3 Mbps!?
Even a saint will lose it
My husband is a saint. That’s why he is the designated complainant.
But guess what? He’s just about ready to explode, too. He’s been spoon-feeding these guys on what they could do. He’s been telling the PLDT guys, you keep doing the same thing, and the problem keeps reoccuring. Maybe it’s time to try something else. Like maybe buy a better quality modem?
He was just telling me a while ago…
“Hindi na pwedeng mabait ka lang. Baka matulad tayo sa kapitbahay natin na walong buwang naghihintay.“
My appeal to PLDT
So here’s why I’m finally writing this post.
May I just make an appeal to PLDT to add the following to their playbook?
Have a Service Level Standard. If you already have one, make sure that your frontliners know what that is, so that when customers ask, they will receive an informed answer. Or better yet, make your customers aware of this.
Train your frontliners to be customer-centric. When an irate customer calls, that means there is a problem that only you can resolve. So please, train your frontliners to answer in a way that won’t make an irate customer be more irate than they already are. Believe me when I say, we’d rather not call you. But we have to. So be nice.
Train your frontliners on the technical stuff. We have the “turn-off-your-modem-for-5-minutes-then-switch-it-on-again-what-color-is-the-light-on-your-modem” exercise memorized. We are not calling you to be coached on something we have already done prior to calling you. Instead, train them so they know what is the operating temperature of the modem should be, coz really, it just might be the one thing that’s causing an intermittent connection. And here’s a big thing. We are on a Fibr connection, so when a member of your technical support team tells us the reason that we are having an intermittent connection is that the line might be grounded, that makes you look bad. Guys, fiber doesn’t get grounded. Light passes through the fiber cable, not electric current. Give your people proper orientation, please, so they don’t give BS reasons to customers just for the sake of giving them a reason why their connection is sh*tty. Another reason why we’d rather not call you, promise! Conversations like this with your team would be hilarious if we are not so pissed already.
Train your technical support to look at every angle. Teach them to go outside the box. Consider every possibility. No one… not one of the technicians who’ve attended to our complaints have mentioned the possibility of an overheating modem as the cause of connection loss. My husband did his own experimentation and it has helped us avoid connection loss.
Get a better brand of modem. Our long-time suffering now points to the modem overheating. Although this is not to be considered a conclusion to our ongoing experiment, you might want to look into that, too. We are in a tropical country. And we can’t all afford to be in airconditioned rooms like you. I’m sure there are modem brands out there that can go up to 60°C. What additional cost you incur for better brands of modems will be covered by what you’ll save from paying manpower you need to attend to customer complaints.
Tips to my readers, all three of you 🙂
Don’t be a pushover. We have a neighbor who has not had internet for 8 months and they just keep on waiting… and waiting… and waiting… And they can afford that because they are a couple of seniors who only need the internet to do video calls with their children. So they go to a daughter’s house to make the call because they have no internet at home. But mind you, they are still paying for the service. My husband and I, we can’t afford that. We work from home. We need the internet, so if you are like us, then demand the service you are paying for.
Try to keep your cool. Better yet, keep your modem cool. So here’s what we’ve learned. On our own, mind you. Again, no thanks to PLDT. Their Fiber Home modem has an operating temperature of -5°C to 45°C. To monitor your modem’s temperature, go to PLDT’s internet router dashboard at http://192.168.1.1.
You’ll see that our modem’s temp now is at 53.08°C. And that is with the fan already. And room temperature is at 30°C. But so far, we’re holding on.
Maybe we’ll get our house air-conditioned.
But until then, do share your PLDT experience as a comment below.
Had a pretty exciting week. Friday last week, I was on a call with the founder and CEO of an organic, nutrient-rich, cold-pressed juice company in the US, and their business launch is happening soon.
And why am I telling you about this?
Yes, you guessed it. I joined their team on Monday!
While preparing my independent contractor’s agreement, I got to thinking. What can I do to help their business launch a success?
And so I came up with a list of things a business owner should consider when launching a business and decided to blog about it.
A business launch can both be exciting and challenging. Getting started means the possibilities are endless. You have nowhere to go but forward. And opportunities abound.
On the flip side, because it’s new, most of the things you need to do and attend to are possibly overwhelming to you. So many tasks, so little time. And If you spread yourself too thin, you risk getting nothing done and not meeting your goals.
You probably have a lot on your mind and aren’t sure where to give the most time and attention. The following ideas will help you identify what you should be focusing on as you launch your business. Make these items a priority, and you’ll be on your way to creating a long-lasting and successful business that you can be proud of.
Hiring A Team
That CEO of what’s to be America’s favorite juice did the right thing right the first time. He sent me an email and asked if we could talk. And we did. So now he’s taken the most important step to success. He’s taken in some help.
You may be the boss and the person with all the ideas, but you can’t possibly have the time to do all the work yourself. Instead, you can opt to hire a team of professionals who can help you execute your business plan. Hiring mistakes can be costly, so make sure you do your homework and only make offers to people who you feel are the right fit. Set expectations early on and schedule performance reviews so you can track your staff’s progress.
Attracting Customers
Have you done your homework in identifying your target market? How are you going to attract your ideal customers?
It would help if you can be ready with a marketing plan. Build a strategy that includes elements such as having a blog and running paid advertisement campaigns. If you need help creating and distributing these ads, you can learn more about setting yourself up for success in this area. There’s a lot of noise to cut through, so you need to get creative and ensure you’re spending your marketing dollars wisely.
Your Competitors
Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.
It’s the same thing in business. Know your customers, but know your competitors better.
Know what your competitors are up to. What strategies are working for them? How? Why? Find out where they’re falling short, so you can step in and fill in the gaps in these areas. Study them so you know what you’re up against and what products or services you should be working on and developing next.
Future Growth
When you’re starting, there’s nowhere to go but up and forward. Keep your eyes on the prize. Growth is inevitable, so plan ahead. Be ready to expand.
I just finished an online course on Business Continuity Planning, and it was awesome. It reinforced my belief that we should always have a plan. Coz when we do, we are not just preparing for growth. We are also preparing for business setbacks, like a pandemic, for example.
Having a solid plan will allow you to make adjustments to your course of action. Educate yourself on what to consider when planning a business expansion, so you’re ready when the time comes to move forward or pivot your business.
Conclusion
Launching a business can be tough and it will require a lot of your time and energy. However, if you do your due diligence preparing for it, it’s going to be a walk in the park. Have a solid plan, then get some A-rated help. Know that you’ll make mistakes along the way but instead of dwelling on them use these setbacks as learning opportunities and keep powering forward with optimism.
