Rant: Something to do with a telecom company...

Tweet

In our little neighborhood store, one of the things we sell is prepaid cellphone loads. Our sim is specifically a retailer sim which has a menu that allows us to sell load (regular and promo) to customers. Most of the time, these transactions happen smoothly. But sometimes, something unexpected happens. This is what happened yesterday: A neighbor came by and bought P50 regular load for her phone. I put the data in (her phone # and amount) and promptly received the notification for successful loading. I told her, 'the load's ok', and put the phone down. Shortly after, while attending to another customer, the phone sounded again. Another message arrived. I checked it and was surprised that it was another notification of another successful load to the exact same number. The transaction was doubled! Even though I did not do it twice. The neighbor was still there so I asked her if she received the load already. She said not yet. I told her that something weird happened and that I received two notifications and both amounts were taken from our load wallet balance. But anyway, I told her, I'll just call the telecom later. I'm sure it's just a mistake that can be easily sorted out. She left. Within the hour, I called the telecom hotline and told them of the situation. Something similar has actually happened with their sister company before (it was worse - a transaction was quadrupled, not just doubled - but that was easily resolved, the excess transactions were reversed and the amount returned to our load wallet within 3 working days, I believe). So, I was fully expecting the same for this case - the excess transaction will be reversed, and the amount returned to our load wallet. But no. The hotline person said, according to their parameters, the second transaction was valid! And will not be reversed. Naturally, I complained. And complained and complained. I was adamant I did not do the transaction twice, which is true! (I wish I had footage to show that, but I don't.) I even told them about the incident with their sister company, which was resolved easily! Furthermore, I noted to him that the timestamp on the first transaction was 12:05:26, while the second was 12:05:57. I insisted that it would be impossible for me (knowing my habit of checking and rechecking) to repeat the whole transaction (entering customer number, checking for correctness, inputting amount, checking once again before clicking the last 'ok') within 31 seconds! Perhaps because I complained so much, the hotline person said that the case will be submitted for further checking, though he did not guarantee that it will eventually be reversed. (I actually don't expect it will.) So anyway, I just came up with a solution that I thought was reasonable and acceptable. I went to my neighbor. She said that she did receive two P50 loads but said she didn't use the second one to register to a promo. She only used one. I explained to her what the hotline person told me about the transaction being valid and that it will not be reversed. I told her that I complained about that, and that I was told they will do further checking but no guarantees. So this was my plan, I told her: since she did receive the second P50 load, I will ask that she pay for that. It's a good thing that, since about two months or so ago, load validity of prepaid cellphone loads in our country have been extended to one year. So her extra P50 load will not expire (for a year). It will be as if she loaded once (P100) now enough for two weeks for example, instead of loading twice (P50 this week + P50 next week). Also in my plan was this: if in case, after further checking, the telecom does reverse the second transaction, I will return her money to her. But she wouldn't have it. She refused to pay for the second P50 load. (For reference, Google atm says that PhP 52.58 = USD 1.) I get it. And I reiterated to her that she had absolutely no fault whatsoever in the matter. It also wasn't my mistake because I swear I did not do the transaction twice! The blame is on some glitch that happened in the system. But an extra P50 load was subtracted from our load wallet, and she did receive it, so I thought what I was asking was reasonable. But to her, it wasn't... (There's more to this story. This rant post might need a part 2. Or maybe I'll just elaborate in the comments if someone asks...) In any case, since she refused to pay even though I feel I wasn't being unreasonable with my first request, I came up with a new plan. I won't ask her to pay for the second P50 load now, but I will remember it. Now, since she regularly buys load for that number, my request to her is this: when the time comes when she would normally buy another P50 load for that number, but she won't because she already has the load in her balance, that is the time I request for her to come by and pay for it. It will be hard for us (my mother and me) to know when that will be unless the neighbor tells us, so a backup plan I told my mother was: the next time she comes by to buy another P50 load for that number (meaning she must be at zero balance again), that's the time we can charge her for the new P50 load she's buying, plus the P50 load she didn't want to pay for yet. That's the plan now. After this, I called the telecom hotline again and just asked if I can leave them some feedback. And I told them about the situation we're in now since the neighbor refused to pay. I told the telecom it's a good thing this is a neighbor we're dealing with. What if it was a stranger who just happened to pass by? One who we'll never see again? Good thing it was only a P50 load. What if the doubled transaction was a P250 load or something? When the fact of the matter is this was not my fault, nor the customer's. And the problem stems from their refusal to reverse a doubled transaction caused by a system glitch, which we promptly reported to them. These are some of the woes of a storekeeper. :/