I could be a victim of "technological robbery"

In my New Year's Day article, I posed a question to the telecommunications giant, Globe Telecom. I asked if I was a victim of a technological form of a robbery, my coinage for that kind of a rip-off that did not anymore use a six-pack. It was possible that no one from Globe, who could have provided a reasonable explanation, might have read my column, January 1 being a public holiday. So, I got no reply.

But, my question still remains unanswered. Hoping that someone knowledgeable, either from Globe Telecom or anywhere, can educate me, I reiterate it here. If I may bore you with redundant and grammatically disturbing jargons hereafter, please forgive me. My computer language is very limited and I have yet to read a grammar book on the matter.

I have been a loyal user of the Globe Telecom system, patronizing that company for a long time now. My cellular phone number has not even changed all these years. In our (meaning, my lovely lady Carmen and I) previous foreign trips, I spent some amounts, using this Globe Telecom thing my children called "roaming" just to keep in touch with home.

Before we packed our luggage for another sojourn in November last year, I asked my children for ways to minimize my phone bills. They got me a "pre-paid" connection explaining that they would just "load" into my cell the amount corresponding to the estimate of what I needed. That way, I could control my penchant to send "text messages". That sounded logical.

True enough, few minutes after landing in San Francisco, Ca. my daughter Beatriz sent a "load." Then, it was followed by a number of "texts" which really looked to me like promotional advertisements of Globe Telecom. The number appearing on my cell as the sender of the promo was 2346. Let me reproduce one such "text" so that you may tell me if I was wrong to call it a Globe ad. "Maagang PAMASKO. Win P50,000 CASH 2NYT! Reply GM to 2346 para pwede ka manalo dahl sa pagsubscribe GamesClub P20/game 3x/wk ForGlobeJavaFons DTI5019 Rply GM."

Using the "load" Beatriz gave, I sent my first messages. Discomfort set in when my cell blinked signals telling me, to the effect, that I was out of "load." Did we not previously arrange with my children that with the amount of "load" they would give me, I could send out an estimated number of text-messages? I fell short of the quantity earlier calculated. But, then again, we probably made the wrong computation. So, I asked my lady to "text" Beatriz to send me additional load. And throughout our journey, I got more loads than planned. To shorten a lengthy story, I consequently ended this vacation with more expense on "texts" than what I paid for in our prior travels availing of the post-paid cellular phone with "roaming" connection.

I noticed that after each time my daughter gave me a "load," I also received a deluge of Globe promotional advertisements, of the kind I reproduced above. To me, they were unwelcome. The few things I gathered after inquiring about them shocked me.

The way I understood of the system was like this. When Beatriz, sent me a "text message", she was supposed to pay to Globe a fee for the service. But, that message had to be handled, also for a fee, by a service provider in the US for my unit to get it. So, charges had to be paid on both ends, one by the sender, Beatriz in this case and the other by the receiver, my unit. Now, let me go back to the "load". Beatriz bought the "load" she gave me. She paid Globe Telecom for it. I was supposed to be the only person to use it for my text messages. But, when Globe sent me promotional advertisements, I also had to pay to the US service provider a part of the fee. In other words, when Globe sold me the "load", it, itself, used this "load" because by sending me the promo, some fees had to be assessed against my "load". The more promos Globe sent to my cell, the more charges had to be paid against the "load" and conversely, the fewer messages I could send.

This was my January 1 question. Pray, tell me Globe Telecom, was this the case? Was I ripped off?