Legitimate complaints

We columnists do get our fair share of complaints from friends about things that trouble them. Here’s one that’s really worth looking into. I got this text from my good friend, Atty. Manuel Lino Faelnar, a Cebuano now living in Manila, who formerly came from the World Bank and is currently a member of LUDABI and the Defenders of Indigenous Languages of the Archipelago (DILA). Lino apparently took a Cebu Pacific flight from Cebu back to Manila. Here’s his text in full.

 “Bai, if you didn’t notice, the Jan. 2011 issue of Cebu Pacific Air’s Magazine “Smile” has no writeup on the country’s biggest fiesta in January, Cebu’s Sto. Niño Sinulog. But it has articles on everything else - Sto. Niño Ati-Atihan in Kalibo, Sto. Niño Dinagyan in Iloilo, Quiapo Fiesta, Sto. Niño Kuraldat in Pampanga, Buling-Buling in Pandacan, Pasungay and Paaway Festival in Iloilo. The publisher, Ink Publishing PTE LTD of Singapore has missed the point of the airline’s name. Somebody should call the attention of Lance Gokongwei who is prominently featured with his message. — Manuel Faelnar.”

 In fairness to CPA, I haven’t seen their magazine and I’m relying on the statement of Atty. Faelnar as we’ve been friends for a long time now and he is a very reliable person. No doubt this is a very legitimate complaint. I took the liberty of forwarding his text message to our friends in CPA, Charles Lim and RG Orense in the hope that this gets corrected in the future. Although I submit that it’s too late to do changes already. But then, this is also due to the fact that perhaps the publisher, being a foreigner, doesn’t really know enough of the Philippines.

 This is akin to what happened years back when sculptor Ed Castrillo created the Heritage Monument in Plaza Parian. Because he was not a Cebuano and not conversant of Cebuano history, he forgot to place the famous Tres de Abril uprising by Leon Kilat a.k.a. Pantaleon Villegas. Anyway, I hope that Cebu Pacific can correct this problem in the future.

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 Here’s another complaint that I’d like to impart to my readers. First of all, I’m a gadget guy and I do have an iTouch, which is now almost 3-years gold. There’s a new kid on the block called iPad, but I found it a tad too huge for my taste. One gadget that I was truly fascinated is the Samsung Galaxy Tablet, which in my book is the perfect size for me to upgrade from my trusty old iTouch. Just as I was planning to get one this week, however, I got this emailed letter from my big bike buddy, Jose “Cheling” Sala, which is quite self-explanatory. Here’s his letter in full.

 “Hi Bit, as I mentioned to you last week, my son got a Samsung 32” Flat Screen TV about a couple of years back—its not more than 3 years old. The picture got blurred and the unit was brought to the Samsung Service Center at Jones Avenue. After a week of following up on the status, Samsung finally said that they had identified the part that needs replacement but that the part was already out of production and not available! I could not believe what I heard-how can a product like that not be supported for at least 10-years?

 Naturally I asked for a supervisor—not available. After much prodding I asked to contact their source of parts so I could get to the bottom of this. I was given a Samsung Call Center in Manila and a certain Marion David as the person responsible for procuring the parts. Well, after spending a good part of the afternoon getting thru the local of that guy—you guessed it! He refused to talk to me and the secretary keep diverting me to operator. Bit, what frustration! What a company! Anyway, I pass this information so your readers will be warned not to consider any Samsung appliances if they want to avoid bad, bad customer assistance in the future. Best Regards. — Cheling.”

 I don’t blame Cheling Sala for being indignant at Samsung. During the height of their popularity, Sony was also acting like that. They have a Service Center also in Jones Ave. and you practically had to beg them to fix your gadgets. Thanks to the Korean competition from Samsung and LG, I noticed a huge change in the Sony Service Center. The staff became more helpful and polite and they’ll tell you the score whether your Sony product can still be fixed or whether it is obsolete.

 That Samsung told Cheling that the Flat TV they sold them 3 years ago is already obsolete, I find that unbelievable. I hope the Samsung Service Center would wake up and realize that we Filipinos are also their consumers who ought to be given proper service. They still have a chance to rectify it if they want to. I mean, if they can’t even fix a big flat screen TV, it makes me wonder whether Samsung can fix a Galaxy Tablet, which is more complicated than a TV, especially when such gadgets are susceptible to slipping away from your hands? Let’s see what Samsung Service Center has to say.

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