The Joys of Blogging - Christmas Gift for A-List Manila Readers

I actually have so much more posts that I needed to upload tonight, however, seeing that I'm already at my 100th post, I decided to devote this post to reflecting on the joys blogging has given me through the years.

A-List Manila started back in 2011, because I had just come out of surgery and was recuperating alone in the condo with nothing better to do. After the first week of watching Grey's Anatomy, and after exhausting myself looking at the Facebook posts of my friends, I decided to upload some pictures that were still stored in my phone.

In uploading the pictures, I wanted to be able to tell the story behind the photo, and that's when I realised Facebook was not going to be enough an avenue for me to share these.

So I started to write.

I am no stranger to writing. When I was in high school in Ateneo, I joined Hilites Magazine. As a freshman, one of my proudest moments was in the first grading period, when the editorial board of Hilites chose my poem to be placed at the back cover of the magazine.

My poem was about a ride from school to the house, and getting stuck in traffic amidst a sudden rain outburst. I heard a tapping on the van's window, and I was face to face with a little girl getting wet in the rain asking for change from me. I was seated, dry and comfortable in the van, and she was soaked to the bone. What made me better than her that fate handed this card that afforded me this comfortable lifestyle?

That's when I wrote Tapping On My Window and it was used as the poem for the launch of Tulong Dunong that year.

I wrote for Hilites for 3 years, and on my 4th year in high school, I became the Editor-in-chief. I still remember my column back then, and it was entitled, Nite Lite.

But then, life took over. And here I thought I would take up Journalism, or Creative Writing, and finish a novel and become a Pulitzer prize winning author.

I did get to finish a novel during the summer break from high school to college, and I was able to share this with some of my friends - never been published though.

Lately, I've been playing with a concept for another novel about a dystopian society - but I haven't gone around establishing the proper ground work for it yet.

The closest I've come to publishing in the past few years is One Serendra's monthly newsletter, but that has ceased as well.

But I continue to write via this platform. Maybe I am able to reach out to people, mostly, I believe I just give basic information - stuff that I would want to see and know about, like where is this shop located, what is the contact number of the restaurant, what's the price-range for this bar. These simple things that I get to do, though, bring me a sense of fulfilment.

Really, I don't know what my audience reach is, and I'm not really aiming to be a well-known blogger - as long as I'm still able to share my thoughts, and my ideas, and my experiences through my words, then I'm good.

It is the Christmas season, and I want to be able to give a random stranger a nice surprise for this holiday season.

It has been a tough and challenging year for me - and whenever I would feel stressed, I would always look forward to going home, lighting up the oil burners and candle warmers, choosing a scent, and putting these on the warming plates.

So to celebrate my 100th post, I will be giving out a Scentsy warmer to a lucky reader who would like to contribute a post to A-List Manila. Email me photos from your favourite restaurant, store, or vacation spot, and tell me your story. The best entry will merit a post here in A-List Manila, and a Scentsy warmer from me! Don't be shy to share, and now is your opportunity to experiment with your writing skills. I'll give you guys until December 21, 2014 to email me your stories and photos. Send these to cruzgold@gmail.com. I'll choose my favourite entry and notify the winner on the 22nd, and post their blurb on my blog - and I'll ensure that you receive the Scentsy warmer for Christmas!

Life Threatening Service from Sun Cellular

I did say that I will write about my experiences in this blog. Here's an experience I would like to share to my readers. I hope that people learn a lesson here.

Back in January 2011, I received a call from the a billing and collection agent of Sun Cellular, apologizing that they were unable to bill 2-3 months worth of Blackberry service to my account. He asked if it was okay to bill me. I agreed, but informed him that since the non-billing was their mistake, they must not bill the 3 months all in one go, instead, charge me in three separate billings. I had requested that this be done because my plan with Sun Cellular was only PhP 350.00 a month - I just needed it because it was used only for calls to my immediate family. I knew that if they were going to charge the PhP 2,997.00, it would eat up into my credit limit and cause my line to get disconnected.

I was, however, unable to get the name of the billing and collection agent of Sun Cellular, because I was in the middle of preparing for a trip to Palawan during that time.

I thought that my instructions were clear enough, and he had agreed to the terms that I had set, so I didn't think much of that particular conversation, and proceeded on normally with my daily routine.

I woke up on February 25, 2011 feeling unwell. I looked for the phone on the nightstand, and tried to call my mom so she could pick me up from my apartment and bring me to the emergency room of Makati Medical Center. I was unable to make a call.

My postpaid plan from Sun was disconnected. I called Sun's customer service hotline, since that's the only number you can call when your line is conveniently redirected, to inquire as to why I couldn't make outgoing calls or texts. Rachel Lanuza received the call.

Rachel Lanuza, a call center agent from Sun, informed me that my line had already gone beyond my credit limit that's why it got disconnected. I asked why it went beyond my credit limit. She informed me of the PhP 2,997.00 charge that was placed on the account. I informed her that the charge should have broken down into three separate transactions, posted into three separate billing cycles. I informed her that the charge was corresponding to 3 months worth of Blackberry service (BIS) that their billing had forgotten to charge onto my bill. I also informed her that I received a call several weeks back from a man claiming to be from billing and collection informing of the charge - I told her that the man had agreed to my terms on how it should be charged to my bill, because it was their oversight that led to the charge not being properly placed in my account.

Ms. Lanuza could not understand what I was explaining to her, and she just reiterated that the line was disconnected because I had went beyond the credit limit. No matter what I told her, she did not find it strange that an almost PhP 3,000.00 charge was placed on my account seemingly from nowhere.

Since I was sick, I had reached my tipping point. I needed to be brought to the hospital, yet I couldn't call my mom to bring me because my line was disconnected. Instead, I had to end up speaking to someone over the phone who couldn't even understand that it was Sun Cellular's error that led us to this point. It was now a matter of life or death for me, so I blew my top off. I lashed at her for her incompetence, or her not being compassionate enough to understand that I was the victim in this particular instance.

The man from billing and collection did not follow what we had agreed on, to spread the charge evenly into three months. A charge I had followed up several times back in 2010, only for them to give me a call 2011. Had he done what was agreed upon, I wouldn't be ill and talking to Rachel Lanuza on the phone when I was supposed to be rushed to the hospital already.

I put the phone down on her, scrambled out of my apartment, to the street, and brought myself to the emergency room.

I got home that evening from the hospital. As soon as I got home, I received a death threat from a prepaid Globe number. I received it on my Sun line.

The Sun line is my means of communication to my family. My parents, and siblings have Sun lines, and only my family is aware and/or uses that number to contact me.

Who could have sent me the message? A Globe prepaid number, nonetheless. I tried contacting the number, it started ringing, and then the call was rejected. I tried calling again, it was turned off already.

The only person, aside from my family, I spoke to that day was Rachel Lanuza. Rachel Lanuza, obviously, must have been unable to handle the complaint I brought up to her attention, took it personally, then decided that my life should have been threatened.

She worked for Sun Cellular at the time, which means she not only had access to my cellphone number. She knew where I lived. She knew what numbers I called on my phone, which means, she could access the numbers of my parents, and siblings. Being that they are postpaid subscribers as well, she knew where they lived as well.

I feared for my security.

I called the contact center and informed them of the concern, giving them the exact words sent to my phone and the cellphone number that was used. I dare not write on this blog what was sent to me for fear that it might shock others. I wasn't assisted right. I emailed the contact center again using the email address on the website of Sun, and this was their response:

Dear Mr. Cruz:

We are grateful that you find time to bring this concern to our attention.

We regret to know the inconvenience you have experienced in communicating with some of our Representatives. The incident that you mentioned have been brought to the attention of our concerned group for proper handling and investigation to prevent same occurrence in the future. Please give us some time to further look into this and we will give you feedback as soon as we already have the resolution for your concern.

In this regard, your patience is greatly appreciated. As our valued customer, it is our priority to provide you the service you deserve.

Sincerely,

Grace Joy Ramirez

Customer Service Specialist

Customer Service Operations

Suncellular

It is now January 29, 2013, and my concern has still not been given proper closure. Nobody has bothered to contact me to check on me. Their customer service seems to hope that I have forgotten all about this incident.

Whoever is reading this should learn that our information is not safe. We may trust our information to cellphone companies, credit card companies, and so on, but this will always be used by the wrong people against us.