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Subscribers complain over Smart Freedom Day Sale

Smart is holding a whole-day Independence Day Sale today. This is a nationwide sale for folks who subscribe to their postpaid line, the Smart Freedom Plan. However, reports are coming in from around the country that the sale was in complete chaos and disarray.

We received reports via Twitter, SMS, Facebook, Email and in the blog comments about what’s happening on the ground.

Yugatech 728x90 Reno7 Series

Im the first in SM City Cebu Freedom Booth and no supplies for ip4s, sgs2 and others. Please yuga help us investigate to stop this very irresponsible promotions of smart! I heard of some sort of early reservations but it was very clear from their official site that first come first serve basis. I hope also DTI will look into it!Ruel Quidato

deception is what they did! pipila ka tapos walang ibibigay na unit dahil checheck muna kung my record ka? anu yun? san ung freedom jan? mga po***!!!! e bayan mo patrol mo na yan pra matauhan yang msart na yan.. lokohan na yan eh… nagka stampede naAsih Lumah

I was in Galleria and it was crazy. – Pipo del Rosario

10:30am pa lang ubos na mga units, nagkakagulo pa sa pila..Gilbert Morallos Cruz

Hi yuga! i believe that smart did this deceptive act to draw a lot of customers. I’m the third customer in their business Center in sm cebu and first sales person who I talked to said they ran out of stocks because of people who reserved yesterday. I didn’t buy into that BS and asked another person who gave me a different answer. Kesyo la pa daw stocks and they did not accept reservations. When I started to voice out, no one could give a straight answer. I asked to speak to their manager and no manager showed up.Joshua Dungog Dabatos

– With my family in tow at around 9:30 we arrive at Rob Galleria basement 1 parking.
– At exactly 10am people started running I was forced to run as well.
– Running with my slippers on moving escalators was difficult as hell.
– It took 5 escalators to reach Level 4.
– At this almost all people were running for their lives.
– A guard who was not aware of the situation panicked an started to blow his whistle.
– I managed to comtinously run non- stop just to reach the booth.
– To my dismay there were already 50 people in the booth.
– I quickly secured an application form and started operation singit.
– After 3 minutes the smart people announced that the 4s was not anymore available.
– Pissed I continued to observe the scene:
People were mad and shouting at the staff especially the 4th person on the line.
At the back of the booth I can see othe staff from smart openning boxes of iphone 4s as if checking the unit.
– Unless you had access inside you did’nt have a chance of getting the 4s when the doors openned.
– I believe there were only 10 units or less available iphone 4s that time.
– I spent gas, parking, coffee just for nothing. Thanks Smart!

– from Ric

A friend of mine was at Galleria this morning. Same experience as the above post. A lot of people were angry kasi kahit maaga sa pila, wala ding stocks. Grabe. Diba dapat nirereport ito sa DTI? Sales and promos like this are regulated diba? -biboy

wala po stock mga iphones at samsung sa lahat daw po ng branch ng Smart, ang meron lang daw po mga stocks yung nokia units. pumunta po sister ko sa SM dasma bago magbukas, maaga pa sila pumila ayun pala wala daw po stocks sa lahat, tinawagan mga ibat ibang branches wala daw po! sayang lang ang pagpuntaAlden

10am nag open mall. 1020 out of stock na iphone 4s. Ito ay kahit na wala pa kahit isang unit ang narerelease. I do hope that promos like this are monitored. Ginagawang joke ng smart ang oras at pagod ng mga taong dumayo dito. And sana sites like yugatech wont just publish such ads kahit na bayad sila. Lumalabas kasi ginagamit din ang site sa panloloko ng mga telcos.anonymous

SOBRANG MAGULO, WALANG SISTEMA. MGA MANLOLOKO LANG. PAASA. SA ARANETA GATEWAY WALA NA DAW UNITS! WALA PA NAMAN NARELEASE. PAN 10 LANG AKO SA PILA,,, WALA NA UNIT! BOOOOO SMART COMM.anonymmous

I was #6 kanina sa SM Cebu. Wala na daw stock kac few days ago marami na daw nag pareserve. Then confirm pa daw nila ang warehouse if my incoming stock.Early Bird

i wasted so much time going to smart wireless center cagayan de oro! they said they’re not included kamo sa promo! kakainis i even told them how come na di kasali kayo eh andito ata kayo sa listing since all venues nakasaad for iphone4s promo! malaking kalokohan!julz

Same here in SM pampanga wala daw stocks ng iPhones and Galaxy Tabs… SHAME SYANG ANG EFFORT! – Used Tindahan New

Same scenario with Smart Business Center at SM City Fairview. As soon as the entire mall opens at 10AM, people were rushing upstairs (as if there’s a marathon of sorts) and the guards were unable to control the crowd. Only to be greeted with a bad news that the coveted units are already “out of stock” due to prior reservations made.Noel Selarde

Hi Yuga- Just an update. i already contacted DTI and I have been endorsed to their Cebu Office. I will not stop until all victims of this unfair and deceptive business practice is given justice. We Filipinos should fight for our rights and we should not be a victim of this Corporation who’s earning millions in profits from consumers (US) and especially not today which is considered our day of FREEDOM which they used and took advantage of.

P.S. I encourage everyone who were affected by this deceptive campaign to contact DTI Call Center
(+632) 751.3330
(+63917) 834.3330– (if need be, contact your local DTI office)

One voice will be part of the millions..Joshua D. Dabatos

********************************

We originally reported this story yesterday based on Smart’s website and while we only posted what is available information, we play no role in whatever marketing strategy the telco was planning. We also apologize to readers if they feel we misled them about this event.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

100 Responses

  1. Avatar for zarne zarne says:

    ‘sales ad: 64 GB Iphone 4S for PHP 10,990’

    Tnis phone is still selling at about PHP 32,000 ($800) in other markets. Selling it at 2/3 off the regular selling price for PHP 10,990 smells so ‘fishy’ to me. Like they say… if it is too good to be true, it probably is. The Government should invistigate Smart Tel. for false advertising, and fined them if found guilty.

  2. Avatar for daniel daniel says:

    I already experienced this on LG Optimus One event! In SM North Edsa, guards are very ignorant of what was happening! the escalators are full of people, some people injured because of being not able to step out of the escalator because the end of the escalator is full of people…. the whole of SM North EDSA Annex is full of lines,shouting, PURE CHAOS! A terrorist could instantly kill 10,000 people who lined up there!

    God, persecute Smart stores! Wish someone gets the confidence to ram the insides of the store and destroy the wall glasses of their stores! I’m very irritated!

  3. Avatar for a a says:

    This should serve as a lesson to those who believed of too good to be true..they were fooled and now the’re looking for answers even going after dti..how pitty

  4. Avatar for Louie Rodaje Louie Rodaje says:

    I was third in the line for the Davao booth. We waited for more than an hour for the booth to formally open, although the marketing staff were already there. After the necessary application process we were informed that there are no longer iPhone units available for the promo. Foolishness. Not a single iPhone was distributed. Smart should apologize for this. They are fooling the public. This should not be tolerated!!!

  5. Avatar for mx mx says:

    malamang if di pwede ang mag pareserve jan tapos walang unit na lumabas eh nakuha na yun nang mga empleyado ni reserve nila sa sarili nila at mga kamag anakan. which is anung point nang event na yan kung wala naman palang units na lalabas?

  6. Avatar for Dennis Supetran Dennis Supetran says:

    And the sad thing about it is that the people who are supposed to be monitoring and regulating abti-consumer behavior like this will never hold companies like smart accountable. My only consolation is that the owners of smat and globe and all these companies, when they die, will have forever yo pay for their misdeeds. So by all means, please vontinue to lie, cheat an steal from people. :)

  7. Avatar for meh meh says:

    I’m sure it was on purpose and they wont get in trouble. I bet each store had only 3 or 4 of each device at that price. Its all a trick to get people in the store and try to sell them other phones/plans

  8. Avatar for macnemiami macnemiami says:

    i know somebody who works at smart. sabi nya naka reserve na daw karamihan ng units for employees kaya ganun ang nangyari. tama ba naman yun inuna pa yung mga empleyado instead of customers?

    • Avatar for mx mx says:

      exactly! nakareserve sa mga employees. edi dapat pala nag sale na lang sila sa mga empleyado nila.

  9. Avatar for Jim Raynor Jim Raynor says:

    Victims: DTI! Smart Telco cheated us! do something!
    DTI: Smart Telco! you will be apprehended!
    SMART: I am a major corporation player. Shut me down and millions will lose their jobs
    DTI to Victims: ahmm.. magglobe nalang kayo…

    • Avatar for pol pol says:

      this is true, when will people learn that government agencies in the philippines is under the payroll of the big companies that’s why they can’t do anything, pansin nyo tinitira lang nila is yung mga medium size companies.

  10. Avatar for sirches sirches says:

    this event reminds me of lg optimus p500 sale, kaya mahirap umasa sa mga ganyang promotions, natuto na ako…

  11. Avatar for JayR JayR says:

    CALLING DTI…Paki silip po itong palpak na “promo” na ito ng SMART…AYON SA DTI WEBSITE…ITO PO DAPAT AY DISQUALIFIED SA PROMO!!!

    Who shall be disqualified from joining a sales promotion?
    1. The sponsor, promoter, advertiser, participating outlets and their employees including their relatives up to the second civil degree of consanguinity or affinity.
    2. Persons reporting regularly to the promoter, sponsor or advertiser under a contract or service and who, by the nature of the service they render may have a direct and personal knowledge of the promotion
    3. In case of promotions involving bank deposits, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) shall prescribe the degree of relationship whch shall be covered by the disqualification.

    http://dtincr.ph/faq_salespromo.php

  12. Avatar for qwerty qwerty says:

    Isa ako sa mga nakapag pa reserved nong Monday June 10 and bayad agad then Wednesday June 12 na release para hindi daw mahalata na nagpa advance reserved kame and para ma cover ng photographer nila na kasi kukuhanan ng picture with the unit (in my case it’s iphone 4s)

    • Avatar for Manong Manong says:

      @qwerty

      Lucky for you. If what you say is true in what branch were you able to do this?

  13. Avatar for totoy bato totoy bato says:

    maganda namn ang offer nila kaso sa connection ata may problem medyo mabagal kasi yung connection e …….
    sometimes we cant tolerate that matters …..

  14. Avatar for tanny batumbakal tanny batumbakal says:

    marami akong nakikitang mga cellphones na mura ….
    sguro marami tlgang nahuhumaling sa gadgets…..
    kaya indemand ito sa lahat ng tao …..

  15. Avatar for Meikah Ybañez-Delid Meikah Ybañez-Delid says:

    OMGeee! What a sad event. Did we hear from Smart yet?

  16. Avatar for Blue Blue says:

    It’s a trend, the employees compete with the buyers for the sale items. Hindi lang sa Smart nangyayari to, kahit sa mga Buy 1 Take 1 sa supermarkets and department stores. For example in Luxasia, employees raid the sale items and if a customer is looking for a certain item na ubos na – employee uses this opportunity to sell the item that was on sale at a price higher than the sale price but still lower than retail. I experienced this twice in recent Luxasia sales. Management should hand down a rule banning employees from participating in sale events intended for customers. Instead, employees should get their own sale events. I didn’t go to the Freedom sale – I’ve only been to one grand mobile sale event in Megamall some years ago and let’s say I never intend to go through that again or at least not for a mobile phone.

  17. Avatar for prinsesa mo prinsesa mo says:

    you can buy a branded phone in affordable pricee…but why is the connection failed ? the unlimited social is ban i cant use it… if you want to see the pictures and links it will automatically charge ……

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