A clear testament that Smart Bro Flexitime is a rip off

So I’ve been blogging about this and calling @SMARTCares‘ attention for the last two weeks or so:

Perhaps, to make up for their flawed service or a futile attempt to buy me and this blog off, they reversed P100 to my Smart Bro account;

10-12-2015 8-11-09 PM

Indeed, I received that P100.

However, before the reversal even happened, call me trying to gather more evidence or silly me–I was hoping that perhaps any issues with Smart Bro Flexitime might already have been fixed, I subscribed earlier to Flexitime 30, which should entitle me to 4 hours internet browsing for 1 day. Or so I thought.

So, at 12:54 PM I subscribed to Flexitime 30 – thus my 240 data minutes as follows:

10-12-2015 12-54-50 PM

I reset my internal counter (that one that came with the Huawei pocket wifi device) as you can see below:

10-12-2015 12-56-17 PM

Yet at 2:23 PM, that’s 87 minutes (or 1 hour and 27 minutes), my data minutes was down to zero (see below):

 

10-12-2015 2-24-04 PM

Indeed, I received a text message advising me I’ve fully consumed my data (or call, sic) credits (see below):

 

10-12-2015 2-24-52 PM

Indeed my internal counter indicated I’ve accessed the internet for less than 90 minutes (see below):

10-12-2015 2-25-04 PM

So, there’s 4 hours for you, gone in less than 90 minutes.

To Smart Communications, Inc. and everyone comprising the Smart Bro team, here’s bad news for you:

You can reverse charges against my account all you want, but I’m not gonna stop documenting fraud in your offerings when I see one. This service, the Smart Bro Flexitime in particular, is definitely a rip off from your avid subscribers. It’s not in any way different from disappearing load credits.

No Comments

Errol November 3, 2015 Reply

same happened here..whenever i download a file my data minutes deplete faster ..is this their FUP for Flexitime?

deuts November 3, 2015 Reply

Flexitime is a time-based internet package from Smart. It isn’t even unlimited internet. Thus it should not be subject to their FUP.

Gorio May 15, 2016 Reply

Same thing always happens to me…or my internet will lock up if im downloading. I report i8t and all I get is reports escalations or followups. Although its not the fault of the customer service agents they have no power to do reversals or tec support. Anybody who can do anything only hides behind them.

If I could sell all my reports followup and escalations Id be a millionaire by now but thats all I got from them stealing my hard earned money.

Corporations and politicians keep abusing the people and they just take it.

Andy November 3, 2015 Reply

The exact same thing happened to me twice in the last days! What SMART Communications Inc. does it criminal! Imagine… all the thousands of people who are paying for something but don’t get it delivered! THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!

deuts November 3, 2015 Reply

Exactly! That’s why I made it a point that Smart couldn’t just reimburse me and I’d be done with it. This is a scam and they are scamming the ignorant public. They have to rectify the situation from the roots, not just pay off those who complain.

Camille November 4, 2015 Reply

I have a theory on this but I am not 100% sure: they deduct 15 minutes as soon as you turn on the data regardless of the time you surfed. There was a time that I only used the internet for 4 minutes, but they deducted 15 minutes from my balance. It would be like using “P5 for 15 minutes” because they usually deduct P10 even if you surfed for only 16 minutes, all thanks to that extra 1 minute you used. This defeats the purpose of “Flexitime”.

deuts November 4, 2015 Reply

I wouldn’t mind actually if they indeed deduct minutes in blocks of 15 minutes. But based on my observation, that is not the case! My theory actually is you pay P20 for Flexitime 20 but that would only amount to 1 hour of internet surfing, so that P100 will be equivalent to a total 5 hours only instead of 15, which is like surfing at the regular P5 for 15 minutes. That’s how my observation so far. And thus, they’re deceiving their loyal customers!

Maggie December 31, 2015 Reply

The P100 for 15 hours actually took me less than 5 hours to use up, and how stupid of me to let it happen to me more than once. If only our area would service other cellular networks, but I’m one of the unlucky few. This is BS. It boggles my mind that they haven’t fixed it yet. I called their Customer Service twice. Lo and behold, no resolution yet. I can’t believe they’re not getting sued for this.

mark November 9, 2015 Reply

same here, i registered for flexitime 30 for 4hrs daw after 2.5hrs i got an sms its already fully consumed.i registered again for another 30 after less than 2hrs ubos n nman! wtf!!! smart talaga! smart sa panloloko at pagnanakaw!

emma December 28, 2015 Reply

Wtf i have the same issue. I used to be a flexitime user. But by start of last quarter 2015, oa na ung system nila magkaltas ng data minutes. 15minutes ng 15minutes kahit seconds ka lang nagconnect to check on something. I have an ongoing load reversal sa kanila. Tinanggal na nga ang unlisurf naging halimaw pa ang system nila sa pagkain ng data mins. This is a clear scam. No doubt!

Justin January 11, 2016 Reply

I know Smart Telecomms. reputation is bad. But I didn’t know it was THIS BAD.
It isn’t surprising that none of our telecomms. companies are competent enough to
give quality service, but I think we shouldn’t call them scammers outright.
They’re not scammers, they just don’t have the equipment or trained personnel
good enough to deliver the right service. (Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not
calling Smart’s technology cheap and outdated and their personnel a disgrace to
the global engineering society, I’m just stating the hard facts) Because of their lacking, they
find ways to make it look “as if” they can deliver. Not a scam, just unnecessary pretense.

Emma January 16, 2016 Reply

Continuously making money out of these promos that continuously overpromise but underdeliver..and refusing to return money for these services that as you said are full of pretense..

Wadja call that? Maybe the wrong term..but it all ends to my disappointment and overflowing anger with them. But what irks me most is that we got no other option. All other telcos do the same.

Jake February 5, 2016 Reply

same issue here. Even bigbytes. not much going on. not even browsing yet, they deduct more than what they should. This is FU system!!!

RandomNetizen March 5, 2016 Reply

This also happened to me before. I registered for Flexitime 100 which is supposed to give me 15 hrs. It was gone in about half the time. Been using flexi for a while and this is the first that it happened. But I noticed that during this time, I connected 2 devices to my pocketwifi. So I think each device consumes their own set of minutes which is why I used up my data mins in half the time. Another reason why I think data mins is consumed by device is one time I left my pocketwifi on all night. So in the morning I was worried that it ate up all my data mins. But when I checked my data mins balance, it was still there, possibly because that night I didn’t connect any device to my wifi. I didn’t bother testing this theory, but now I only connect one device at a time, and so far I haven’t experienced my data mins being consumed faster than its supposed to. Hope this helps you all.

deuts March 5, 2016 Reply

Thanks. Will surely try that next time!

Fujimaru (@hadjimar16) June 27, 2016 Reply

kaya di na ako nag fleflexitime….

ngaun lagi kong gamit na promo ay ung allnight20….

problema naman dito… cguradong meh 4hrs internet ka nga… first 2hrs lang mabilis after nun boom 40kbps na lang download speed mo

Jovz September 14, 2016 Reply

I tried it this morning thinking they’ve already fixed it. Registered 12:22 AM and stopped using by 3:00 AM. I checked my balance and consumed 7.5 hours out of my 15 hours after turning off my pocket wifi device. Checked again this morning and I now only have 7 hours, this is even without turning on my pocket wifi device. Pure rubbish. This is flexitime 100 btw, supposedly 15 hours good for 7 days.

deuts September 15, 2016 Reply

It is very unfortunate to hear that Jovs. I hoped so too that issue would have been resolved by now. Apparently, it’s here to stay. Sad!

Conamock October 12, 2016 Reply

I’m going to share one of my experience I had with smart that proves that their service is a very lousy one. First of all, the same thing happened 6 months ago. It bothered me so much that I even tried to contact them by using twitter’s direct message. They replied once each day for 3 days.

Day 1
Me: *complains about flexitime yada yada yada*
Smart: Can you give us your phone number?
Me: *gives phone number*

Day 2:
Smart: Can you tell us the date and time where you registered?
Me:*tells time*

Day 3:
Smart: Can you give us a screenshot of the time you registered and the time you received a text that the promo had expired?
Me: *gives screenshots*

DO YOU SEE HOW STUPID TO ASK ALL OF THOSE QUESTION IN SEPARATE DATES? THE 3 QUESTIONS THAT THEY ASKED CAN BE ASKED IN JUST 1 RESPONSE. (THEY ARE TRYING TO LOOK LIKE THEY ARE HELPING, BUT TBH, THEY ARE MAKING AN ILLUSION THAT THEY GIVE QUALITY SERVICE).I’M SORRY, BUT I REALLY FIND IT HARD TO BELIEVE THAT A BILLION-PESO COMPANY WILL GIVE THAT SORT OF METHODOLOGY TO A SUPPORT GUY.

Avalon October 13, 2016 Reply

Today is 10/13/2016 so does this issue still exist? I am planning to use flexitime since surfmax’s 800mb limit can be consumed in minutes since the LTE speed in our area reaches @ 25mbps

Kaje March 30, 2017 Reply

Smart is scamming is all. I registered to Flexitime 100 with supposed service of 15 hrs in a week but the damn network cut me off while still having more than 500 minutes remaining. I use flexitime to update my ps4 and its games but it seems smart doesn’t like big downloads. Cutting us off still isn’t good since we paid for their service and we have not used up the allocated time. This is pure bulls**t. Hope a better, international telecom company could give us better service than these Smart and Globe cash-grabbers

Khim August 2, 2017 Reply

S – obra
M – agnakaw
A – ng
R – obber
T – alaga

wala lang. Masama din kasi exp ko sa Smart kaya nag globe na lang ako, 5php per minute, I can download 5GB with LTE+. mas sulit kesa sa flexi time na 2x ang bawas.

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