Sunday, December 20, 2009

Using Techy Terms to Conceal the Fact that Smart Bro Sucks

In my previous post about Smart Bro’s lock-in period, an anonymous commenter said:

“Uh dude, why are you comparing download speed (30kbps) to overall connection speed (56k for dial-up) like they're the same? You're as misleading as Smart Bro is.”

I’m assuming that the girl (As the commenter’s anonymous, I’m going to presume it’s a she to be on the safe side) is referring to this part of the post:

“And please allow me to remind you that a technology from Internet’s ancient past called dial-up has speeds of 56Kbps. Smart Bro Share It has 30. 30! Clearly, an ancient technology is way better than Smart Bro Share It plan 999.”

If you read the above quote or the whole post, I was not comparing download speed to overall connection speed, like what the commenter falsely asserts. (apples to oranges) Nowhere did I refer to Smart Bro Internet’s pathetic 30Kbps as download speed. (Oh by the way, right now it’s 23Kbps) The commenter should first learn how to read before writing a comment.

But even assuming, for the sake of argument, that the 30 Kbps was only Smart Bro’s download speed, that’s 3.75 KBps (or KB/s, however you want to call it) download which is still lower than what I get from dial-up which is  7 to 8 KBps (KB/s) download. Now that’s download speed to download speed. (apples to apples) Any more questions?

She also missed the point by a mile. That post was really about Smart Bro Internet’s long lock-in period. The title should have given her the clue. The whole Smart Bro Share It versus dial-up thing was just a way of saying that Smart Bro sucks. The comparison was mentioned, sure, but it was not the whole story. It does not matter whether it’s 30 Kbps, or 20 Kbps, or 26.9997 Kbps. The point is that it sucks because a page loads slower with it than with the cheaper dial-up connection. She failed to see the entire forest for the trees. So in addition to the suggestion above, the commenter should also learn to actually understand what she reads before writing a comment.

Finally, in the last paragraph of that post, I said:

“To further their goals, they use techno-babble and the fact that technology is inherently difficult to grasp for the average consumer.”

And this Smart Bro minion-cum-anonymous commenter exemplifies this perfectly by injecting technical terms to hide a simple truth. Like I said, it does not matter whether it’s 30 Kbps, or 20 Kbps, or 26.9997 Kbps. It does not even matter whether that’s overall speed or download speed. Average users don’t understand that—nor do they care. The point is that it is slow. Slower than even dial-up. Since I pay more for Smart Bro Internet than for a dial-up connection, I expect my pages to load faster by a corresponding factor—or even just a bit faster, but never slower. Is that too much to ask?

4 comments:

  1. Used my Smart Bro during the Xmas holidays. I couldn't get speeds over 60 kbps...so much for 2MBPS.

    ReplyDelete
  2. @Bug, yup, that's about as much as you can get from this problematic SmartBro service. SmartBro is definitely nothing but problems, disconnections and slow speeds (that is, if you are not disconnected).

    ReplyDelete
  3. "Used my Smart Bro during the Xmas holidays. I couldn't get speeds over 60 kbps...so much for 2MBPS."

    Lucky you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yup. Smart is as about as smart as a bag of hammers. My asawa and I signed up two weeks ago. The same day they showed up and installed an antenna and it worked great! We were so happy and pleased I was ready to tell everybody how prompt and efficient they were.
    Ya, right. Two hours after they left the connection was lost. I got on the phone (globe) and called them. After going through all the press this button for this and this button for that it took four minutes to talk to service rep. He made me go through a bunch of systems check and then made an appointment for a techie to come and repair the canopy style antenna. The techie was late and in a hurry but it worked for about ten minutes after he left. I got on the phone again and the rep said they were doing upgrades to the tower. Ya right! I can seethe tower from here and saw no one up the tower. I rode my bike over to see if they were working at the base of the tower but saw no one. I asked the neighbors nearby the tower and they said no one had been there for weeks if not months. !st lie.

    I called again the next morning and they were oh so sorry! Ya right! They said that they were actually doing upgrades remotely. Ya right! Said that if I would kindly wait for 24 hours my connection would be would fixed. Ya right. So I called again but while calling my load ran out! So far, I'm out P499 for the hook-up, and P300 for the globe load. I bought a new sim card fro smart so not to have to pay for the calls.
    oblem.

    By noon there was still no sign of the techie. I called again. Same BS as before. The techie finally did show up after 2PM. I said enough is enough, don't bother trying to fix it just take down the antenna because we no long have any confidence in Smart. They refused saying they were only authorized to make repairs. If I did not want the repair sign the refusal form. I lost it! I said get lost then and closed the door.

    I called Smart today to cancel our subscription.....they said I have to go to one of their offices to unsubscribe and that I would have "TO PAY" P320 to cancel! I told the rep that according to our agreement if we were not satisfied with their service we could cancel without penalty with in two weeks. I also said that we would not under any circumstances go out of our way to take time and money to cancel.

    Before hanging up on the rep I said that if they don't come and get their antenna it could very well just stay there as an ornament as that is all it's good for! I said I don't like being lied to and that they had cause unreasonable frustration and mental anguish as we have been without an internet connection for two weeks and felt like a prisoner under house arrest held incommunicado.

    In short, I kissed their butt for two weeks, now we are with Globe for two days and it's cheaper, more reliable and faster than Smart ever was. It is an almost a certainty that the cause was the guide line cables that support the antenna that if improperly secured loosen and the antenna's focus on the tower is off by a degree or two.

    PS. It's now time for them to kiss my butt! I'll make sure not to be home when they come for the antenna for a few times anyway. I wasted my hard earned cash for a worthless system, if all the revenge I can get is this then so be it, I will waste their time and money as long as I can.

    PSS. Thanks for the opportunity to rant!

    ReplyDelete