Technician came as advised by the customer service rep. He fiddled with the home phone a bit, listened several times, then checked the modem. After a few minutes, he went out and told us hes going to get a new modem (we were still using the old Prolink H5001NS ADSL2+ Modem/Router that was installed back in 2013).

Apparently, the modem that we were using "cannot handle" the 10mbps download speed (said the tech). The technician then came back after thirty minutes, with a new ZTE H108N ADSL2/ADSL2+ Modem. I was quite surprised, as I already tried a different modem, albeit one that's not provided by Globe. But, okay, he brought in in anyway, so we agreed. 

The connection got better and he told us to just drop by at the office (no need to call customer support) which is, suprisingly, just a stone-throw away from the house. At that time, I wished we'd never really had to do that after he checked on our connection. And so he went. He even called in the afternoon to check on the status and we confirmed it got a lot better.

We were in for a suprise on Monday, though. The connection went off several times (just like before). My husband decided to come by at their office and he was told they'll check in again in the afternoon as the techs/installers are out on field duty. Okay, so pinagtyagaan ko na lang, kahit feeling ko aatakihin na ko sa asar. I use the internet for work, I train people and I can't afford to get disconnected all the time. Ayun na nga, the technician said there's really a problem with the "cabinet" (DSLAM-Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer). We've got no choice but to wait until they got that thing fixed. SMH.

We used to receive packages from Lazada via LBC. However, in December of 2016, I noticed that the items I ordered were delivered by 2Go. At first, I thought, maybe they're short of manpower (LBC) and they used 2GO instead. Also, I honestly thought about Lazada bringing in packages using 2Go as LBC might have changed their "coverage" and 2Go can only deliver in our area now (we live in the province). But it looks like this is a permanent change as I've placed an order recently (March 6, 2017 to be exact) and one of the items were delivered using 2Go. The other item (there were two in a single order, from two different sellers), was successfully delivered, while the other one was not (more on this later).

Though I like the fact that 2Go guys who delivered several items called before delivering the items, it's a bummer to not have any tracking number. Yes, you read it right. NO MORE TRACKING NUMBER. While we used to be so excited tracking the location of our items online, this change is a complete 360⁰ turn. I even lamented about this on email when I contacted their support via their webform. It's just so inconvenient, especially if you have other appointments or you have to go somewhere. You can't leave the house since you don't know, even an estimate, when the items are going to be out for delivery.

Second change: Order updates

Now, it's nothing like that screencap above. Regardless if an item is from another seller of if it's sold by Lazada, I don't get the same detailed view of the phases of the order. Check out the order details below. This is the most recent order I placed and this is the item that was delivered successfully:


See the huge difference? I know. The new system just sucks that it felt like customers are being left in the dark. You wouldn't really know where the hell your package is already or if it's been even processed at all. And, by the way, this might be, I think, what happened to the other item, a laptop battery (the one I really need--guitar accessories is my hubby's stuff). I was really waiting for that one it's the main thing I've ordered in the first place. But it wasn't delivered. What went wrong there? Guess what? I.don't.friggin'.know. I was only told that it "did not reach me due to delivery failure".

Third change: Customer Support

For the customer support aspect, it was pretty obvious (I'm fond of contacting support of any company). Lazada's a online shopping mammoth and is continuously growing. With the rate of the company's growth, there may be the need to ramp-up or hire more people. The problem with hiring a lot of people is that the quality of training may not be as effective as when training fewer people. In this case, the quality of responses being sent out by customer support becomes less. And that's where things might have gone wrong.

I'm not blaming the representative who gave me a super generic answer when I asked why the item was not delivered. Again, the reply I got was "the item did not reach me due to delivery failure". It didn't say WHY the delivery failed, it's just relayed to me that the delivery failed. My speculations are: the rep is a newly-hired one, rep was in a hurry and did not check details, rep was just tamad (lazy), or their Quality Assurance team isn't doing a great job in preventing things like this. The company should really impose high standards when it comes to their front-line employees. They directly interact with customers and it's a must that they are trained well to provide great support. Apparently, based on the response I got, it's not something that's being reinforced (I could be wrong). Like I said, I don't blame the representative. Lazada should really do something about this. This instance is what irked me the most, to be honest (It isn't obvious, is it?).

I know that it might be unfair for them that I'm blabbering about this experience online. But I do hope that this feedback (aside from the one I sent them) reaches the people concerned. I'm an employee of a online company (not as big a Lazada though), and this is not how we treat customers. 

While this latest experience I've got with Lazada isn't so satisfactory,  I ain't giving up on them. Not just yet. A lot of people are turning more to this online shopping portal (more growth) and I'm still hopeful that they'll get their shit right.

Whew.

The plan has now been upgraded, with a landline phone. At this time, the speed is just set to 5mbps but we were advised that the 10mbps download speed will be on tomorrow. Yay! We'll see about it tomorrow then.

Update 2 (March 7, 2017 5:27PM):

Brownout kanina! Well, power has now been restored, and download speed is now fully upgraded. Didn't even have to wait 24 hours for the new plan to take effect 🙌. BUT, we have yet to find out how this upgrade will work so I'll be updating this post for any observation.

Update 3 (March 9, 2017 8:17AM)

After almost 48 hours of test driving the new Globe DSL 10mbps 1299 plan, I've had several observations:

• The connection's not as "stable" as the old 3mbps plan. -- connection goes off for a few minutes, then goes back up, at least once every hour. I'll call the hotline later to complain about this.
• Connection gets worse around 6PM until 11:30PM. My suspicion is that there are a lot of users online during those hours.
• Upload  is good though. Even if I'm uploading something, like an image which is about 3MB, the connection doesn' get choked. Unlike on our old Globe DSL plan, if I upload even just a photo which is 2MB, I couldn't browse any webpage.
• Home phone lets me call Globe and TM numbers without any trouble. I'm still checking for someone who I can call through a landline number who's within the same area code as me.