Destiny

I wish it were that kind of destiny. But, no. This kind of Destiny pissed me, I am now questioning the kind of service they have.

A few years ago, no....make it a little over 4 years ago....we left my parents-in-laws' house to rent an apartment of our own. Of course, since we moved out, we requested any services we signed up for to be disconnected shortly after. While we were staying at my in-laws', we subscribed to Destiny Cable for our cable TV services, particularly because that time, they were the only Cable TV service in the area that had Disney Channel included for less than P500. When we moved out, we decided to get SkyCable instead (I can't remember why) instead of requesting the Destiny Cable service transferred to the apartment. My in-laws decided they didn't want to keep the Destiny Cable services, too, so they asked me to have the service terminated since it was in my name, and they got SunCable instead. I can quite clearly recall, when I requested for termination of service, I asked specifically if there were charges in line with that and if I had any unpaid charges that I needed to settle. I was concerned because if I did, my in-laws would receive it and I didn't want them to worry about it. I was told there was none, and I just should make a written request for that, and it would all be good. So, I thought it was.

We left the country around a year after we got that apartment. Last year, we went back to visit. And in between, J would always have business trips back and he would always get a chance to visit his parents at their home. In that time, I never got any correspondence or bills or notices coming from Destiny Cable. So, imagine my annoyance when on his last trip, J handed me 5 envelopes which were waiting for me at in-laws' place. The oldest of the 5 were sent in February 2007, with the others following at monthly intervals. They were all coming from a collection agency hired by Destiny claiming that I had an unpaid balance of P1404.59. They were informing me that since I had never responded to their previous mails since February, they were already suing me for nonpayment and that I can forego the legal proceedings by paying the stated amount as soon as possible. Yes, I know. Common sense says I should just pay up so I need not bother with the trouble of talking to these people, but my principles say otherwise. So yeah, I probably rang up more than P1404.59 in long distance bills, but they aren't getting what isn't rightfully theirs.

I called the collection agency informing them of my dilemma. I wasn't in a fighting mood with them, after all, they are just that - a collection agency. The lady I talked with was very helpful, she just told me that I needed to call Destiny Cable's billing department to straighten this out. She gave me the contact details of the billing department, and told me I just needed to hear from them that they are clearing my name of any outstanding charges, and everything would be ok. If you ask me, though, there was something fishy with our conversation. When she answered the phone, I didn't give her my name right away. I told her I was calling about a notice I received in the mail regarding an unpaid account. Her response? "Ah, yun pong sa Destiny Cable na P1404.59? (Oh, that one with Destiny Cable for P1404.59?)" Yes. Accurate to the centavo. Without getting details such as my name or the account I was calling about. Either they had no other clients that they knew right away that it was me, or it was an elaborate scam that they were doing the same thing to an unknown number of people, or that the lady answering the phone has a very keen ESP she knew I was calling before I did.

Anyway, after I talked with the collection agency, I called Destiny's billing department where the guy put me on hold for a couple of minutes while he claimed he was looking for my account. When he came back, he informed me that I indeed had 2 months' worth of unpaid dues plus termination fees that were uncharged. I told him why that was since I was told that I had no outstanding balance and that I didn't have to pay for termination. He said, "kaya nga po, i-waive na namin yung termination fee kasi sinabi naman sa inyo dati na wala kayong babayaran. (That's why, we're waiving the termination fee because you were told before that you didn't have to pay.)" Still, I told him, why would they charge me with the termination fee if that was a change in their policy that came after the termination request? That's just preposterous! If that was a clause in the contract I signed with them, I would have no issue over that, but if they are going to have it applied to me when obviously it shouldn't, then that is a different story.

I also asked him why it was that in the years between the requested termination in 2003 to the first notice that came in February 2007, there was nothing from Destiny informing me that there was any unpaid balance on my account. It seems really weird that this would just suddenly surface after 4 years. And of course, any receipts or bills that I would have kept for my records while we were still availing of their services have long been gone. I could not, for the life of me, think of any reasonable excuse why I would not receive a bill or a dues notice immediately after we terminated their services if I still had payables with them. Why after 4 years? It doesn't make sense to me. I had to tell him I had no reason to run away from my obligations; they weren't the only ones we got service from, and of all of them, they were the only ones claiming I have dues AFTER 4 YEARS!

I don't know if he is just really slow or whatever, but he wasn't able to do anything to resolve my issue. He just told me that I should make an incident report and that he would have to escalate my concerns to the proper authorities. Then they would attach my report to their billing records so that I wouldn't be bothered with this again. Isn't he in the billing department? So, who are the "proper authorities?" In an extreme effort to be diplomatic, I asked him, "Ok, pwede bang ikaw na gumawa nyan [incident report]? (Ok, so can you do that?)" He answered with, "Opo, (Yes,)" followed by, "bale i-fax nyo na lang po sa akin yung report nyo. (you can just fax your report to me.)"

Oh. My. God.

Goos fraba....