What's the catch?

The other day, I received a text message on my cell phone informing me that I am qualifed to receive P11,000.00 as reward for being a loyal Globe subscriber under their Globe for cool rewards promo.

Ever the skeptic, I went to the Globe Business Center situated in the Shangrila Mall along Shaw Boulevard and EDSA in order to verify the message. One can never be too careful, given the number of text scams sprouting up from everywhere. Well, it turns out the promo is genuine. I am eligible to receive P11,000.00. Not only that, my other account was also eligible, this time for P6,500.00.

There was a catch however. Rather, two catches. One, my accounts were to be locked up (the contract can't be cancelled or modified) for a certain duration (two years for the account qualified for an P11,000.00 reward, one year for the account qualified for P6,500.00). Two, the rewards can't be in terms of cash. They have to be either through billing rebates, G-Cash, or a handset upgrade.

I asked the customer service representative, a rather nice young lady named DJ, if I could opt to downgrade my subscription plan later on after I decide to avail of the promo. She said yes. Since I was planning on downgrading my account, that was all I needed to know. I asked again to be sure. She answered in the affirmative. She even called in a colleague of hers to verify her answer. Her colleague also said yes. I was sold.

The deadline for availing of the promo was the end of the month, so I still have a couple of weeks to decide. For some reason, I felt the offer was too good to be true, so I called up Globe's helpline to verify the initial information I received from their Business Center. This time, I was told that if I availed of the promo, I would not be able to downgrade my account. I mentioned the fact that I was earlier reassured at their business center that downgrading was indeed possible. The girl at the other end of the line (who gave her name as "Kichen") put me on hold for a moment, then after verifying with her superior, said that downgrading is just not allowed to a subscriber who avails of the rewards promo.

Hmmm. What gives? To her credit, the girl offered to make an appeal on my behalf (even though I really had no intention of appealing). I took her up on her offer, but I deplored the fact that the information being given out by one of their Business Centers and their helpline was inconsistent. Hopefully this would be straightened out in the coming week.

I seems that I wasn't the only beneficiary in this promo. It turns out both of my parents' cell phone subscriptions, my sister's, even my niece's, were all eligible for rewards in the amount of P5,000.00 each, with a one year lockup period. Well, being long time Globe subscribers, its nice to know that Globe is giving us something back in return.

Even if there is a catch.

Postscript:

If you want to find out if your Globe account is eligible for rewards under the Globe for cool rewards promo, just text CLAIM to 2279.

Links:

Fake promos via text