Today I had some very weird experiences related to procedures, policies and mistakes and the weird thing was that one of the issues that I encountered began a few days ago when I decided to write a check of PHP 1,998.00 or nine hundred ninety nine pesos only. And it seemed that Infinite Intelligence was setting up something at that time, as I was in doubt whether to write a check of two thousand pesos or nine hundred ninety eight pesos. And with in doubt I mean that it took me a few seconds to decide, that I really made a decision on it whether to pay the actual amount or the rounded off figure. And I decided on the actual amount, which is a bit more of a hassle when writing a check.
The story related to the check had some more starting points, as my partner did not want to pay the check in Cagayan de Oro as he was sick, so I decided that I would have time in Cebu where I am as of the moment for some business and pleasure.
So today I went to the Smart office, which actually took me some effort as I didn’t want to go back to the Ayala mall where I knew there was a Smart office. And when arriving there, the office appeared to be at the sixth floor, which again took some effort. But when arriving at the office I was happy as it was very quiet and I did not have to wait for other customers, which normally is the case when paying your bills here in The Philippines.
So I guess I looked happy and I told the employee behind the counter I was so happy I didn’t have to wait, so he started handling my payment. But after a while he hesitantly told me that their office would not accept a non local check, which sounded completely crazy to me, because to me a check is a check, whether local or out of town. And I also wouldn’t really know why I wouldn’t be able to pay a Smart payment to a Smart office, as that’s what those offices normally do: process bill payments. Anyhow, the manager, who supposedly had implemented the rule not to accept non local checks was not there, so there was no use discussing this issue with this employee, as I knew he had no option and being Filipino wouldn’t take any risk to bypass this procedure.
So I asked him or he suggested to pay in the payment center in SM, another mall in Cebu. As I really wanted to make this payment as it was over due already I decided to go to the SM mall, even though it would take some hassle and a taxi ride. So I took a taxi to SM costing me seventy pesos, something like 3.5% of the payment to be made, next to my time and ending up in a place I didn’t want to be.
So in SM I went to the Smart office and ended up in a queue as this apparently is a much more popular place to pay than the other office. But it was not that bad and after about ten minutes it was my turn. And again, the employee behind the counter accepted my papers and check and began processing. And to my amazement came with the same message that this Smart payment office didn’t accept non local checks. He suggested even to pay to BDO (a Philippine bank) as apparently BDO processes payments for Smart, leaving me quite stunned, as what would be the most likely place in The Philippines where to pay my Smart bill than to Smart directly.
This time I decided not to budge as I didn’t understand why a Smart office wouldn’t accept a check, any check for payment of a Smart bill. So again I asked for the manager, which made the employee leave inside an office at the back of the shop, this time taking quite some time making me think that probably they would call the bank to check if the check was OK, which I’m sure it was.
After a while the employee returned, telling me that the manager was in a conference, so not available. This time again I decided not to budge and decided to stay in front of the counter as I thought there was something really wrong here with their procedures as why wouldn’t a Smart office accept a check for a payment for a Smart bill. As far as I know check processing is centralized even, so local and non local technically wouldn’t make any difference. The whole thing just didn’t make sense to me.
Then the employee started complaining the me that there was something with the number 8 in the check, the 8 pesos. This made me even more annoyed as I know my handwriting is bad and banks here complain about
the smallest corrections in the writing in the check. And as this was a clear 8 to me my temper began to rise even more.
So the employee didn’t budge and I didn’t want to budge, until somehow he was able to make clear to me there was a real mistake in the check. The figure in numbers was namely 998, where the number in words was nine hundred and ninety nine. Of course this was a real mistake that made the check invalid and of course no one would accept the check as a check with this kind of mistake would be refused and returned by the bank. This put me in a very awkward position as I prefer those payments to pay in check, but as I was already delayed with this payment and as I want to be ‘clear’ with Smart due to my internet connection issue. So realizing there was a real problem with the check I decided to pay cash and solving my own payment problem. But I was not happy, as I had no opportunity anymore to make some point about the weird procedure of not accepting non local checks by Smart.
After leaving the Smart office the whole story though appeared very interesting to write about as it has all the elements in it related to the issues where I want to change the world, making the world more humane. And even the one peso difference which made the check invalid is an interesting one, because from a (Western?) human point of view no businessman or businesswoman would make a point of a one peso difference in a two thousand peso payment if it were an obvious unintentional mistake which it was.
The most crazy thing to me still is that a company like Smart, and don’t get me wrong, this is not about Smart as it could happen in any dealing with any big organization, did not want to accept a check, which is basically equal to cash as far as I know, because of some kind of reason related to, well, I don’t even know, I don’t even understand.
And the sad thing was even that Richard, the employee who dealt with me in the Smart office in SM, at the end of the transaction and all the hassle said something like “Sorry for taking so much time” while in the end I was the one who was wrong having a wrong check and not he or Smart and where he even solved and prevented a bigger problem of a returned check. But yes, I guess that sorry was again company policy.
So thank you Richard in the Smart office in SM for being so patient with me. And you can’t help it and even confirmed to me that you also don’t like many of these company policies that make simple transactions and situtions so difficult to deal with.
To be continued, as I want to analyze this whole situation a bit more and want to find solutions from this, which is not as easy as I originally thought looking at the mistakes I made myself.