Here is a scam that I fell victim to the other day... Went into the mall, loaded my Filipino mobile but I also asked the lady in the store to load 100 pesos onto Joy's phone. And so they loaded mine with 100 pesos, and a small amount onto Joys As she was not with me I was out of the mall and on my way when her so called 100 peso load ran out after a few texts. Joy had already deleted the incoming texts confirming her load so did not know how much was loaded, even so it would have been impossible to do anything as she was not with me when I handed over the cash. So always load up mobiles you have on you at the time of the transaction!
huge problem is the charging for receiving unsolicited texts from the phone companies themselves on every fresh load...
The best thing Sean is to load it all onto your phone then passaload from your phone to Joy's. Passaload is on Smart, Globe will have something similar.
Was a bit pressed for time when I first replied Sean, I've had this happen to me I think once maybe, normally if they do the e-load via their phone they will show you the transaction details so you can confirm before you leave the shop. The margin on e-load and load cards is very poor if you are not franchised, without a franchise the best price you are going to get is 280 peso on a 300 peso load, it's more like 230-240 for a 300 peso load if you have a Smart or Globe franchise. Point is complain even if you don't get your money back complain to Smart or Globe and tell them where you bought the load they may have several franchisee's at that location but a few complaints might sharpen up all of them, just point out that you are a tourist looking to see the best in this country and explain how disappointed you are at the petty exploitation. As I mentioned I tend to load mine then I can transfer the load to Ana or anyone else for a price of about 1 peso.
Ah ok I know lots about Smart You should register your number at their online facility https://my.smart.com.ph/Login.aspx it's useful and provides a free way to see how much you have left. You text <phone number> space amount to 808 for example 09174074106 30 09174074106 60 09174074106 100 09174074106 200 The higher amounts have longer expiry date See http://loadphones.com/smart/pasaload/ for details. You can get 15 days of free calls and text for 299 peso using Smart UNLI, the drawback is that you have to use a prefix code to dial and they cut you off every few minutes but you get unlimited free texts as well. To set it up make sure you have over three hundred peso of load and then text UNLI299 to 6406 also make a point of not running out of load as I think that cancels the validity of the deal, the only way you will run out of load though is to call a number on another network, that is still chargeable, but you do get cross network texts as well. Extract from the bottom of this page http://www1.smart.com.ph/prepaid/offers/show-all-offers/2011/09/12/unli-call-text SMART Unli Call and Text 299 Ibang level ang offer na to: 15 days of unli call & texts to SMART! Me bonus pang 150 all-net texts. Text UNLI299 to 6406 MECHANICS: Promo is open only to all Buddy subscribers nationwide. To register, text UNLI299 to 6406. Promo is valid for 15 days. P1.00 maintaining balance is required. To call, dial *6406+11-digit Smart/TNT/Red #. Ex: *640609181234567. Multiple availment is not allowed. Concurrent availment with other unli call & text promo is not allowed. There were also great data deals on Smart last year for unlimited amounts of phone data for 5 days and so on but I can't find them now, there is a 250 MB deal for 30 days for 300 peso but if you think about it that is less than a MB per day which might not even be enough to support email on the phone. edit: just mangled that phone number I used up above it was my real number and I started getting texts and calls within an hour
