Not Something I Get Everyday

"Globe Advisory: In the interest of national security, please be informed that mobile subscribers of all telcos in select areas of Manila will experience temporary loss of signal due to security measures being conducted by the government in line with the feast of the Black Nazarene. Thank you."

Dear sureseats.com

I was so thrilled when I realized yesterday that I could purchase movie tickets online for any of the Ayala theatres via http://sureseats.com.

Ordinarily, I would simply visit ClicktheCity.com's Movies section to check screening schedules at the various theaters I frequent, then purchase the tickets at the theatre itself.

But yesterday was different; it was a holiday and the thought of having to join the crush of people lining up to purchase tickets led me to Google search, and eventually to sureseats.com, where I had my first encounter with their horrible, horrible payment process.

The only way to pay for tickets on their site is to purchase Multi-Pass credits, their own "prepaid service that allows you to pay for movie credits ahead of time, so the next time you use SureSeats, you can charge your tickets to your M-Pass credit or load."

There are only three ways to purchase M-Pass credits: at kiosks in Ayala malls, via credit card, or via GCash.

Since it was 8am and I wanted to purchase my tickets as early as possible (I wanted to get decent seats), I didn't want to wait until the malls opened to go to a kiosk.

So I tried to purchase M-Pass credits via credit card... only to learn that:

• I had to use another site that I'd never heard of (myRegalo.com) to purchase my credits
• I can only purchase M-Pass credits in P1000 increments
• As a first-time user, I had to fax or email a copy of my most recent credit card billing statement after placing my order online so they could verify my credit card
• Their business hours are Mondays to Fridays 8am to 6pm
• I had to give them "24 hours to process the purchase"

In other words, there was no way I could buy M-Pass credits via credit card and use them today even if I wanted to.

So the final fall back was to try G-Cash, which is Globe Telecom's eCash offering. I was able to create a GCash account with my phone via sms within a matter of minutes, and a quick check of my balance revealed that I had P0.00 in my eWallet. So naturally I wanted to load money into my GCash account.

Unfortunately, there are only a few ways to add money to your GCash balance, all of which require some form of offline interaction:

• Go to a Globe business center and give them cash
• Go to an accredited GCash Partner and give them cash
• Go to a Bancnet ATM to authorize the transfer of money from your bank account to your GCash account for a P25.00 fee
• Use the BPI Express Mobile menu options which come with your Globe SIMcard to transfer money from your bank account to your GCash account

That last option actually sounded promising, especially when a quick check revealed that my SIM card had Bank to GCash Transfer as an option in the sim services menu. Unfortunately, I can't just initiate a transfer right away. I first have to enroll my mobile phone number with the bank and link it to my bank account -- a process that requires a visit to the bank's ATM -- before I can transact on my phone.

So after more than an hour of trial and error, I was still unable to purchase tickets because sureseats.com made it too difficult for me to give them my money.

And as I bumped into each new brick wall in this process, I couldn't help but repeatedly wonder why they didn't simply:

• Do away with this silly M-Pass credit system
• Accept credit card payments directly
• Accept Paypal payments directly
• Allow me to charge my purchase to my mobile phone bill (especially since it's still well below my mobile account's credit limit)?

Surely the people who designed this site have actually experienced purchasing items online at Amazon or Etsy or Ebay?

In the end, I had to content myself with just reserving the seats that I wanted and paying a P20.00 reservation fee for each ticket because buying them was simply too difficult.

Must Watch: The Last Journey of Ninoy

If you are a Filipino and you have not yet seen The Last Journey of Ninoy, you absolutely have to watch it asap.



I missed the first 15 minutes of the program when it aired last Sunday (Aug 23) on ABS-CBN. Thankfully, the entire 55-minute docu-drama is also available for viewing through ABS-CBN's TFC Now service.

A $2.00 subscription to the News On Demand service allowed me to download and watch the film at my leisure over a period of 4 days.

The film's teaser is available on YouTube.

Philippine Journalist Reporting via Twitter

Manuel L. Quezon III, the journalist grandson of a former Philippine president, used his Twitter account to provide live updates about the impeachment complaint at the House of Representatives a few days ago.

Talk about wow.



With hat tip to Arnold Gamboa for (what else?) twittering about this.

Puzzles

I remember driving down Edsa on Black Saturday (April 7) and seeing black paint splattered on several of the smaller billboards that line the partition wall of the MRT. [News story]

It was obvious that the black paint was a deliberate act of vandalism, because far too many of the billboards had been defaced in the same manner.

At first I thought the vandalism was meant to be an attack on one of the Pantene shampoo endorsers, but as it turns out, all four of them got the same gob of black paint on their smiling, billboard faces.

By the time office work resumed on Tuesday, the defaced billboards had been taken down, and new copies of the shampoo ad were up. And a new set of billboards now encouraged everyone to "Report the Wet Paint Rag Vandals!"

I can only imagine how shocked below-the-line advertisers all over Manila must have felt when they first saw the ads. Billboards have become so popular and effective in recent years that even I felt a little jolt the first time I saw what the vandals had done.

Hopefully, the vandals won't have another chance to indulge in such mischief again. Edsa was predictably deserted during the Holy Week holidays so it was possible to do this without being seen. The thoroughfare has far too many vehicles at all hours of the day and night the rest of the year, so perhaps that will be deterrent enough.

Side Notes: I wonder who came up with the term "Wet Paint Rag Vandals." The phrase doesn't exactly roll off the tongue easily, although I must admit that it is both picturesque and accurate. I also wonder why they decided not to write the "Report!" billboard in Tagalog.

Update (June 14, 2007):
Mystery solved. The MMDA admits to being responsible for the vandalism. Doh! Visit Bambit's blog for the relevant links and more information.

Checked

I was admiring the newly selected theme for my Google personalized home page when I noticed a link at the bottom for Google Checkout, Google's Paypal-like service.

I remember trying to sign up last month but couldn't actually do so because the Philippines was not listed. Well, I'm now happy to report that folks like me with Philippine billing addresses can now register! Thanks, Google.

Side note: If you sign up before March 31, you'll receive a $10 credit to your account, which you can use anytime before April 30.

Cedula - para que?

I only learned this week that every barangay treasurer is authorized to issue a cedula to anyone who walks in and is willing to pay for one.

I had tried getting one from our barangay two days ago, only to learn that it had to be issued by the treasurer and s/he was out for a meeting. One of the guys there advised me to try at any of the nearby barangays, so I did. Drove a couple of blocks south and asked the first tricycle driver I saw for directions to their barangay hall. He was really helpful (and accurate too).

Walked in the barangay office and got a cedula for myself (and two other people in the family) in less than ten minutes. I was so happy because I hadn't realized it would be that easy to get this requirement out of the way.

* * *

Now that I've got fresh, first-hand experience on just how easy it is to get a cedula, I can't help but wonder why we even have such a thing.

It can't possibly be a valid form of identification because they only ask you to fill up a slip of paper with the relevant information, and they copy your data as-is onto the cedula form. They don't ask for a photo ID, or any proof that you're declaring the correct address, birthday, or income.

The barangay treasurer who gave me my cedula the other day had certainly never met me before; I had walked in off the street and I actually live in another barangay, which would have been apparent to her since she copied down my address.

If it's that easy to get a cedula, and there are no safeguards for the correctness of the information on it, why are we even required to have one for contracts and agreements?

Other than to generate extra income for the city and barangay governments, I can't imagine what the point would be.