Some Sari Sari's are taking the P..SS ! Making unfair profits from poor customers.

Again, the users are just as much to blame, being poor does not excuse them from abusing the system. They want everything for nothing, to get more than they pay for. I'm going to bet that the way Filipinos text is the main cause for the price increases. I think that Globe/Smart/Sun would be very wise to cut out all this unlimited text/call/data nonsense. They can't sustain it and they are only shooting themselves in the foot by continuing to offer it. Load is a massively bloated and confusing thing to keep up with. Look at all the crap that Globe offers for their load options (and sadly, yes, I know what all of these different types of load do...it's really quite depressing and I wish I didn't know it):
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The Filipino people need to ask themselves if it is worth it to ask their entire contact list if they have "had your breakfast/lunch/dinner yet?"

 

BTW JP, there is an option for people who wish not to go to the sari-sari store for load. You can buy your load directly from the middleman. Here is one that I started off with (and where the screen shots come from). I bought 50k pesos worth of load from them. I have about 1k pesos left after about 4 years. If you have a real problem with going to the sari-sari store please check this website's procedure for buying load from them.
http://loadxtreme.ph/new/products/

Note you WILL have to go to a bank and stand in line (for hours maybe) to buy load from them.....and then once you have bought the load you will have to wait a couple days....and then you go to your account and tell them how much you bought from them at the bank with the receipt number.....you better hope someone didn't lose that deposit slip or you will need to send them a photocopy of your receipt....and then give them a couple more days for it to post to your account....and you might need to buy a special SIM card from them before you can load from your phone, you will need to apply for that....wait awhile sir, it's in the mail.....you get your sim card and then register it on their website.....wait awhile sir, we have a backlog of SIM activation requests......a couple days later your loading SIM card is activated.....then, and only then, can you log on to your account and start loading your own cell phone.....now if you didn't have 50k to throw into an initial load balance like I did you will need to do this once a week/month depending on how much load you go through....don't forget there is no such thing as credit in that business, you have to buy it upfront or you don't load anyone.....are you starting to see why sari sari stores need to charge that extra 1 peso?

With all that being said, I have saved a lot of money by buying the initial 50k. I haven't loaded from a sari sari store in years and I was saving 15 percent for most of the load I bought for myself......just depends how much time you are willing to waste to save some pesos. With the new prices it doesn't really seem worth it though.

 

What? Is the spirit of your post to bash sari-sari stores for charging an extra 2 pesos so they don't lose money on the transaction?

So the poor people don't understand....here is me explaining why the extra 2 pesos need to be charged. You don't like the answers? Tough sh*t. The facts are not invalid because you don't like them or because someone can't understand them. What is the "context" you are trying to put this in? Please explain what point it is you are trying to make?

(Please open Microsoft Word (British or American version doesn't matter, grammar is grammar regardless of what dialect of English you speak) and type it out there before you post here....before you post please make sure there aren't any little blue or red squiggly lines under your text.)

 

I just wrote out several posts that explain EXACTLY why. You didn't like the answer because part of the blame falls on the poor people sending the texts? There were nothing in my posts attacking anyone. I was simply posting facts. It was not meant in any to attack anyone. I don't see how you got that out of my posts.

 

Ok, I'll simplify it for you. The reasons that the costs are going up and the sari-sari stores have to charge an extra peso or two is:

1. The user base (Filipinos with cell phones) is growing faster than the networks providing the service (cell phone towers) are. Making the bandwidth more expensive.
2. Many Filipinos abuse the unlimited call/text/data prepaid plans by sending out mass text messages to their entire phone contact list (such as jokes, prayers, and "have you ate yet" text messages). It costs Globe/Smart a certain amount of money to receive the text from the user and send the text messages to the desired recipient, once they hit a certain number they are no longer making money.
3. They (Smart and Globe) could be trying to cut out the middleman by lowering the profit margin. This is possible because most countries with prepaid load do not have the middlemen. They sell directly to their customers.
or
4. The middleman (the businesses that buy bulk load from Smart and Globe and then resell it to sari-sari stores) could be taking a larger cut of the profit.
5. Since the sari-sari store is not turning a profit on small load amounts they must pass that on to the customers so they can continue to sell load.

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Does this adequately answer your question as to "why the costs are going up"? I do not know how to simplify it any further.