I have been using Globe’s new Immortal promo after I saw the many ads for it a couple of months ago. If you are not familiar with the promo, here is info from the Globe website.
Here is my experience with it after about 2 months of usage.
At first, I was like, hmm.. this is kinda okay. No expiry, huh? That’s great! No more finding a way to text/call as many people as you can within 24 hours (if you subscribed to the 1-day unli). Be perfectly assured that your purchased texts will never expire and will be perfectly usable, and you don’t need to expend any mental energy tracking validity periods. The bad: you can only have a maximum of 100 immortal texts or 10 immortal call minutes at any one time. That means you can only get one Immortal Trio promo at a time, or 3 Immortal Txts at a time, unless you are all out and don’t have any “leftover” immortal texts from previous registrations. So, for those thinking of buying 10,000 immortal texts that you plan to use for the next 5 years (my first impulse!), Globe has dashed those plans. They won’t allow you to do that. They want you to keep buying load with relative frequency.
So what is this Immortal promo good for?
Well, for one thing, if you are like me who still keeps a Globe number around for those people who still insist on using Globe; but are an otherwise low or moderate Globe user, this is great. I average P60 of Globe load a month. P60 because load validity for P60 worth of load is 30 days, if it’s less than P51 it’s only valid for 15 days and too much of a hassle to load every two weeks. And my friendly neighborhood e-loader only accepts denominations in tens (P50, 60, 70,…). I try to convert my regular load to Immortal Trio as soon as I can, as soon as I find that I am already under 50 immortal texts andunder 5 immortal minutes.
My main communication line is still Sun Cellular on TU150 (I cannot tell you how liberating it is to just text without trying to keep a rough estimate in your head of how many “texts” you’ve already sent). That is why I don’t really use up much of my Globe load — most of my frequent contacts are on Sun. Sometimes Globe usage spikes when someone who is apparently on Globe unli texts me nonstop. That is the only downside. Since I have no way of knowing when or if someone will be texting me and if it will become a long conversation, I really can’t prepare myself by registering to a Globe unli promo that day. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can use TU200 because I don’t think it will come off well if I asked Globe people to text me on my Sun number instead. So, I end up using Globe’s Immortal promo. At least each text only costs P0.50 vs. P1.00 on regular load. And it’s still cheaper on a monthly basis compared to subscribing to their unli promos.
Another thing Globe’s Immortal promos are good for is – if your load validity is about to expire and and you are unable to buy new regular load to keep your expiring load from being “eaten up”, just convert what you can to Immortal and Share-A-Load the rest to friends and relatives (and have them give it back to you, or they can convert it to Immortal on their accounts too since Share-A-Load validities are much shorter, and just pay you).
My complaints
My main complaint about this Immortal promo is that you don’t know when you’ve already used up your immortal texts/minutes! Sure, you can always text “Immortal Bal” to 8888. But do you really want to do that everyday? Also, I have no idea if this service is free. It doesn’t say that it costs P1.00 or anything, but it doesn’t say that it’s free, either.
This afternoon, here I was, blissfully thinking that I still had plenty of immortal texts left and just wanted to check my Immortal balance, when lo! I have zero immortal texts left! What?? Since when? I have been texting a few messages here and there for the past week. I was immediately worried about how much of my regular load was used up while I thought I was using my immortal texts. So I did a Balance Inquiry. I estimate that almost P20 was used up. I know P20 isn’t much, but it’s still P20.. I would have appreciated a text from Globe telling me that my Immortal texts have been used up and that my regular load would be used for succeeding texts instead.
Another thing.. somehow, all my “5 texts to other networks” keep getting used up. I must have subscribed to Immortal Trio at least 5 times, giving me at least 25 texts to other networks. Most people use Globe numbers to text me on Globe, and Smart numbers to text me on Smart. I am using a Nokia dual sim phone with Globe and Smart SIMs. And I make a conscious effort to reply to Globe numbers using my Globe SIM, and to reply to Smart numbers using my Smart SIM. I just find it odd that my immortal texts to other networks are just used up.. I need to observe this a bit more…
How I wish Smart and Globe would also come up with something like the TU150! Smart and Globe’s promos make us jump through too many hoops! I am not in any way paid by Sun to promote them, but as a user of all three – Sun, Globe and Smart – Sun’s call & text promos really are the most straightforward and value-for-money compared to Globe and Smart’s. I hope they keep it that way even after PLDT’s buyout of Sun Cellular.
