Unless the government decides to liberalise the telecommunications sector, GT&T will continue to take customers for a ride

Dear Editor, I am a longstanding customer of GT&T’s DSL internet service on its Gold plan. GT&T should have no difficulty in accessing my account number from my undersigned name. My frustration and inconvenience all started in February 2018, when I reported to the customer services department that there was static on my landline phone and my download speed on the internet is significantly reduced to not more than 3.5 mbps. I was given a ticket number 1995825 on February 11. On February 14, GT&T confirmed that both problems were fixed. The problem with the landline was indeed fixed.

On February 15, I again reported to the customer service department that the problem with the reduced bandwidth speed persists. I was given a ticket number 1997179. Several calls to the customer services department led to the technicians visiting my home and confirmed that the problem was fixed on February 20. Hereafter, I had to contend with a bandwidth speed with an average of not more than 4.0 mbps. I am reliably advised that this is low for the Gold plan.

On April 17, I was experiencing intermittent connectivity on the internet and a bandwidth speed that ranged from 0.5 – 1.5 mbps. I reported to customer service on this day at 6.10 am and was given ticket number 2012055. Technicians visited my home the next day and confirmed the problem fixed. In accessing the internet the said evening, I realized that the problem was not fixed; same intermittent connectivity and bandwidth speed was worse.

On April 19, at 8.05 pm I again called customer service and was given a ticket number 2013026. The next day at 11.32 am someone from customer service called me from 226-1466 and indicated that the technicians will be visiting my home shortly and requested that someone be at home. As at April 24, the technicians are still travelling to reach my home; 15 minutes from GT&T’s head office.

On April 23, I called customer service at 1.20 pm, and was advised that “the technical team is working on it right now”. As at April 25, at 6 am, the connectivity and bandwidth speed are still the same – horrible.

Not having any success with GT&T’s customer service, I sought the intervention of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), with whom I spoke with an employee on several occasions. She was very courteous and extremely willing to assist. On April 24, an employee from the PUC called my home and indicated that GT&T has confirmed that the technicians will visit my home on April 25.

Editor, unless the government of the day decides to liberalize the telecommunications sector, GT&T will continue to take customers for a ride, because they know that customers don’t have a choice. Either you take their service or do without. I shudder to think of the hundreds of customers who, like me, don’t know anyone who could assist them in getting their problem fixed. But then again, why should we depend on knowing someone in high places to have our simple problems fixed for a service that carries a high price? Yours faithfully, Jairam Petam