FLOW’s appalling customer disservice

THE EDITOR, Sir: MANY LETTERS have been published about poor customer service from the two mobile telephone service providers. I suppose one more will only result in a shrug. Nevertheless, I will add mine to the long list.

This is mainly about FLOW’s cable service, but I will add that I am not much impressed with Digicel’s phone service, so I am not looking at their cable offer either and so I don’t want any unsolicited encouragement to shift accounts. I will have to find a way around these two.

It had been happening on and off for months, but now it has been continuous for more than a month – several channels which are in the package I have paid for show this message: ‘Temporarily off air. Please check back later’. FLOW has NOT offered any explanation for why channels 262 (HGTV), 264 (TNT), 153 (CNN International) and 310 (Cartoon Network), among others, have been off for so long.

I attributed the problem initially to some satellite problem because the images and sound were breaking up, but relatives not five miles from where I am tell me they have normal service. So what gives? And why so long?

In effect, just as it is with other channels that they have lost without any replacement, I am paying more than $8,000 per month (cable and Internet) and not getting what I have subscribed for. Internet service is disrupted most noticeably when it nears the time for due payment even though I am not delinquent.

By the way, a query sent to FLOW was acknowledged. That was about as far as it went two weeks ago.

Is there a functioning consumer-protection agency anywhere in Jamaica? CECIL AIKEN Kingston