SOME QUESTIONS FOR GT&T

Oct 06, 2010 Letters

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Dear Editor,
On August 20, I made a decision to join the DSL e-magine broadband faster internet connection offered by GT&T. I went to the Beterverwagting GT&T office and paid my money for the modem and internet connection that was given to me in three days by GT&T’s technicians.
I was very fascinated by the service offered by GT&T because of the speed and faster downloads compared to the dial up connection. I was also impressed because I can still answer all my phone calls because of the great service offered by GT&T.
My disappointment came suddenly on September 17. When I picked up my phone to make a call the phone was dead; it had no dial tone. I also observed that my internet connection was not working since a live phone line connection is required for my computer to access their internet service.
I went to the GT&T office at B.V. around 9:30 am the same morning to inquire why my phone was not working. I was given a phone lying on a desk by a guard to make my complaint to someone at the receiving end.
When I picked up the the phone I heard a voice talking to me. ‘’All our staff are busy at this time. Would you please hang up and dial again?’’ I went back to the guard but she told me to hang on the line and someone will talk to me. I picked up the phone again to hear the same weird voice mail again and again and again.
After about 20 minutes hanging on the phone like a dying rat; a woman answered me. She said that she could see that I am on DSL and asked if my DSL was working. I told her no. She then said that in two working days a technician will visit my home to fix my line.
I then proceeded to the cashier to pay my phone bill and DSL bill that was not due for another 10 days. I then went to a DSL staff and lodged another complaint to query my payments. She made inquiries and gave me my next DSL payment date as November 10, 2010.
After three days no one came from GT&T. I told my wife to visit the office again when she dropped off our kids at school. She was told that they will come because the DSL line is a high priority line. To my amazement, the whole week passed and no one came despite us making four reports at the B.V. office.
I called their fault reporting lines and the DSL number I got from their brochure 0488 but only to hear their voice mail again after several trials several times in the day. I am still intrigued that after calling those fault reporting numbers I never got an answer from a live person.
My wife went back to their office on September 27, to lodge another complaint. They came to fix the line on the post about 2 PM in less than five minutes. Since our phone line is a DSL high priority line then it is still mind boggling why these people came some 10 days after more than five personal reports to their office that’s just five minutes drive from my home in Triumph Village.
I have these questions. In this day and age of advanced technology, why is it when a customer reports a fault at GT&T that the customer is greeted by a voice mail? Are they short of live staff? Or do they have too many idlers in their offices?
Why is it that a simple problem that took the technician five minutes to fix cannot be promptly attended to the same day since I have use for the internet service offered to me and for which I already paid?
Since I was off the internet for nine days because of GT&T incompetence will I be given back these days of extended internet service since I already paid for them?
They are very prompt in cutting off phones and internet services if those bills are not paid on the exact due date. Why is it that they are not so prompt in the fixing of their bad lines and phones?
It is my firm belief that the new Chief Executive Officer should stop all these voice mails answering customers. He should also employ more competent workers who will be able to offer customers a more efficient and reliable service. It cost us more gas to burn to drive to go up and down to the GT&T office and its more time consuming to watch for the company vehicle for 10 days like a cat hunting for a rat hidden in a hole.
GT&T’S slogan reads:’’ GT&T getting better all the time’’. Can GT&T live up to this slogan? Or is it getting from bad to worse? I also believe that the telephone company should offer a separate phone line to every DSL customer.
I noticed when the technician fixed my line he joined a GT&T wire that was damaged by a GPL worker on a GPL post while he was climbing the post ten days ago.
If GT&T’s technology was very efficient like other countries I have been to, then the very first day my phone line and DSL internet service was down the staff would have known that on their computer screen or at their communications center. They would have instantly send their staff to fix that problem.
It’s because we don’t have much competition with other phone companies that these incompetent events are happening every day.
Our President announced to the nation that he will offer 90,000 internet ready computers to poor families in Guyana which is a good vision for Guyana. This means that if the computers are internet ready then GT&T will have to offer 90,000 more phone lines for these internet ready computers owners’ homes.
It is not my desire to condemn the new e-magine broadband service that is being offered but to let those at GT&T at the administrative level know that I am very disappointed at the service offered to me after lots of running up and down in 10 days and there are lots of customers like myself suffering.
Rev.Gideon Cecil

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