GT&T cuts off paying customer’s telephone line

Nov 15, 2010 News

Kwesi Inniss, of 47 Back Street Stewartville, West Coast Demerara, is very upset and shocked at the treatment he has received from the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T).

The disgruntled GT&T customer, Kwesi Inniss, who to date is still awaiting the utility company to rectify their mistake.

He told Kaieteur News that he has received a telephone bill dated September 30, 2010 with the total of $6,541 to be paid. However, he explained that he is a bachelor and always pays his bills before due dates, and on September 11, he had already paid $6,000 in advance for the bill received, so all he should owe would be $541.
Inniss stated that he paid the amount at the Leonora Post Office, since GT&T advertised that bills could be paid at any post office as well as other locations. He produced the receipt to this newspaper with the receipt number recorded as 163573 dated September 11, 2010 which confirmed that he had paid the $6,000.
The young man claims that his telephone bill was disconnected twice in September and twice in October also, and when he went to the GT&T office on all occasions, he “had to behave bad” before they reconnected his telephone line, which they had wrongfully disconnected.
Inniss told the Kaieteur News reporter that the utility company had disconnected his telephone line three times in November and he is “fed up with this type of nonsense.” When he ventured into GT&T again, this time, he was told that he owed money for September month, and when he produced the receipt that was issued to him by the Leonora Post Office, the staff claimed that they “never received the money for this receipt”.
The young man was given a number to call (075) which he did and reported the matter. His reference number is 1214380.
He was assured by GT&T staff that they were “tracking down the money” and when he decided to call his landline number (268-3934) another voice answered. He stated that he was puzzled and upon investigation he found out that a female who lived three houses away from him had applied for a new telephone line, and she was issued with his number.
Inniss added that when he had previously gone to GT&T to rectify the matter, he dealt with a woman ‘Michelle Elliot’, a supervisor there and even spoke to her on telephone number (225-4199) but was never given any satisfaction.
When he returned to the office to speak with Michelle, after he found out that his number was ‘given away’, the supervisor “didn’t want to speak” and he was referred to another employee, a clerk, who told Inniss that a technician would be at his home by 12:00 hrs on Saturday, last, to check his phone line.
The clerk told him that his phone line had a problem but according to Inniss, that would not excuse the fact that GT&T kept “cutting the line off” and gave his number to someone else, even though he did not owe them “a penny” and was a customer who always paid before the due date.
When he spoke to Kaieteur News this weekend, he stated that neither did he receive any phone calls from the company nor did any technician pay him a visit to check his telephone line.