CONSUMER CONCERNS

May 25, 2015 News

By PAT DIAL
This column was first begun by the late Eileen Cox of revered memory who wrote it for several decades. Ms Cox died several months ago at nearly 100 years of age. Despite her waning physical strength, her mental faculties remained as powerful and intact as ever and she was involved in the affairs of both the Guyana Consumers Association and the Consumers Advisory Bureau until the end. Eileen Cox’s remarkable mental powers and her resilience were often attributed to her great love of ordinary people, her Nationalism and to the fact that she was a very strict vegetarian, she meditated as a regular discipline and she regarded herself as a chela(student) of Paramhamsa Yogananda whose ashram is in California. She was cremated with a Hindu priest officiating.
Eileen Cox was the greatest consumer advocate Guyana has produced and she stood out internationally as a colossus in world consumerism. As President of the Guyana Consumers Association, we continue this column as a tribute to her memory and to try to walk in her footsteps and address consumer concerns as she did.
This column would be presented once per week and we intend to keep it short and readable and to consider no more than one or two concerns at a time.
CELL PHONE CHARGES
This week we would be touching on an aspect of cellular phone charges: The Public Utility Commission has ruled that in making a call, a cellular phone would have to ring eight times before voice-mail comes on and a consumer is charged for a one-minute call. If the voice-mail comes on before the eighth ring or if the consumer hangs up at any time before the eighth ring, then he should not be billed for a minute’s usage. This ruling applies to both telephone utilities.
Consumers have complained to us that they are often billed for one-minute calls when voice-mail comes on before the eighth ring or when they would have hung up before the eighth ring. Though the total monthly charges for such wrongly-billed one-minute calls may be small, when they are accumulated over a period, they amount to a fair sum. In any case, the telephone companies, by this method, garner in an unfair profit of several million dollars from the consumers.
Whenever this happens, consumers should complain directly to the telephone company involved and require their refund. Or they may contact the Guyana Consumers Association at patdial26 @ gmail.com.

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CONSUMER CONCERNS

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