Dear Editor,
Do you believe GT&T? Last Thursday morning, I paid $10,000 for my DSL Internet Bill at the New Amsterdam commercial office. It was Friday and my service was not restored. I tried calling GT&T’s new 24-hour hotline 0488 on Thursday afternoon. The annoying recording comes on and puts you on hold forever. Best network, strongest signal, right?
On Thursday evening, I got through finally to someone at 0488, and when I related to her that my service had not been turned on, she had the temerity to ask me why I didn’t contact 0488 earlier that afternoon. She then told me that it was too late in the evening and that my service would be turned on the following morning.
It was the same merry-go-round all day on Friday last. There I was calling 0488 back and forth; being put on hold, being hung up on, giving information to various operators like account number, the amount I paid, etc over and over. I was tired.
Different operators at 0488 all had different explanations for me as to why my service had not been turned on. I explained to them I had only been seeing two lights on my DSL modem: the LAN light and Power light. The ever-essential Status light had not been on. And so, the cycle continued all day on Friday; giving the operators information over and over. This was getting really annoying not to mention disgusting that a company of this nature, and which always says that they are efficient when dealing with customers, treated me, one of their DSL customers for the past 2 years, like this.
If GT&T had an efficient operator help line base, why did I need to give my information to the different operators on more than one occasion? Aren’t they interconnected in some way to deal with the same customers’ complaints? And what’s with the annoying recording, which puts callers on hold forever? Customer agents are always busy as far as I am concerned.
So, it was now Friday evening; some 24 hours and more after I had paid my DSL bill. I was still not receiving service. And no one at this company had any help for me thus far. No one until an operator just before 6 pm —probably the umpteenth person from 0488 that I had spoken to since Thursday—told me that since I am only seeing two lights on the modem and that she sees that my service has been turned on, it may be a problem with the modem. She further confirmed my worst fears, that it being the weekend—and we know the rest…
I wanted to scream. How could the other operators I spoke to during Thursday and Friday not tell me this? I could have contacted 097 and made a report since Thursday and maybe by then the problem would have been rectified.
There’s more; I used someone else’s modem and I was still seeing two lights. I then came to the conclusion that the modem was not at fault. I dialled 0488 after 7 pm on Friday evening and the operator took more information again and agreed with me that the phone line I was using was the problem, not the modem. He apologized for the fact that his other counterparts could not have related this to me earlier so that I could have made a fault-reporting to 097. It is the weekend, so I have to wait until this morning, if I can get through to 097, to make a report and ask them to check my phone line. How long they would take to do so is anybody’s guess. For the meanwhile, although I have paid for my service I am without service, and have made pointless and useless calls to GT&T’s 0488 hotline and have received little or no help after making more than a dozen calls and having given account numbers, payment amount, payment location, telephone number, and other information over and over and over to various 0488 operators. I had to go into my pocket now and pay for another Internet service for the weekend, until the technical staff of GT&T’s DSL service can address my problem properly.
Surely, my case points out ever so clearly the sad reality that this company is not ready for its presence in our world and definitely in our country in these 21st Century times. I pray that no other customer would have to go through what I went through—or still is going through—with GT&T. I can only hope for the best this morning. Getting better all the time? Yeah right.
Yours faithfully,
Leon Jameson Suseran
