Dear Editor,
Last Saturday I noticed my internet went down very early in the morning. I called the 0488 DSL number around 9 am but was greeted by a voicemail and I had to press a number of numbers. After about 30 minutes someone answered the phone and I was told they were having technical difficulties which I understood.
My children had plenty of research for their homework and I had a number of emails to reply to and a sermon to research. Around mid-day I called GTT again waiting like a drowning rat on a straw to get an answer. After about 40 minutes a man told me their server had crashed and he was not sure when it would be restored. I have several questions:
Why is GTT on voicemail when people call for emergency purposes?
Do we still pay for holding the line we call on for 30 minutes? I was told they charge for it.
Why do their bills always come 2 months late?
My internet was off for about 16 hours on Saturday, so will I be given back that time of service lost?
We are paying for a service we are not getting and they say the internet has improved, yet it is slower than in any other country in the Caribbean. In my personal opinion the internet service GTT is offering this nation is not worth a $1000, and they treat customers as they please. If customers fail to pay their bills by just a day or a few hours they are cut off. GTT is very efficient when it comes to cutting off your service but inefficient about taking our emergency calls.
This monopoly they have with the government needs to be broken and Digicel and other companies should offer DSL services, then GTT will have to step up their game.
On March 7 I visited GTT’s office at Fogarty’s building in Water Street. At 2.35 pm I joined a line for 35 minutes that was not moving. I wanted to buy a GTT landline phone card, but when I approached the cashier he told me they didn’t sell cards there and I had to join another long non-moving line where they pay bills. I asked the cashier if that was the case why didn’t they put up a notice about where cards were sold. I refused to join another line and told him I would write about this and expose their negligence.
He quickly called security and asked them to bring me a card. He did that because I challenged him, and people were starting to say I was right. I said to myself, ‘only in Guyana…’
Now I come to the line where you pay the bills in a very hot room. I counted 5 booths and only 2 cashiers working; then one cashier would leave for over an hour and then the next one would go, while over 50 people would stand there like fools.
In all the GTT offices from Berbice to Essequibo I see the same lame operation.
When you call to report a problem they say they will come in 7 working days or 3 days, but months pass and unless you pester them they will not come. GTT, GPL and GWI are basically the same and we now pay VAT on inadequate services.
Yours faithfully,
Rev Gideon Cecil