Dear Editor,
Last Saturday I activated a three-day data plan on my mobile phone with GTT. I received the usual confirmation message that the plan had now been activated. I tried browsing but I could not. I waited over an hour, restarted the phone and tried again with the same result. I called the operator on 0488 and was told to restart my phone; the same thing happened. I spoke to a second operator who said I should take my phone to the Brickdam office. When I visited the GTT office on Monday a staff member told me the phone was ok, so I asked him about my data plan that I had paid for and could not use. He said he could not do anything about and within half an hour of leaving the internet was cut off from my phone. When I called the operator again I was told that if I pay for three days GTT doesn’t care if I use it or don’t use it, when the time is up it will be disconnected. I asked about my unused data and if it would be rolled over and was told no. This is unlike Digicel, where if you activate a plan and don’t utilize the data, it will roll over or be added any time you activate another data plan. In GTT’s case, if you don’t utilize all your data it will be lost unless you activate another data plan within an hour after your time is up.
Editor, on Wednesday 14th, I again activated another day plan and received the confirmation text. Fifteen minutes after browsing the newspapers online it stopped browsing. I noticed the GTT sign and bars going on and off. I assumed it was a problem with GTT and this was confirmed by other GTT users. Now I didn’t get to use my data again and at 6am Thursday I received another text message saying that my subscription had expired and giving me the option to apply again. I called the operator again and was told that they were not aware of any problem. I called again and another operator told me that she too didn’t know of any problems GTT was having but that she will post my issues with some technicians. At 2.30 pm I was still hoping for some sort of justification but got none.
Editor, this is not the first issue I have had with GTT and it is frustrating because to me they are blatantly exploiting Guyanese and the service they are providing is unacceptable. For quite a while now the $500 pre-paid phone card is unavailable and the vendors don’t know what will happen with it.
I purchase phone cards during the rainy season from vendors at Stabroek Market and sometimes the card is wet or extra cold and when you scratch it some numbers are likely to come off making the card useless. You will then have to call GT&T and give them the serial number on the card and they will check to see if the card has been used before; if not they will put the credit in your phone. More than once I’ve had to call and sometimes they put the credit in and sometimes they don’t.
Many times I have called in regard to the same problems and I am always given different solutions.
Yours faithfully,
Sahadeo Bates