Dear Editor,
Please permit me some space to share my ongoing experience with GTT. I went to their NA office in March 2021 and asked to have landline and DSL installed at my residence. I had the applications filled out with the aid of a very helpful employee. One note here, however. For this application to be filled out I had to get and give GTT the phone number of the nearest resident to me. Having lived for decades in the USA I find this request very surprising, to say the least. I feel that I should be able to have my utilities installed without bringing my neighbour into my business. For one, many people do not want their phone number to get out, and also neighbours might have hostility to one another thus making it an awkward venture to ask them for their phone number. All in all, it’s an ancient way and needs to be done away with immediately. Anyway, GTT told me that I’ll be hooked up in 21 days. April went by and I heard nothing from them. May went by, nothing. In June I called them. The customer representative said that they have no number as yet to assign to me. In July I called again and it was the same thing-no number available. This was now four months since I applied. I then filed a complaint to the PUC. The PUC replied to me by the end of July and said that they had forwarded my complaint for a response from GTT.
Lo and behold, on Tuesday morning, Aug 10th I received two texts in quick succession. They basically said, “Great news! Our technical team is working to initiate your landline and DSL connections. This will be done within the next 72 hours.” I then cleared my schedule for Wed-Fri and remained home waiting on the techs. I did not leave my home for a second because I figured with my luck as soon as I stepped out GTT will arrive. So I waited. And waited. Wednesday, Aug 11th passed-no GTT. Thursday passed-no GTT. Friday, 4pm arrived- no GTT. You know, Editor, these people did not show up and, moreover, didn’t have the decency to phone or text me to give an explanation. I couldn’t believe it. I find this to be beyond incompetence. This is callous, ingrained disregard for the Guyanese people. This is cruel. These people made me wait for three whole days on them and didn’t have the courtesy to phone me to say that they couldn’t make it. I am retired so, thankfully, I can be home but I weep for the single person who has to make a choice of taking three days off from work to wait or find someone to stay at their house while they go to work and hope that that person doesn’t steal or rummage through the home in their absence.
A note here-three days waiting window is archaic and has no place in 2021. One day! That’s all GTT should be able to narrow the window down to and come and do the job in. And the very best companies narrow it even further to morning or afternoon, making the customer have the least inconvenience as possible. Three days window tells a lot about the efficiency and standard of GTT. So on Friday afternoon, Aug 13th, after they didn’t show up and about 80 hours had passed since they texted me I called GTT. The cust rep said that he has no way of contacting the techs by phone. All he could do is make a note and send an email. On Saturday morning I called GTT back and the rep had nothing new to offer. She said that she would try to escalate the issue and send an email. She said to call back around 3-4pm. She thinks by that time I should get some status information. By this time I am starting to feel like a creditor running after a person who had defaulted on a loan. I called back about 4pm on Sat. The rep said that there was no new information. He said that he spoke to his supervisor and the super said that more than likely I would be called this week (Aug 16th-20th). The rep said that he could see my name on the to-do list and what probably happened was that the techs couldn’t get to me because of the amount of work they were faced with. Today, Monday, 16th Aug has passed and I have heard nothing from GTT. No call or text. As I said above – no decency and utter disregard for the Guyanese people. I wonder who gave GTT a monopoly over this sector. I wonder.
Sincerely,
Brian Samaroo
