GTT’s Essequibo service is not satisfactory

Nov 03, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,
I would like to register my disappointment and frustration over the years with the service provided by GTT on the Essequibo Coast. I have been a loyal customer of GTT’s landline service for over 20 years, cellphone service since the inception and data service for close to a year now and all have been far from satisfactory, compounded with the fact that there is no recourse but continued disrespect , unprofessional and unfair practices.
Over the years the landline service has never effectively worked, most of the time they are out of service and now there is no equipment to replace the defective ones, yet you have to pay the monthly rental. The broadband internet service can never stream even a low definition video or download an average file without timing out. Customer services and technical support is very poor and leaves much to be desired.
The latest disregard is the notice given to renew a data plan – 15 MINUTES (to roll over any unused data). How practical is it for an average person to go to the shop to top up or get a phone card in 15 minutes? This notice can come at any hour of the day or night –even if you are awake or sleeping. The irony of it all is I would normally top up online when I am at home. If I receive the notice when I am on the road and I try to use my GTT data plan to access the top up website I would often try continuously for more than an hour and still cannot load a page. Every day I receive a number of annoying promotional texts and it keeps repeating daily. Why can’t GTT send a reminder the day before so that there will be enough time to renew the subscription? I think this is a ridiculous practice that probably only happens in Guyana.
Due to the fact that I could not have accessed the internet from my cellphone, I never could have used my data even though I took out the monthly plan every month. I could only access Whatsapp, which I use for my personal and business purposes and which is free on any data plan. As such, I should have had over 15 to 20 GB of data available since I started to subscribe to your GTT’s plan of which I couldn’t have ustilised due to GTT’s slow connection speeds. I am humbly requesting that GTT restore all data withdrawn and reconsider how and when notices are sent out so that it will fair and practical for GTT’s subscribers. Thank you for your kind consideration.
DISATISFIED CUSTOMER