Both Scotiabank Guyana and the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) have confirmed that the local telephone service provider is moving to remedy the problems that have plagued the bank’s telephone system at its Carmichael street head office for a protracted period.
Last week this newspaper initiated an enquiry into what a number of customers say have been difficulties experienced in reaching bank employees by telephone. Last Thursday and Friday Stabroek Business attempted to reach the bank on a total of no less than fourteen occasions. We were unable during several attempts to speak with anyone at the bank, receiving instead a series of recorded directives that eventually ended with the call being disconnected.
Scotia’s Marketing Manager Jennifer Cipriani confirmed that the bank was experiencing problems with its telephone system and that some calls that were made to the bank were not registering/ringing despite the fact that that may appear to be the case to callers. “There are cases, for example, in which the recording might indicate that our service staff is busy when in fact the phones are offering no indication that someone is trying to get in,” Cirpriani said.
This newspaper has received numerous complaints from irate Scotia customers about difficulties they have experienced in accessing the bank and some have complained about a recording that is activated at the commencement of a telephone call to the bank advertising its various services. “What happens if you are low on credit and you really need to speak with someone in the Bank,” a customer asked. Cipriani told Stabroek Business that there was a mechanism through which the message could be disconnected whenever the customer chooses to do so.
Meanwhile, a GT&T official who has been part of the company’s response team to the bank’s telephone problems has flatly denied that it had received a number of reports from the bank about problems with the phone service but had failed to rectify those problems. The official told Stabroek Business that he had learnt of the problem with the bank’s phone service last week for the first time on account of a conversation with the editor of this newspaper.
Scotia’s Carmichael Street office is equipped with a Nortel Business Communication Manager system which this newspaper understands was installed by a US-based company, Cotelsa, on behalf of GT&T. The GT&T official told Stabroek Business that he had examined the system earlier this week but had been unable to do any extensive diagnostic work since the bank was not prepared to shut the system down during working hours. By mid-afternoon on Tuesday, however, both sides had agreed that it was likely that the telephone service might have to be removed for a period. The GT&T official told Stabroek Business that the problem may be one of a software nature.
Meanwhile Cipriani has also responded to concerns raised by this newspaper about the frequency with which the bank’s ATM cash dispenser on Robb Street (opposite the Stabroek News) appears to run out of cash. The problem which appeared to have accelerated for a period immediately following the Christmas holidays has resulted in irate customers reacting angrily upon discovering that the cash dispenser was not providing its customary service. Christiani, who confirmed that the bank had also received some complaints about its ATM cash dispenser in the region of the Demerara Harbour Bridge said that the bank was currently examining the service records of the machines to determine the likely nature of the problem. She said that a computerized system was in place to alert the bank to the fact that its dispensers were running low on cash and that, usually, ‘topping up’ would take place within two hours of that warning. Cipriani also told Stabroek Business that the bank usually monitors cash withdrawal patterns among its customers.
