Dear Editor,
I spoke to several persons in the Berbice area who were all ripped off by an unscrupulous distributor of DirecTV in Guyana. The sadder thing is that it seems that neither those persons nor I can have the justice we deserve. The stories I heard from various individuals are nothing short of shocking and really raise the question of whether Guyanese consumers are really protected by the law.
In Guyana, we have services and products being offered by various distributors. Therefore the law should cover everyone. I do not even appreciate the manner in which Stabroek TV Inc has been dealing with this matter. Just imagine, there are other individuals in Guyana reselling DirecTV – a service Stabroek TV claims exclusive rights over – and neither the law, DirecTV, nor Stabroek TV Inc can do anything to stop this con-man.
In notices appearing in the Stabroek News, Stabroek TV Inc says that “other persons purporting to sell DirecTV do not have the right to do so since Stabroek TV Inc… is the sole authorized distributor in Guyana.” Now that statement boggles my mind. If I am selling my service or product legally and someone else is selling my product or service and it is being done without any right to do so, and persons are being conned by the underhanded service, then can’t I take legal action or get the police involved with these persons? But this is cowboy country.
I can supply the police and Stabroek TV Inc and even DirecTV with the names and phone numbers of several persons (myself included) who have been dealt the hard blow by one person in particular who has been robbing Guyanese of hundreds of thousands of dollars in broad daylight selling Stabroek TV’s DirecTV service.
What kind of country is this where anyone can sell a rotten service to people after collecting large sums of money and no one, not even the law can do something about it? If Kaieteur News made the scam pandits run out of this country by exposing them, then why isn’t anything being done to stop these scam artists from robbing innocent Guyanese? Eileen Cox’s Consumer Association, too, is notably silent on this matter.
Yours faithfully,
Leon Suseran
Editor’s note:
A copy of this letter was sent to Stabroek TV for comment and a reply received from Ms Shaleeza Khan on behalf of the company.
Thank you for the opportunity to respond to this letter. There are several operators illegally offering DirecTV services by utilizing equipment smuggled in from Venezuela and elsewhere. Prosecution of these persons on the grounds of exclusivity of distributorship is an option but will not stop others from attempting to do the same. DirecTV, following complaints from Stabroek TV and elsewhere, has been working to ensure that smuggled hardware can be identified and barred from accessing the network’s signal.
Until then, the best defence against these illegal operations would be for the consumer to exercise vigilance. Stabroek TV has broadcast widely that it is the sole distributor of DirecTV and that recourse to any other service is likely to be rife with the problems that Mr Suseran referred to. Consumers have to be more careful in the choices that they make. Mr Suseran and the others who have been duped by this individual may also wish to lodge a complaint with the police for the appropriate action to be taken.
