GT&T collecting rent from phone which has not been fixed for 20 months

Dear Editor,

Since February last year and up until today after some 20 months, GT&T has been unable to rectify a fault to my landline phone located just by the roadside at Adventure Village in Region 2. But despite no benefit being derived from the service during that entire period the company never failed to submit monthly bills for rental of $500 plus value added tax of $80 with prompt payments being made throughout.The amount paid so far is $11,600 and I kept paying in the belief that the service would have been restored following every occasion I visited the complaints office at Anna Regina.

From the number of visits made there which could be verified from the records, a further sum of $8000 (the usual passenger fare) was expended on travelling alone, in addition to the waste of precious time. Certainly, this is not good enough.

Why the company is showing no concern or interest in my predicament is indeed baffling, but worse yet is the fact that no excuse has been given for the protracted delay.

It is very unfair and unreasonable to pay for a service from which no benefit is being derived, and it would only be proper for the company to make a refund.

All because of a monopoly, I have become a victim in a ‘can’t do better‘ situation, and the most I can do now is to implore the company, not as a favour but as a duty, to discharge its responsibility to me as a customer.

Yours faithfully,
Baliram Persaud