The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) yesterday advertised a public hearing on February 20 on a complaint by a Digicel customer of being charged $1.20 for a voice prompt prior to an unanswered call going to voice mail.
Leonard Craig, on February 11, 2013 sent a letter to the PUC seeking reasonable compensation for, and the ending of what he described as an unfair trading practice.
Digicel replied to the PUC on March 4, 2013 over the letter asking the utility body to dismiss Craig’s complaint, which it felt was frivolous.
It is unclear why the hearing is only now being convened.
Craig said he has been a Digicel customer for over two years and during this period he recognised that whenever he makes calls to another Digicel number, if the party does not answer, is on the phone or for any other reason does not take the call, the call is routed to a voice prompt, for which the caller is charged a minimum of $1.20.
He added that he believes that the voice prompt is a notice that the called party is not available or that the call is about to be transferred to a Voicemail service. He said that being charged before the actual Voicemail is patently unfair.
Digicel’s letter signed by Chief Executive Officer, Gregory Dean, said that the company adopts a standard voicemail protocol which is used worldwide. The letter further stated that after approximately 20 seconds on an unanswered call, the call defaults to the voicemail system if the party has one set up.
However, Craig in his letter said being charged before the switch to voicemail actually takes place is a breach of fair business practices in the industry and contended that it is not standard for service providers around the world to charge customers for voice prompts.
He said that customers should begin to pay charges when the voicemail services takes place.
Craig is seeking compensation in excess of $60,000 for “thousands” of calls unfairly terminated via the voice prompt notices, cost for the time and effort spent and the expenses incurred in making the challenge. Craig said he had been trying to have the issue redressed without any success.
Digicel’s letter said that the voice prompt Craig refers to is in fact a part of the voicemail system and added that the setting is similar to that of a fixed line when the called party has an answering machine.
