Date: Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 1:09 PM
Subject: Digicel and Cable & Wireless
To: Bdosconsumer@gmail.com
Digicel
I frequently make calls to Guyana from my Digicel prepaid cell phone. On one occasion while making such a call I noticed that the call timer of the cell phone was running while the cell connection was ringing but not answered. This obviously is not normal as the timer should only come on when the call has been answered by the receiving party, thus initiating charges. Since no one answered I hung up and checked my balance which should have been $10 dollars since I had just recharged the phone with the said amount. It was not $10 but $9.12. I made a mental note but did nothing.
However, I started noticing more and more that the same thing was happening so I decided to call Digicel customer care. I was told by a representative that Digicel was experiencing a problem with calls to Guyana and that she on behalf of Digicel was sorry and wanted to know if I wanted a refund. I said no and that all I wanted was for them to fix the problem because I have to make frequent calls to Guyana and I should not be charged for calls that were not connected. The customer representative assured me that they were actively working on the problem and hoped to get it resolved soon.
A week went by and the problem seemed to have been solved. Unfortunately it recommenced, so finally I decided I couldn't take it any more after realizing that I was losing about $20 a month in calls that were never connected. I called Digicel customer care and told the representative that I wanted a refund for the the last call I just made (I estimated the refund to be about 89cents). She told me that I was not going to get a refund because
1) Digicel was not the responsible carrier. It was the Guyanese company that was at fault.
2) I did not know the exact amount of money that was initially on the phone card before I made the call.
In response to this I said that:
1) Digicel was the responsible carrier since I was making the call through them and it was Digicel and not any company in Guyana that was deducting credit from me. They were the ones taking my money!
2) It seems illogical for someone to have to take the time to constantly check the balance of their phone before they initiate a call. How many people do you know that do that? Once you know that you have money on your phone you just dial.
My response fell on death ears and I got no refund....(remember I was asking for less than a dollar). Doesn't Digicel have the technology to see the last call that was made from a cell phone?
With the high Guyanese population in Barbados, the vast exchange between the two countries and the number of people that do not look to see if their money is being deducted for unanswered calls, one can safely estimate that Digicel is getting rich for not even providing a service. Alternatively, getting rich from providing a terrible service. Digicel must be getting rich by just silently nickel & diming persons. Especially Guyanese who might be illegal in Barbados and therefore will not complain.
Please make the general public aware of this.
Cable & Wireless
If you did not know, Cable & Wireless has been traffic shaping and throttling the internet to their customers disadvantage.
See the link below:
http://www.azureuswiki.com/index.php/Bad_ISPs#Barbados
There have been many times recently that I have been downloading legitimate files from the internet from sites like Rapidshare, when suddenly the download connection was severed due to Cable & Wireless over agressive traffic shaping and throttling policy. Thus wasting lots of my time as sometimes these files were transferring for over twenty five minutes.
Our North American neighbours have realised what some ISPs like Cable & Wireless have been doing and have taken successful action:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080711.wgtcomcast0711/BNStory/Technology/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080711.wgtcomcast0711
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/1859/125/
Please help save the freedom of the Barbados internet or next we will find that blog sites like yours or the Barbados Underground or the Barbados Free Press are being cut off from the public by an ISP over stepping it's bounds!
Please reply and let me know what you think
A very concern bajan
Subject: Digicel and Cable & Wireless
To: Bdosconsumer@gmail.com
Digicel
I frequently make calls to Guyana from my Digicel prepaid cell phone. On one occasion while making such a call I noticed that the call timer of the cell phone was running while the cell connection was ringing but not answered. This obviously is not normal as the timer should only come on when the call has been answered by the receiving party, thus initiating charges. Since no one answered I hung up and checked my balance which should have been $10 dollars since I had just recharged the phone with the said amount. It was not $10 but $9.12. I made a mental note but did nothing.
However, I started noticing more and more that the same thing was happening so I decided to call Digicel customer care. I was told by a representative that Digicel was experiencing a problem with calls to Guyana and that she on behalf of Digicel was sorry and wanted to know if I wanted a refund. I said no and that all I wanted was for them to fix the problem because I have to make frequent calls to Guyana and I should not be charged for calls that were not connected. The customer representative assured me that they were actively working on the problem and hoped to get it resolved soon.
A week went by and the problem seemed to have been solved. Unfortunately it recommenced, so finally I decided I couldn't take it any more after realizing that I was losing about $20 a month in calls that were never connected. I called Digicel customer care and told the representative that I wanted a refund for the the last call I just made (I estimated the refund to be about 89cents). She told me that I was not going to get a refund because
1) Digicel was not the responsible carrier. It was the Guyanese company that was at fault.
2) I did not know the exact amount of money that was initially on the phone card before I made the call.
In response to this I said that:
1) Digicel was the responsible carrier since I was making the call through them and it was Digicel and not any company in Guyana that was deducting credit from me. They were the ones taking my money!
2) It seems illogical for someone to have to take the time to constantly check the balance of their phone before they initiate a call. How many people do you know that do that? Once you know that you have money on your phone you just dial.
My response fell on death ears and I got no refund....(remember I was asking for less than a dollar). Doesn't Digicel have the technology to see the last call that was made from a cell phone?
With the high Guyanese population in Barbados, the vast exchange between the two countries and the number of people that do not look to see if their money is being deducted for unanswered calls, one can safely estimate that Digicel is getting rich for not even providing a service. Alternatively, getting rich from providing a terrible service. Digicel must be getting rich by just silently nickel & diming persons. Especially Guyanese who might be illegal in Barbados and therefore will not complain.
Please make the general public aware of this.
Cable & Wireless
If you did not know, Cable & Wireless has been traffic shaping and throttling the internet to their customers disadvantage.
See the link below:
http://www.azureuswiki.com/index.php/Bad_ISPs#Barbados
There have been many times recently that I have been downloading legitimate files from the internet from sites like Rapidshare, when suddenly the download connection was severed due to Cable & Wireless over agressive traffic shaping and throttling policy. Thus wasting lots of my time as sometimes these files were transferring for over twenty five minutes.
Our North American neighbours have realised what some ISPs like Cable & Wireless have been doing and have taken successful action:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080711.wgtcomcast0711/BNStory/Technology/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20080711.wgtcomcast0711
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/1859/125/
Please help save the freedom of the Barbados internet or next we will find that blog sites like yours or the Barbados Underground or the Barbados Free Press are being cut off from the public by an ISP over stepping it's bounds!
Please reply and let me know what you think
A very concern bajan
Posts
14 comments:
The fact is that a very small percentage of customers consume a significant amount of bandwidth by downloading movies. ISP's, such as Caribsurf, should establish CAP's to deal with it and should throttle bit torrents. The vast majority of files downloaded from bit torrents are illegal copies of movies.
Anonymous I agree with you whoeheartedly
Not only can Digicel give you the time and amount consumed on your last call, they can give you a history of the calls you made to Guyana. Futhermore you can demand them and they have to give you.
If I were you I would go for them and make Digicel refund you for all.
ciao da scorzè venezia
peace and freedom
I admired what you are doing. Knowledge is always power. Keep up the fight. You have my support howbeit anonymously.
wwww.bimchat.wordpress.com
"The fact is that a very small percentage of customers consume a significant amount of bandwidth by downloading movies. ISP's, such as Caribsurf, should establish CAP's to deal with it and should throttle bit torrents. The vast majority of files downloaded from bit torrents are illegal copies of movies."
Does it ever have to be movies? You are apparently missing something too. Bittorrent & Rapidshare can also have software programs they can download too!
"The fact is that a very small percentage of customers consume a significant amount of bandwidth by downloading movies. ISP's, such as Caribsurf, should establish CAP's to deal with it and should throttle bit torrents. The vast majority of files downloaded from bit torrents are illegal copies of movies."
ISP's shouldn't be controlling, and impose restrictions on the Internet if they didn't create the Internet period. It is as Simple as that. It's Internet roaming Free.
Also Bandwidth Capping, should NEVER be applied to any users. Depending on size and scope of its usage, they will still have to expand its infrastructure to accommodate more customers and consumer bandwidth. Link below:
http://gigaom.com/2008/08/28/comcast-makes-metered-broadband-official-beware-what-you-download/
The last statement is so stupid i don't how how to comment. Bandwidth to the internet is extremely expensive. Stop talking about something that is totally out of your knowledge capacity
"The last statement is so stupid i don't how how to comment. Bandwidth to the internet is extremely expensive."
Can you please tell us how could 1.5mbps of download could cost $99mbps coming out of our Telecom companies. Where as another ISP in the U.S is selling 3 at $36mbps dollars a month...
And saying bandwidth is expensive are surely in need of a reality check comparing to the rest of the world and ask how does this help to the consumer and the economy in the long-term. The lower costs of that ISP is a result of a lot of competition, here in Barbados there is 'the average 3' however they are selling us Consumers for something lower at a really high price.
We (the consumers) are spending on these speeds compared to the world are surely going to get ourselves laughed at... Does spend more for less help economies: spend big for such little?
Yeah Right......! *sigh*
Can anyone recommend the best Managed Service tool for a small IT service company like mine? Does anyone use Kaseya.com or GFI.com? How do they compare to these guys I found recently: [url=http://www.n-able.com] N-able N-central it support
[/url] ? What is your best take in cost vs performance among those three? I need a good advice please... Thanks in advance!
Thank you for posting.
it is really helpful to all.
such a nice topics.
Bathmate
Yes exactly, in some moments I can phrase that I acquiesce in with you, but you may be making allowance for other options.
to the article there is quiet a definitely as you did in the fall publication of this demand www.google.com/ie?as_q=bandwidth meter pro 2.4 ?
I noticed the catch-phrase you procure not used. Or you partake of the pitch-dark methods of development of the resource. I take a week and do necheg
People need to read the TOU/EULA for their internet service. Then they will realize that LIME is in full authority to traffic shape to their hearts content.
thanks for sharing...
Post a Comment