Dear Claudienne

On July 15 I sent an e-mail to Digicel’s customer service director complaining that Digicel failed to activate ‘Roam Like You’re Home’ as I requested, before travelling overseas. The result is that I was billed over $20,000 between June 24 – 27 under the belief that I was on that plan. I think Digicel needs to take responsibility and charge me based on the ‘Roam Like You’re Home’ plan.

On July 16 I received a direct response from the customer service director and from another manager to whom I believe the matter may have been delegated, promising to look into the matter. I asked them to try to resolve the matter by July 27, the due date of my bill. I sent them a reminder, but to date (August 17, 2015) I have heard nothing further . The service to my cellphone has now been downgraded so I can only receive calls. As of the next due date, I will probably have no service. The letter I sent to the customer service director stated the following:

“On May 25 after confirming my travel itinerary to Canada and the USA (June 24 – July 9, 2015), I went to www.digicel.com to update myself on the current roaming plan as I am well aware that roaming can be a huge expense. I was quite happy to find ‘Roam Like You’re Home’. Following the instructions to sign up, on June 20 I dialled *153*1# to request the service. I got a response the same day, noting that the cost was $2000 and stating that “a message will be sent when the plan is activated and may take up to six hours”.

“With no further update and being uncertain, I called customer service on June 23, just for the assurance of human contact. I can’t recall the whole conversation, but I told the agent my reason for calling. One of the things I can recall is that she asked me to dial *153*1# again which I did and got another similar response.

When I arrived in Toronto (many hours after my first request for ‘Roam Like You’re Home’), and turned on my phone, it picked up on Rogers network. What was I to believe, except that Digicel had activated the service? Consequently, on the belief that I was on ‘Roam Like You’re Home’, during the next two days I made calls/texts and spoke longer than usual.

“On travelling previously I had requested roaming service and it was activated. There was no action required from me, except making the request. So I never considered that the phone could roam automatically without activation by Digicel. It was when I visited customer service on July 13 to complain about the current $20,000 plus charges that I was told that my phone was defaulted to international roaming. How would I have known this?

“A red flag went up when I saw a text on June 25 noting, “You have spent $2000 on data…” and another one on June 26 saying, “you have spent $4000 on data…” I could not figure out what was going on, so I stopped the service. I had no idea that it had anything to do with not receiving a confirmation message. If that had occurred to me I would have called Digicel. When would I have received the confirmation message? Is it six hours after arrival? If so, it was not made clear to me. And I still have not received a confirmation message.

“I now realise that I would have had to sell my house to pay the bill if the phone was kept on the network for 12 days.

My request is that Digicel charge me the ‘Roam Like You’re Home’ rates. I am asking Digicel to consider giving me a rebate on the $20,000 charges.”

LC

Dear LC

Tell Claudienne has been in communication with Digicel about your complaint and we note that they contacted you on August 18 and resolved the matter to your satisfaction.

In regard to this matter, the Digicel Customer Care director has stated the following:

“Digicel has since made contact with LC and apologised for any inconvenience she may have experienced. The matter is now resolved and we have made the necessary adjustments to her account.

We also took LC through the steps to activate the Roam Like You’re Home plan as a postpaid customer to mitigate any future misunderstandings. These steps include dialling *153# SEND, then diall ing *153*1# SEND. At this point, the request is sent to Digicel for activation. Once these steps have been completed correctly, a message will be received confirming. Customers will then receive a message from Digicel confirming that they can start roaming. Customers can also activate the Roam Like You’re Home plan through the ‘My Digicel’ App.

Following the resolution, LC expressed satisfaction in how the matter was resolved.”

You have also admitted to Tell Claudienne that the $20,000 charges you incurred were due to a “misunderstanding on my part ” of the steps you needed to take to activate the Roam Like You’re Home Plan.

Good luck.

Have a problem with a store, utility, a company? Telephone 936-9436 or write to: Tell Claudienne c/o Sunday Finance, Jamaica Observer, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5; or e-mail: edwardsc@jamaicaobserver.com. Please iHavenclude a contact phone number.

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