Has your Digicel prepaid credit been vanishing lately?

Have there ever been a time when you thought you had a certain amount of credit on your Digicel phone, only to find out that it’s much less or completely gone? If you have had this experience you are not alone, many people I know have suffered through it and have gone through futile attempts to recover their lost credit. The incidents of this happening have increased in the last couple of months with very little from Digicel about the possible cause.

One instance had to do with a family member:

A call was made lasting 11 seconds, when the balance was checked she had 33 dollars remaining, however when she attempted to make a call two hours later she got the message that she doesn’t have enough credit to make the call. Upon checking her balance again she was told that she had 0.09 cents. A call was made to customer care and after going through the frustrating process of figuring out her PUK she was told, to her horror, that the last call she made lasted 4 minutes 23 seconds. Despite all the attempts to get the customer service representative to report the inconsistency, no report were made and the credit remained lost, despite the fact that the mobile phone had recorded the 11 seconds of call made.

There have been many instances where persons got charged for calls made during what should be the free call period, despite the person covering the necessary criteria to qualify for it.

PUK roadblock

The “Gimmi 5 promotion” is another area where Digicel users have experienced problems. I for one have met several difficulties and have lost credit while using the promotion. In one instance credit was subtracted from my account when I should be within the 100 free text limit, and when I tried to get compensated I was refused because I did not have my PUK. There are several instances where I agree that the PUK is important but I cant wrap my head around needing a PUK to get compensation from Digicel for their own mistake. How will a user be able to breach security by just getting compensation to an account?

All it takes is for Digicel to check the account and make the necessary adjustments, no input from the user end whatsoever, yet people are being drilled on PUK, something that many of us have misplaced. This PUK roadblock have indirectly fleeced credit from Jamaicans in a time where money is especially hard to come by and calls expensive to make. There needs to be an alternative, I suggest asking questions that only the user will know… but then again Digicel; why do persons need to give you such details for you to check and correct your own mistake? Does the PUK make any difference in the results you see infront of you on your system? Or is it just a roadblock to confuse Jamaicans into the classic ‘cant bother’ attitude so that they will just go ahead and buy more credit rather than try and contest your obviously flawed system?

Cellphone Dictatorship?

As Jamaica slowly plummets into what can be referred to as a second period of ‘Cellphone Dictatorship’, combined with a governmental system that is dormant in people vs corporation affairs, the Jamaican people on a whole needs to now take a stand and confront issues in this sector rather than just ‘cant bother’. Yes you can buy more credit but think of what we will lose if 1 out of every 1000 of us lose 25 dollars a day, think in terms of months and years.

I suggest adopting the American attitude, then we wont even need competition to regulate things and ensure low prices, the service providers will be so afraid of us they will try to ensure that their system is fool proof. That is what happens in a country where people take it up on their own to protect their rights and to ensure that they receive value for money.