In an incident that raises serious question marks about the rights of subscribers and the mechanism for managing customer service, the company “Alfa” stopped the phone line of a citizen who had been dealing with the company for about twenty years, and who paid the fees and bills he owed, even though the bill was paid.
According to what the subscriber was informed of, the reason for the suspension was exceeding the “usage ceiling” set at $20, with a request to pay an additional security deposit of $5 to reactivate the line.
Here is the question: By what right does a citizen who is obligated to pay have his line suspended? Who gave the company the right to cut off service just because it exceeded the usage limit? What kind of ceiling is this? Was the subscriber notified in advance? Was it clear that crossing it would lead to the line being stopped?
Even if there is an additional amount due, doesn’t the subscriber have the right to obtain a clear, prior warning before cutting off a basic service such as a phone line, especially since he has subscribed to the company for twenty years?
The problem doesn’t stop here. From midnight last night until ten o’clock this morning, the subscriber was unable to reach customer service via the number 111, nor did he receive any response via the Online Chat service.
According to the announced mechanism, the call answering service is supposed to be available from 7 a.m. until 1 a.m., and the subscriber is informed that the waiting period will not exceed 30 seconds. But when you try to call, the response is, “Due to the large number of calls, the call will not be answered.”
Here additional questions arise: If communications are of this magnitude, does this mean that a large number of subscribers are facing problems and need to communicate with the company? Or is the problem that there are not enough employees to answer customer calls?
It’s not five dollars. The telephone is an essential means of communication, and may become necessary in an emergency. What if the subscriber is on the road and is involved in an accident, and his line is suspended, and at the same time he cannot reach customer service or any employee to solve the problem?
What is required of Alpha is not only to restart the line, but to clarify the basis on which it was stopped: What is the ceiling? Where was the subscriber informed? What is the contractual basis for disconnecting service? Why was no advance warning given?
The question also goes to the authorities concerned with regulating the telecommunications sector in Lebanon: What are the subscriber’s rights when his line is suspended despite paying the bill, and when he does not find customer service available in return to explain the reason or address the problem?
This is not a matter of one subscriber or five dollars, but rather a matter of the subscriber’s right to a clear service, a transparent treatment, and access to the responsible party when a basic service he has been paying for for years stops.
