(CNS): Over 60% of the people who live on Little Cayman have filed a formal complaint to OfReg about what they say is the appallingly bad telecommunications service from Flow they have received for as far back as 15 years. The regulator said 95 residents and business owners had contacted the office, and within days OfReg opened an investigation and met with a large number of the residents at a public meeting on the island to hear their concerns.

The Little Cayman residents listed a catalogue of concerns about their mobile, home and business internet service, which they described as poor and sometimes non-existent, even impacting their ability to make emergency calls, all of which have persisted for the last 10 to 15 years. 

The complaints ranged from the lack of responsive customer care and complaint management service to store clerks having to stand outside the shops where they work to pick up a signal so their card payment machines will work.

Despite the terrible service, customers are still required to pay in full for, in some cases, no service provision at all, including landlines that are not attached to phones, and no compensation has ever been offered. Residents said that unsightly and unsafe fallen or extremely low-hanging Flow cables have been left all over the Island. While routine maintenance calls are made once a week, those workers don’t take complaints and nothing has improved.

OfReg said it met with Flow personnel, who said delays in upgrading technology and equipment were contributing to some of the quality of service issues. Following the meeting, as the investigation continues, OfReg has said it wants Flow to identify and implement a temporary fix before a permanent and scalable solution is then rolled out to prevent re-occurrence. It also said the company should provide a plan for compensating consumers.

Executive Director for telecommunications at OfReg, Sonji Myles, said the regulator will intervene when consumers are subjected to poor service, especially for a prolonged period. “Consumers must be provided with the level of service that they have contracted for, regardless of whether they are in Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac or Little Cayman,” he said.

Meanwhile, the new OfReg Consumer Council, which has been briefed on the Little Cayman complaints, is also considering how the situation can be improved and will be making recommendations.

“It’s very sad and unfortunate that the good people of Little Cayman have had to endure such sub-standard service from one of OfReg’s regulated service providers,” said Consumer Council Chairperson George Ebanks. He said the council takes a dim view of this type of behaviour and poor service and was actively organising itself to adequately deal with complaints.

One possible solutions under consideration is to require service providers to have a dedicated email to receive complaints and automatically forward them to the council for quick monitoring and cross-communication.

“The main objective being to increase pressure on the islands’ service providers to resolve customers complaints as quickly as possible,” Ebanks told CNS. “The Little Cayman complaint, which was submitted by 95 Island residents, out of a total resident population of 150 (or 63%) is also indicative of the current weak and lacking regulatory presence available to consumers in the Cayman Islands. This will be strengthened,” he promised.

OfReg CEO Peter Gough said there was no reason that Little Cayman residents should be subjected to poor service. “OfReg is committed to providing relief to the residents of Little Cayman as quickly as possible and we thank them for coming to us with their concerns as it is through this mechanism that we can better address the issues being experienced by consumers,” he added

Any determination or directive to Flow will be issued following the investigation, officials from the regulator noted in a press release.