Discoverflow | Barbados | Standards of Service

Standards of service

As directed by the Fair Trading Commission:

  1. Cable & Wireless shall comply with the prescribed Standards of Service as set out in Table 1 and Table 2 of the Schedule below and the exemptions set out in the Standards of Service Decision 2023 - 2025.
  2. Cable & Wireless shall credit the prescribed sums as set out in Table 1 of the Schedule to any customer who is affected by its failure to provide the service in accordance with and in the manner set out in the Standards of Service Decision 2023 - 2025.
  3. This Order shall take effect from January 1, 2023 and continue until December 31, 2025 or until such time as a new Standards of Service Decision is issued.
  4.  
Table 1: Guaranteed Standards of Service for Cable & Wireless (C&W)
STANDARDSERVICE CATEGORYTARGETCOMPENSATION
GTS 1 Installation or Transfer of ServiceNo more than five (5) working days.Refund of first month's bill.
Automatic Compensation.
GTS 2Fault RepairNo more than two (2) working daysAutomatic prorated credit of monthly telephone charge for the period the customer was without service due to a fault on C&W's network.
Automatic Compensation
GTS 3Repeated Loss of ServiceFaults should not reoccur within thirty (30) days of repair of first fault.Credit of $15 to residential customers and $30 to business customers for repeated loss of service, due to the service provider's equipment, within thirty (30) days of original fault.
Automatic Compensation
GTS 4 (New)Customer Complaint Resolution TimeNo more than 7days for both residential and business customersCredit of $15 to each affected residential customer and $30 to each affected business customer.
Automatic Compensation
GTS 5Customer AppointmentsAll scheduled appointments should be honoured and are to be scheduled between the hours of (8:00- 12:00, 12:00 -16:00)Credit of $15 to residential customers and $30 to business customers for missing agreed appointments (subject to a 15- minute grace period e.g., 12:15 for 12:00 appointments and 14:15 for 14:00 appointments). The service provider may reschedule an appointment; however, the customer must be notified at least eight (8) working hours prior to the scheduled appointment.
A Customer-initiated claim is required for compensation
GTS 6Reconnection After Disconnection for Non- PaymentReconnection of the service should Occur within six (6) hours ofCredit of $30 to each affected customer.
Automatic Compensation
STANDARDSERVICE CATEGORYTARGETCOMPENSATION
GTS 7 Wrongful DisconnectionReconnection within one (1) working hour of notification by customerAutomatic minimum credit of $15 to residential customers and $30 to business customers. Following this, if the service is not reconnected within one (1) working day of the customer's report of wrongful disconnection, compensation shall continue to accrue calculated on a daily rate, based on the monthly line rental fee charged to the customer until the complaint is resolved.
Automatic Compensation.
GTS 8Billing AccuracyBills should be error free (100% target)For each bill containing errors, a compensatory credit of 15 to each affected residential customer and $30 to each business customer, upon confirmation of errors.
A customer-initiated claim is required for compensation.
GTS 9 (NEW)Account Time after Request Cancellation CustomerNo longer than five (5) working days after the customer's verifiable request.No charges should accrue to the customer beyond the five (5) day period. If charges accrue, the customer shall receive full compensation for those charges.
Automatic Compensation
  1. "Working Days" refers to Mondays to Fridays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. only, excludes public holidays and weekends. In measuring the response time for targets expressed in terms of working days, the day the complaint is made is excluded. Any other reference to days means calendar days.
  2. "Automatic Compensation refers to the initiation of the compensation process by C&W where a breach has occurred and is granted on confirmation of the breach by C&W. It is administered as a credit on the customer's bill for the following month.
  3. For Compensation which requires customer initiated claims, customers must fill out a claim form and submit it to C&W in order to receive any credit which is due. "Working hours" are between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. on a working day
  4. This Standard is applicable to both 'soft disconnection', where no reconnection fee is required, and 'full disconnection'.
Table 2: Overall Standards of Service for Cable & Wireless (C&W)
STANDARDSERVICE CATEGORYTARGET
OTS 1 Fault Repair
The speed with which faults due to failure of C&W's equipment or systems are repaired. Faults due to inside wiring or customer-owned equipment are not included.		80% of faults shall be repaired within twenty-four (24) hours of receipt of the report from the customer.
OTS 2Repeated Loss of Service
This Standard refers to the repeated or frequent loss of phone service within thirty (30) days of the occurrence of the original fault and due to problems on C&W's network.
'Loss of service' is defined as disrupted or degraded service including, inter alia, no dial tone.		No more than 5% of faults shall reoccur within thirty (30) days of repair of the original fault.
OTS 3Working Payphones
The number of payphones which are fully functional on a daily basis.		At least 75% of public payphones shall be in working order daily.
OTS 4Fault Incidence
This measures the monthly percentage of faults on C&W's network.		No more than three (3) faults per one hundred (100) subscribers per month.
OTS 5Billing Accuracy
This governs the accuracy of C&W's bills.

Billing errors do not include charges due to fraud or faulty faulty customer-owned equipment. They also do not include the reflection of overdue amounts on subsequent bills if that amount was paid after the due date or pertain to format or frequency.		Billing errors are permitted in no more than 0.5% of the total bills issued each month.
OTS 6
(Amended)		Customer Service Response Time
This refers to the time it takes for a C&W customer service representative to respond to a customer service call from the time the telephone rings.		At least 70% of customer service calls shall be answered by a customer service representative within forty (40) seconds of being handed off by the Interactive Voice Response System (IVR) to the next available customer service representative.
OTS 7 (New)Complaint Resolution Rate
This Standard stipulates the target for the amount of customer complaints resolved given the total complaints submitted on a monthly basis.		On a monthly basis, a minimum of 75% of all complaints must be resolved within 7 days while a minimum of 95% of all complaints must be resolved within 14 days.