LAHORE: WorldCall Telecom Limited, which provides internet and digital/cable television services, has reportedly been inactive ever since a fire broke out in Ali Towers on MM Alam road on Saturday, 8 September.
According to details, the fire erupted at an international restaurant in the basement of Ali Towers, trapping at least 50 people in stores and residential apartments on different floors.
As many as eight people sustained injuries after jumping off from the building in a bid to escape the fire. One of them, identified as Akram, succumbed to his injuries.
WorldCall Telecom, which provides services to many parts of the city, had its services disrupted on Saturday, as it had an office that housed backup wiring and servers in an upper floor of Ali Towers.
Pakistan Today sought a comment from the customer service department of WorldCall Telecom and received the following reply.
“As you have heard in the news there has been a fire in Ali Tower on MM Alam road, and our main server is there, no one has the permission to enter the premises at the moment. Further, our team is working towards its resolution. Your patience is highly appreciated in the meantime.”
This is a common occurrence in a country where consumer protection laws are not stringently implemented. Since every customer gets a ‘monthly’ bill at the end of the month, does this ‘monthly’ bill ever account for the hours in which the services they are paying for are not received?
A WorldCall customer living in the area of DHA Phase 3 said, “We have been without any internet, or TV services for the last two days. The company doesn’t bother letting us know what’s going on when we call them. This is absolutely unfair as we still will have to pay them the full monthly bill, even when we haven’t received their services for the whole month. They never account for the daily hours and minutes when their services are offline or interrupted. We as consumers are being exploited”.
The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP), which is an independent agency of the Government of Pakistan for the enforcement of economic laws in the country needs to look into this matter, and perhaps carve out a way for all organisations providing internet/telephone/cable or digital television services – to account for and bill the customer the exact amount for the time the customers received their services.
Another query with the customer service department resulted in the telephone agent saying that “The government has allowed our team to enter the building, and we will be working to resolve your situation as soon as possible”.
When asked ‘when’ their services would resume, they replied that they themselves had no clue.
WorldCall Telecom was originally founded by Salman Taseer in 1996, and was acquired by Omantel in 2008.
