Claro Codetel and the way they treat their paying customers

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
17,850
982
113
We still don't have a landline so we are using wireless internet from Claro.

Every month I pay RD$2,595 pre-pago for my "banda ancha" - a cruel misnomer because the connection speed is dial-up quality most of the time. Every month I pay 2 days ahead of the cut-off date to ensure continuity, as advised when I took up the service in January.

For the last two months it's been cut off anyway.

I phone customer service to see what's happening - two hours later I've used up my quota of free calls from a cellphone because before I can get anywhere with the three or four operators I finally manage to speak to the calls get cut off, as happens with most calls from Claro cellphones these days.

Remember, I haven't got a landline and paid calls from a cellphone are not an option when you have to spend 10, 15, 20 mins just waiting for an operator to take the call, which is almost certain to be cut off anyway.

This month the reason given was that I didn't call customer service to confirm that I had made the payment - which seems unnecessary and unreasonable after having made the payment, got my receipt and watched the employee enter the details into the system.

I didn't sacrifice a goat either. Maybe that would have made the difference?

Apparently their payment receiving mechanism is not sophisticated enough to tell the system that I've paid. I thought computers and stuff were able to do that sort of thing?

They aren't able to restore the service for some reason, so I make my way down to my local office, which is a 'dealer', not an actual Codetel office. They establish that what has happened - absurdly - is that although Claro's system was not able to register my pre-payment enough to restore my service, it was miraculously able to register it enough to be able to deduct ~RD$50 pesos from the RD$2,595 "for the attempts you made to connect after your cut off date" - so now that my balance is "only" RD$2,548 it is no longer able to give me the full month and I have to top it up. No, I say, you have to give me extra days for the day without service, seeing as I paid.

They haven't got the authority to override this, so I accept their limitations and drive 6km to the nearest 'main' Codetel office (Ver?n) and a minor meltdown later the folks there seem to accept the unfairness and PROMISE the service will be restored when I get home. It isn't. Late in the afternoon I have to make several more calls to customer service and of course, just as I manage to get somewhere, the call cuts off. It takes about an hour and a half to get a result.

So, this is a customer who has paid in full, two days in advance, but still has to spend a full working day each month, getting upset and frustrated, letting down clients and losing earnings in order to fight for the restoration of the service they paid for.

I'm not the only one - a couple I spoke to at the office who were also complaining about some aspect of the service told me that the previous three customers who had come in had ended up losing their tempers. It can't be nice for the employees to be on the frontline of this when it's clearly the way the system is set up with all these flaws that is to blame.

Next month in order to prevent this from happening the advice is to pay as early as possible on the same day it cuts off (i.e. live dangerously). If paying at a dealer, follow it up with a phone call to customer service to confirm the recarga OR go to the main office in Ver?n, pay at the cash desk and then stand in line to see a customer service operator so that they can 'confirm' the recarga.

So you still have to spend several hours of your working day to ensure that a simple thing gets done - either a 12km round trip to the main office when there is a sub-office 5 minutes walk away or spend half the morning making calls to customer service - why, when as we found - the system does actually register the payment and it's all a load of BS anyway?

At this rate we'll have to start a "Codetel sucks" sub-forum.
 

Squat

Tropical geek in Las Terrenas
Jan 1, 2002
2,239
168
63
If you have Viva se?al, use Viva Interjet, it?s not that bad, mostly like Banda-ancha... However, if you are close to Bavaro, I think Orange might be providing their newer 3g+ offer, which looks very promising... I advise you check with Orange to verify the availability of that service in your area...
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
17,850
982
113
Don't think Viva is an option here.

We're about to go away for the summer so we won't take on anything new until we get back. We were waiting for the Codetel landline so we could get regular phone+broadband+TV but it may be preferable to ditch them altogether and try Orange.
 

Hillbilly

Moderator
Jan 1, 2002
18,948
514
113
Tlday's headlines in Diario Libre: DR is only faster than 16 countries in the World.
Of 152 countries with Internet service, the DR is 136 on the list> Go figure.
Average is 80 kB/sec

Last night I was down to 15 kb/sec

HB
 

DMV123

Bronze
Mar 31, 2010
1,211
114
0
When you return check on the Viva service. I am very happy with it! Very happy, no service outages and it is portable!!!

I left Claro / Codetel with ALL my services - I was so fed up with similar issues - they just DO NOT GET IT.....
 

cobraboy

Pro-Bono Demolition Hobbyist
Jul 24, 2004
40,964
936
113
This month the reason given was that I didn't call customer service to confirm that I had made the payment - which seems unnecessary and unreasonable after having made the payment, got my receipt and watched the employee enter the details into the system.

I didn't sacrifice a goat either. Maybe that would have made the difference?

Apparently their payment receiving mechanism is not sophisticated enough to tell the system that I've paid. I thought computers and stuff were able to do that sort of thing?

They aren't able to restore the service for some reason, so I make my way down to my local office, which is a 'dealer', not an actual Codetel office. They establish that what has happened - absurdly - is that although Claro's system was not able to register my pre-payment enough to restore my service, it was miraculously able to register it enough to be able to deduct ~RD$50 pesos from the RD$2,595 "for the attempts you made to connect after your cut off date" - so now that my balance is "only" RD$2,548 it is no longer able to give me the full month and I have to top it up. No, I say, you have to give me extra days for the day without service, seeing as I paid.
We had a similar problem at first.

no mas.

Fact is the "dealers" have a technical interface with the HQ, but poor to no business interface with them. Pay at a dealer and Claro has to semi-manually credit the payment which may take a few days. It is not necessarily automatic. The receipt is for a payment at a dealer, not a payment to Claro.

If you pay at a dealer, you need to pay a week before the bill is due. If you need to pay right before the bill is due either go to a Claro comany store, or call Claro customer service-the local Claro dealer has a couple of phones available in small booths for just this purpose-with the receipt number.

It is what it is...
 

bienamor

Kansas redneck an proud of it
Apr 23, 2004
5,050
458
83
We had a similar problem at first.

no mas.

Fact is the "dealers" have a technical interface with the HQ, but poor to no business interface with them. Pay at a dealer and Claro has to semi-manually credit the payment which may take a few days. It is not necessarily automatic. The receipt is for a payment at a dealer, not a payment to Claro.

If you pay at a dealer, you need to pay a week before the bill is due. If you need to pay right before the bill is due either go to a Claro comany store, or call Claro customer service-the local Claro dealer has a couple of phones available in small booths for just this purpose-with the receipt number.

It is what it is...

Cobraboy has it right, if your paying at an agency, then pay about a wk ahead of time, the receipt that you get only verifies that you paid the bill, does not count until it hits CODETELS system, which will be whenever the agency gives the money to them. normally when paying at a codetel office even then you want to pay a day ahead, due to them having system problems
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
17,850
982
113
I get the point about the dealer and the lesson is that we have to pay at the main office, but it still doesn't add up - how do we explain the fact that on some level the payment does register on Codetel/Claro's system?

although Claro's system was not able to register my pre-payment enough to restore my service, it was miraculously able to register it enough to be able to deduct ~RD$50 pesos from the RD$2,595 "for the attempts you made to connect after your cut off date"
 

cobraboy

Pro-Bono Demolition Hobbyist
Jul 24, 2004
40,964
936
113
I get the point about the dealer and the lesson is that we have to pay at the main office, but it still doesn't add up - how do we explain the fact that on some level the payment does register on Codetel/Claro's system?
It's a matter of timing.

Claro has to semi-manually credit payments from dealers to the proper account. The dealers are NOT connected to Claro's bill payment/collection system.

By the time they received your payment...remember, you didn't call in...they had you past due. Because to them you were.

Your payment was received at either:

1) The time THEY record it in their semi-maunal system.

~or~

2) The time you called it in with a valid receipt number.

It's possible to argue a case for a credit-we've...or let me say Alida...has done it before. It's like fighting City Hall but is possible. You have to decide if your principles are worth 3+ hours of aggrivation to get 50 pesos.
 

cobraboy

Pro-Bono Demolition Hobbyist
Jul 24, 2004
40,964
936
113
It's a matter of timing.

Claro has to semi-manually credit payments from dealers to the proper account. The dealers are NOT connected to Claro's bill payment/collection system.

By the time they received your payment...remember, you didn't call in...they had you past due. Because to them you were. It's like mailing a bill. Usually it has to be received by the due date, not mailed on the due date.

Your payment was received at either:

1) The time THEY record it in their semi-maunal system.

~or~

2) The time you called it in with a valid receipt number.

It's possible to argue a case for a credit-we've...or let me say Alida...has done it before. It's like fighting City Hall but is possible. You have to decide if your principles are worth 3+ hours of aggrivation to get 50 pesos.
 

bienamor

Kansas redneck an proud of it
Apr 23, 2004
5,050
458
83
It's a matter of timing.

Claro has to semi-manually credit payments from dealers to the proper account. The dealers are NOT connected to Claro's bill payment/collection system.

By the time they received your payment...remember, you didn't call in...they had you past due. Because to them you were.

Your payment was received at either:

1) The time THEY record it in their semi-maunal system.

~or~

2) The time you called it in with a valid receipt number.





It's possible to argue a case for a credit-we've...or let me say Alida...has done it before. It's like fighting City Hall but is possible. You have to decide if your principles are worth 3+ hours of aggrivation to get 50 pesos.

Well said and 100 percent correct!!
 

belgiank

Silver
Jun 13, 2009
3,251
103
0
you want to know something even funnier... try calling their customer-service with an orange phone... NO GO!!!

Why with an orange phone... because i had no reception with my claro one...

I now have a plan with 50 free sms- messages per month, to claro... so how the hell do i know who has a claro number...

I sent a message, and then i'm billed for it, because my receiving party was smart enough to get an orange, or viva, or tricom phone
 

Chip

Platinum
Jul 25, 2007
16,772
429
0
Santiago
Codetel/Claro is good at assuming the customer is always wrong, with a smile no less. When they finally acknowledge there is a problem they are only to happy to explain it's not their fault.

Until they change the labor laws here that encourage people to perfom bad in order to get fired and receive the liquidacion I don't really see a whole lot of change. Unless one of the other companies are able to get a larger share of the market.

Then again, they'll probably make a deal with Codetel to keep rates high.
 

eastcoastmike

New member
Jul 18, 2004
229
10
0
If its not Claro its the electric company turning off the power on a paid in full account.Its the mechanic who cant fix anything.If its not the mechanic its the horrible customer service seen in 90% of businesses.Etc Etc Etc.What are we doing here?There is no reliability/responsibility in this country.Youll be ****ing into the wind forever in this place!
 

DR Mpe

Banned
Mar 31, 2003
1,191
36
48
Verizon...

I remember when I had codetel before it became Verizon... Then Verizon bought Codeteel and I thought, how fckin stupid can one be to buy this elephant, which is such a small part of profit and sales, but will for sure damage ur trademark. Well after a couple of years they figured it out.

Sun is shining, time for a cold one.
 

DMV123

Bronze
Mar 31, 2010
1,211
114
0
If its not Claro its the electric company turning off the power on a paid in full account.Its the mechanic who cant fix anything.If its not the mechanic its the horrible customer service seen in 90% of businesses.Etc Etc Etc.What are we doing here?There is no reliability/responsibility in this country.Youll be ****ing into the wind forever in this place!

Serious question: If you dislike it so much why do you STAY????
 

bienamor

Kansas redneck an proud of it
Apr 23, 2004
5,050
458
83
I remember when I had codetel before it became Verizon... Then Verizon bought Codeteel and I thought, how fckin stupid can one be to buy this elephant, which is such a small part of profit and sales, but will for sure damage ur trademark. Well after a couple of years they figured it out.

Sun is shining, time for a cold one.

You are so wrong!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Claro-Codetel/106167499415593

Before Verizon owned it, it was owned by GTE, and before that Qubec Tel. see the trend . Qubec Tel bought by GTE, GTE/Bell Atlantic merger = Verizon. Verizon sold to Carlos, inorder to obtain MCI shares owned by Carlos. Was never a damage to the trademarks before now.

For many years CODETEL was a cash cow, back in the early nineties the exchange rate was 6rd to 1us, rate to call the USA was 15rd a min. CODETEL made money hand over fist, and as equipment was replaced in the US, was shipped here. Or tried here first then moved to the US.

Thats why the communications here beat the rest of Latin America and half of Europe. It does not now beat most of Europe but then it did, still beats most of Latin America. FAX, BEEPER, DIRECT DIAL, NO OPERATOR INTERVENTION ETC, was all available here in 80s and early 90s. Its the only non US protectorate in the Antilles that has an area code instead of country and city dialing codes. As new stuff was introduced in the US, also introduced here.

expect it to get worse under Carlos. He will milk it dry an get rid of it. Remains to be seen what he does with PRTC, and CANTV. which he was also sold by Verizon, as part of the deal.