By Sue-Ann Wayow
APPLICATIONS used by Bmobile to access customers’ accounts have not been working since March 13.
As a result, customers cannot pay their bills at any Bmobile dealerships, some cannot access data, make or receive calls and those missing credit cannot be rebated at this time.
But Bmobile is assuring that no disconnections due to non-payment of bills will be affected during this period.
AZP News spoke to two sources close to the issue.
One said across the board, persons were experiencing problems have been calling the call centre to find out what was happening.
The individual said no one really knows the exact reason why the apps were not working but customer service representatives at the call centres cannot assist customers other than listening to their concerns and taking their information.
A staff member at TSTT said that overseas Bmobile also said the corporate network was down internally with only a few applications being functional.
Employees are hearing that some applications need to be re-created but there has been no official word from the company as to what was really taking place, AZP News was told.
On March 14, Bmobile issued a customer advisory on its Facebook page.
It stated, “We are experiencing a technical issue that is impacting your ability to access the b-online portal. Rest assured that our IT team is working diligently to rectify the issue and restore the application in the shortest possible time. We apologise for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience.”
In an update on March 16, Bmobile stated that the technology team was working around the clock to fix the issue.
“We’ve made progress, however, we are still unable to process payment transactions at our channel partner locations and our website, bmobile.co.tt and online portal b-online are unavailable at this time,” the company stated.
Bmobile continued, “We understand how frustrating this experience has been and we apologise sincerely. We are working hard to make the site and respective applications available once again. Thank you for your patience and understanding. We will provide updates as work progresses.”
The company has advised that payments can be made via bank transfers, SurePay, Western Union, NLCB outlets- VIA and the Bmobile app.
Bmobile has also advised anyone who made a payment and require service connection to call 824-TSTT or send an email with your name, account number and payment receipt to erespond@tstt.co.tt.
However, AZP News was told customers can pay their bills using alternative means but they will not be able to get a bill balance and internet reconnection can only take place when the system is back up and working.
On Bmobile’s Facebook page, some customers also expressed that the Bmobile app was also not working and payments made through SurePay were not processing.
Parents especially have lamented not having data as their children have to engage in online learning.
AZP News requested further information from TSTT on Monday.
In response, TSTT mentioned the two previous advisories and stated, “To ensure this event does not negatively affect customer connectivity, TSTT has temporarily suspended disconnections until its systems are back online.”
TSTT also said, “The Company notes that this event has not affected the performance of its network. All services including voice, mobile data, internet, security and entertainment remain unimpacted and fully functional.
“TSTT apologises for the inconvenience and thanks customers for their patience and understanding during the restoration process.”
