Such a move will force consumers to buy at a higher price again but this time without the voucher incentives.
The public can no longer buy phone cards from any of the many locations all over New Providence, lower than the face value as vendors are saying the Bahamas Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) has sent down a mandate making this illegal.
One of the many phone card distribution vendors said he now has to deal with angry customers as well as a drop in sales.
“When the cards were $17.99, sometimes I could sell over 100 cards, but now I sell [anywhere] from 70-80 cards,” said the vendor. “Some people come here to buy [a phone card] but when they hear the price, they take their money back and plenty people want to row me.”
A customer of this location, Gregory Butler, told the Nassau Guardian that he was especially saddened by this increase in price because there were no more “freebies given to sweeten the deal. Well, I have to buy it now even though it is $20, but I am disappointed because it went back up and you don’t get anything in return either. I feel like I am getting robbed because they don’t give you the six pack of sodas like they used to nor do they give you the free movie passes that encouraged me to buy the cards,” he said.
But vendors say there is nothing they can do about it.
“Well a few weeks ago [BTC] said it was a breach of contract because [as they say] it was stated in the policies earlier on,” said a representative from a local phone card distribution company.
“If we don’t sell the cards at the $20 face value then this will result in Batelco revoking our licence agreement.”
The representative admitted that she knew this would incite the customers but there was nothing that she could do about the rules and regulations that BTC has imposed on distributors. She said her company tried to make the transition easier for their customers by putting up signs before the official date concerning the price regulations to make the public aware of the change.
The Nassau Guardian tried repeatedly over the past week to get a response from BTC on why the mandate was issued, seemingly quite suddenly. The vendor representative said she did not know at this time if they would be giving the incentives that they had given in the past as the company itself is still adjusting to the price change.
“Right now we are just testing the market to see what situation we are in by looking at the sales.”
By: INDERIA SAUNDERS, The Nassau Guardian
