The head office of Cable & Wireless Jamaica, in Kingston. - File

Ashford W. Meikle, Business Reporter

A system error at Cable and Wireless Jamaica on Ash Wednesday resulted in mobile customers of the telecommunications company being locked out of its current Talk Free Promotion and, in acknowledging the system failure, C&WJ says the matter was addressed almost immediately.

"The error occurred as a result of a technical glitch in the system. While we try to ensure that our systems are always operating at an optimal level, unfortunately technology is not fault proof. However, as soon as we became aware of the issue, the system was reconfigured. The issue was resolved by 9:36 p.m.," Cable and Wireless said in a brief statement to Sunday Business.

But, while the company insists that the problem was resolved within half an hour once it had reconfigured its IT system, a number of customers insist that, up to 10:00 p.m., they were unable to make calls, a situation worsened by the inability to get through to the mobile provider's customer service support, which appeared to be jammed.

Cable and Wireless has, in fact, hinted that the company is yet to determine the extent of customers affected.

"The exact number of customers affected is being verified and the precise number of persons who contacted the company on the issue is not available," continued the press statement.

The Talk Free Promotion, which C&WJ rolled out on January 10, allows bmobile customers to make unbilled calls between 9:00 p.m. and midnight, Monday through Thursday once the customer adds credit of $150 or more on a daily basis. Customers are also able to send text messages free of charge between 5-6 p.m. and between 11:00 p.m. and midnight.

However, on Wednesday, the system failed with several customers complaining that, during the promotional period, they were billed for calls made and, once their credit had been used up, they were kicked off the system.

And, in other instances, customers who had topped up their account to benefit from the promotion, but exhausted their credit during the course of the day, were locked out from making calls.

These customers, C&WJ said, would be compensated.

"Any customer who attempted to make a call between 9:00 p.m. and 9:36 p.m. and who had the cost of the call deducted from their credit will be refunded. Customers who qualified for the promotion and who attempted to make calls and were unsuccessful because of insufficient credit will also be compensated," the press release noted.

ashford.meikle@gleanerjm. com