One phone card ven­dor is ex­press­ing out­rage over the sug­ges­tion of pre­paid cus­tomers seek­ing out ven­dors who are sell­ing, for in­stance, $20 bmo­bile at the sug­gest­ed price of $23 and Dig­i­cel at $20.

Afzal Dook­ie, own­er/op­er­a­tor of Dook­ie's Mi­ni Mart, lo­cat­ed at the cor­ner of Prince and Dun­can Streets, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day said telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions providers bmo­bile and Dig­i­cel in­formed ven­dors be­tween May and Ju­ly of a re­duc­tion in the com­mis­sion for sell­ing phone cards. The com­mis­sion on a $20 bmo­bile card has been re­duced to 2.5 per cent, and on a Dig­i­cel card to three per cent. Pre­vi­ous­ly, the com­mis­sion from both en­ti­ties was five per cent.

Dook­ie was re­spond­ing to sug­ges­tions made by both mo­bile providers ear­li­er this week that cus­tomers should boy­cott those ven­dors sell­ing the $20 mo­bile card at $24 rather than the $23 (VAT in­clu­sive) sug­gest­ed price.

Both providers had told the Guardian they had no con­trol the price ven­dors sell the phone cards at, but urged cus­tomers to lo­cate ven­dors who were sell­ing the cards at the sug­gest­ed price. The change in pric­ing prompt­ed TSTT to is­sue ad­ver­tise­ments in­form­ing cus­tomers of the pric­ing regime.