Joel Julien
Some 200 DirecOne workers are now said to be facing the breadline following a decision by the majority State-owned Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) to end its contract with the company for the supply of call centre services.
The situation, however, is not expected to adversely impact TSTT’s customers significantly, as a new service provider is already being contracted.
Guardian Media has been told that the new call centre provider will be Call Serv Ltd.
DirecOne’s contract officially ended yesterday, the last day of TSTT’s financial year.
As a result, the hotline 824-TSTT is expected to be unavailable to customers from midnight to around 8 am today.
DirecOne handled all of TSTT’s call centre services, including its Help Desk for mobile, landline and internet services.
Several of DirecOne’s customer sales and service specialists have already received termination letters following the end of the contract with TSTT.
A release from TSTT last night confirmed that it had enlisted the services of new providers to support its contact centre operations.
“Nothing changes, TSTT’s contact centre will be fully resourced and customers will experience no difference in operations. 824-TSTT is an important customer touchpoint that the company intends to maintain,” TSTT stated.
“TSTT gives its assurance that customers will still be able to call 824-TSTT for information on products and services, technical support, bill related queries and the full range of services previously provided.”
TSTT is jointly owned by National Enterprises Ltd, which in turn is majority-owned by the Government and Cable & Wireless (West Indies) Ltd (C&W). NEL owns 51 per cent of TSTT’s issued share capital, while C&W holds 49 per cent.
TSTT is the country’s largest provider of communications solutions to the residential and commercial markets.
