I HAVE a grouse to air with Stabroek TV Inc, the local distributor of DirecTV in Guyana. I do not believe they are keeping accurate records; either that or something else is going on. A hefty invoice was sent to my e- mail in January stating that I owed the service.
Knowing that I was making my regular payments through Republic Bank in New Amsterdam ever since I joined the service at the end of April last year, I telephoned Stabroek TV Inc and related this. I have two receivers, and I joined SportsMax in November.
When I call, I would normally speak to different persons. I do not know if the staff is changed regularly there. They insisted that I owed the huge amount so I decided to gather the copies of my receipts that I collected from the bank. Here is the information on the table:

Date
Amount
Period for payment
27 April 2011
$90, 526
May, June, July
15 July 2011
$14,500
August
31 August 2011
$16, 890
September
29 September 2011
$14,500
October
6 December 2011
$17,940
November
13 February 2012
$34, 500
December 2011, Jan 2012
14 March 2012
$31, 400
February, March 2012

In February, I was hearing the same song that I had arrears with the company. My service, however, remained on but I kept seeing a disconnection notice message non-stop at the bottom of the screen. I personally visited Stabroek TV Inc office at Robb Street on March 1, 2012 and sat down and sorted out the matter. I carried all my receipts and we went through month by month. The attendant took one of the receipts I had brought since her records did not show it. She made a photocopy of the receipt and kept it. She said everything was okay and I left.
Earlier this week, I made another payment of $31,400 for February and March. I faxed the receipt to Georgetown shortly after and they confirmed as having received it. A few hours later that day, my service was disconnected. They had previously disconnected the second receiver 2 weeks ago, for what I do not know.
So, currently I am without the service, even though my payments are up-to-date as the table above shows. I telephoned the office and they gave me all assurance that the service will be re-connected by Friday since disconnection went through before I had made the payment—bull! On Friday, the service was still not turned back on and I called them again. They had a different tune to sing this time. Now, they said I still owed them, for which month I do not know. I have all my receipts to show, and I went personally to them and showed them this a few weeks ago. They want me to visit the office with the receipts again. No way! Their records are wrong.
This is gross inconsistency on the part of such a big company under the parent name of the Stabroek Newspaper. DirecTV Guyana is already overcharging Guyanese for this service. We pay some of the highest rates to see satellite TV in the form of DirecTv than most parts of the world. It’s a pity that Guyana, especially Berbice does not have stiff competition with other cable TV operators. I don’t know when Movie Star will come to Berbice. I see Aiden Media offering IPTV service and it is being offered in Berbice and the quality seems very good and much more affordable than Stabroek TV.
I am being ripped off here. I am certain of it. I certainly did not want it to get to this stage to pen a letter, since I was hoping it would have been resolved differently. I demand a full investigation into my payments and account and an apology from Stabroek TV Inc for this great inconvenience to me as a customer.