Claro, the America Movil brand owned by one of the world’s richest men, Carlos Slim Helú, entered the Jamaican market by buying MiPhone and secured exclusive rights to the iPhone in many parts of the Caribbean, including Jamaica. Recently I have been testing their 3G service with one of the modems using the unlimited data plan (post about service around island coming soon). So far I love the service and their pricing is by far the best when compared to Digicel (charge per MB) and LIME (require 1-year contract and modem is 3 times as expensive).
Digicel came to Jamaica and slaughtered Cable and Wireless because of better customer service, better marketing, pricing and handset choice. Claro has now come to Jamaica and obviously studied Digicel’s entry. The iPhone is a nice exclusive phone to have and the unlimited data plan is very welcome, except for the problem I found out this week.
Claro has been running ads and even has posters in their stores promoting the fact that you can get unlimited data service on “any Internet compatible phone” for J$2000 per month for postpaid service and J$3500 per month for prepaid service. This is especially welcome for iPhone users since the iPhone plan from Claro limits included data per month to 300MB.
I heard some complaints and decided to check it out for myself. I called a Claro dealer, Royale Computers, and they informed me that if I bought a Blackberry, they could activate the unlimited data plan but if I bought an iPhone, they could not and I had to check with Claro. I therefore called the Claro Customer Service number and the agent dropped a bombshell: Unlimited data plans were not available for iPhone postpaid accounts, ONLY iPhone prepaid accounts!
There are two things I hate more than anything when it comes to business: Poor customer service and false advertising.
I politely pointed out to the agent that the advertising from Claro states “any Internet compatible phone” and the fine print on the bottom of the ad makes no mention of not being available for iPhone postpaid accounts. I pointed out that if she was correct, this was false advertising, which is illegal and could be reported to the Fair Trading Commission. It was then that the story got more interesting: The agent asked for a minute and then came back and now proclaimed that the unlimited data plan WAS available for iPhone postpaid service and that you had to activate it at a Claro-owned store.
I told her I would check on that to verify. I headed to the Claro head office and made the same inquiry. The agent believed it was available but said that she would check. She explained how people sign up for it, showing me the space on the form to request the service and then made two phone calls. Those phone calls confirmed that unlimited data was NOT available for iPhone postpaid service due to a “provisioning problem” and so I kindly told her that Claro was therefore advertising falsely and she should notify someone because that is illegal and would be reported.
Claro could easily avoid this problem by doing one of the following:
(1) Alter all advertising to indicate that the unlimited data service is not available for iPhone postpaid
(2) Remove the 300MB cap on data for iPhone postpaid customers who request the unlimited data service
This has serious ramifications for customers because I know of one friend who recently purchased an iPhone on the postpaid plan, requested unlimited data and assumed he had it. He proceeded to download apps from the app store, surf the web, check his email and watch videos on YouTube, everything the iPhone was intended for. He then got a bill for J$54,683.80, $36,752.40 of which was for data!
The tax (GCT) on the services amounted to just over J$8000 as it is a percentage of the total bill. If Claro had been truthful in their advertising, the bill would have been a mere J$7,940.38 + tax meaning that Claro’s error generated an extra J$28,812 for the month.
I wonder how many other customers have had similar experiences?
The iPhone is a great phone and Claro should be using their flagship product to put the company in a positive light. Instead, this negligent advertising which clearly could generate lots of revenue for them, puts them in a bad light and until it is fixed, there is no way I could ever recommend the iPhone postpaid to anyone in Jamaica.
Let us see how long it takes for them to address this issue and fix their mistake. That will be a good test to see what they really think of Jamaican customers.
Great post Ingrid, Good looking out…this is very serious and needs to be reported…
October 14th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Not surprised, like you said it is a huge outcome from a minor error… I am sure they will simple add the disclaimer to every advertisement.
October 14th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Wow. And to think I went into Claro two days ago with my iPhone, and activated the unlimited plan (post-paid)…. and no one told me that it was unlimited!
October 14th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Listen every mobile company that comes to Jamaica cheats us in one way or another. Digicel is killing us with their hi prices so if CLARO mess up give them a chance. You’ve been here taking the crap issued by Digicel and Lime for how many years and you did not seek to investigate them. Give Claro a chance. We hate change thats why we never proper as a nation.
October 14th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
At the time they brought out the iphone plans there was no Unlimited package for anything but I totally agree they need to free up the iPhone.
October 14th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
I too had similar long standing issue with claro and their iphone postpaid contract, my solution: paid 42k and cancelled the contract after 1 year…. its ridiculous trust me, stay away… problems ranging from incorrect billing, false advertising, just too much…
October 14th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
Love stop writing stupidness…. how can you encourage another company to rip off Jamaican customers then say: “We hate change thats why we never proper as a nation”,
The truth is Jamaica needs a better Telecommunication Regulatory System in place and stronger Legislation to protect customers. Here in Canada Mobile companies dont get away with those stupid incidents happening in Jamaica. Until, Jamaican mobile consumers demand more and better these companies will continue rip off Jamaicans…. So Ingrid is right here. Continue the investigation
October 14th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
Hey Easton, just a correction. The write of this review is David Mullings. Not me this time.
But I will add my two cents here. Yes, I agree when u put a buffet in front of a starving man, the owner of the buffet himself can get greedy from his success.
I would love to hear from Claro.
October 14th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
This is the same crap that reach me. I got a bill for over 40k. I simply paid my monthly subscription and now await them to call to discuss my balance (if they do). They have been so lost since their entry it’s not even funny. Anyway later peeps.
October 15th, 2009 at 11:31 am
So much for switching to Claro. At least the other providers up front wit dem tiefing.
October 16th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
lol, good to know i can look a work over there sooner or later.
They better start giving away phones for free and sort out this billing thing, esp with the new tax increase. Eith that or its time they buy out LIME
October 17th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
I’m so glad I saw this. I’m stuck with a $26000 bill after thinking i had a flat rate of $5000 on my IPHONE. Claro is tief and reckless, I am so mad. what’s the point of having a fancy phone that I can’t use. And I seriously won’t be able to use it at the rates they’re charging for data. FYA BUN!!!!!!!!!!
November 1st, 2009 at 12:46 pm
This Claro company is getting out of controle! I am in the united state and I can see Claro is taking advantage of Jamaican, knowing they can’t do better but to use their service. When the goverment going to step in and protect him people? And that’s why Jamaica crime rate is so high, because the bigger heads a rob the poor people deh for so long, deh people deh fed up of all this B/S.
November 8th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Thanks for the heads up. Anyone know if its possible to ACQUIRE a IPHONE 3GS from ’somewhere’ and then connect it with Digicel or is that not possible?
December 18th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Juiceman, Claro now offers unlimited data for post-paid customers.
Also, yes it is possible to buy an iPhone 3gs on ebay or from individuals, unlock it and hook it up to Digicel.
However Digicel does not offer unlimited data packages for iPhones (or their modems) so that is quite unwise from a financial standpoint.
December 21st, 2009 at 3:46 pm
i bought a black berry bold 9000 on contract Re: Claro postpaid plan the phone was stolen and i reported it to their main office i was advised by them that i would have to either pay 54,000 to terminate the contract, buy another phone at full cost and continue the contract;or take any phone and continue the plan. THE FACT THAT MY PHONE WAS STOLEN BEARS NO BEARING ON THEM.I WILL HAVE TO PAY FOR A SERVICE THAT I AM NOT USING ALL OF $6000.000 HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
December 22nd, 2009 at 3:41 am
I aggree with that post and I am a Blackberry customer of Claro and I received the worst customer service ever and the phones are defective. I purchased them less than a week and was trying to return them for a FULL refund of my money and they are giving me hell. Howver I sent them an email stating that I will be taking legal action againt them as I have contacted my Lawyer already and they said that they will refund me in full. PLEASE TELL EVERYONE U KNOW NOT TO BUY CLARO PHONES OR GET THEM ON ANY PLAN ITS NOT WORTH IT.
January 28th, 2010 at 4:29 pm