After an expat in Panama said she was over-billed by Cable & Wireless two months in a row & Cable & Wireless refused to admit they were wrong, I gave her these instructions since I went through hell with Cable & Wireless trying to get the $7 they overcharged me OFF my account.
They bank on people just paying the money so they don’t have to deal with the stress.
Here’s what I told the expat…
This is unfortunately the way they are. They are known for overcharging customers (that’s my nice way of putting it.)
They overcharged me & I wouldn’t put up with it.
I even talked to a local once who told me they overcharged him, so it’s not just because we are Gringos.
Your only recourse is to start a claim with ASEP. They NEVER EVER admit they are wrong. Maybe someone else has had the experience of a company here admitting they are wrong, Cable & Wireless certainly doesn’t.
Here are the steps:
- Write up what happened.
- Take your story plus your bills to Cable & Wireless & ask for a claim number.They may try to stall & argue with you. Just keep repeating that you aren’t here to argue, you just want your claim number. I had to repeat it approximately 10 times before the girl would shut up & give me the number.
It took me 1-2 hours of waiting time, then them stalling by going to the back to discuss it amongst themselves to get the claim number from them. If you are in Boquete, they may be nicer than what I experienced in Panama City.
- You have to wait 30 days & then go to ASEP with the claim number & your printed version of what happened.
- Then ASEP gets 30 days to investigate the matter.
- ASEP should contact you, or you will have to contact them again as for me they never did me the favor of contacting me.
- If they rule in your favor, Cable & Wireless will try to give you a credit on your bill. I argued saying I wanted cash. It took arguing with ASEP (not the lawyer, but the girl. I find most of them at the ASEP in Panama City to be rude or very unfriendly & I know they gossip about me both in front of me & after I leave. I can just tell.) to finally get my money.
- They should then arrange when you can pick up the money & from where.
- Make sure you get the EXACT location. I wasn’t told that it was the Cable & Wireless location in Albrook Terminal, I thought it was the Cable & Wireless location in the mall, so we wasted our time, energy, etc. AND had to go back a second day.
- Also try to get the phone number to the location because Cable & Wireless & Cableonda refuse to divulge phone numbers. This makes things very stressful, time consuming & costly having to spend money on taxis or gas just to go to a location to ask a simple question.
- Also make sure you get the name of the person who’s supposed to give you the money.
I hope this helps you when dealing with Cable & Wireless & Cableonda.