Pelephone Communications Ltd. today unveiled the benefits to be given to its customers for last week’s widespread malfunction in the company’s services. The company will give its customers three alternatives through the company website:
1. 20 gigabytes of surfing in Israel free of charge, in addition to the existing surfing package. The benefit is valid for a month from the registration date.
2. A music and television package Pelephone’s music app, which includes over one million songs, and its television app. The benefit is valid for six months from the registration date. When the benefit expires, the services will be discontinued with no further charge.
3. 500 call minutes from Israel to overseas - calls by dialing 014 to dozens of landline destinations, including the US, France, Germany, Canada, the UK, Belgium, Australia, Argentina, Greece, Thailand, Singapore, China, Peru, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and other countries. Mobile telephone numbers in the US and Canada can also be called. The benefit is valid from the registration date until April 30 (after the Passover holiday).
Pelephone CEO Ran Guron today said, “We thank our customers for their patience and their great trust in us. We have decided to offer all the company’s customers their choice of benefit as a mark of our appreciation for the patience they have demonstrated in recent days. I also thank the company employees, who worked around the clock since the fire broke out on Monday in order to provide an optimal solution for our customers.”
The malfunction occurred on Monday as the result of an electrical short circuit, which burned the electrical room in the company’s main center in Petah Tikva. The malfunction disrupted calls and Internet surfing for many customers. Although the main malfunction was repaired the same day, there were still customers experiencing communications difficulties two days later because work had to be completed.
Israel Consumer Council CEO Ehud Peleg said, “The malfunction at Pelephone affected a broad range of the company’s services subscribed to by consumers. The compensation for consumers should be through the same interface in which each consumer was affected. Otherwise, the compensation cannot make restitution to the specific consumer for his damage and distress. The three types of compensation offered by Pelephone do not necessarily cover what all the consumers need, and it will therefore not amount to compensation for them. Pelephone should have chosen to compensate its customers in a way provides them with true compensation, not with a service that is superfluous for them.”
Peleg added, “In the case of customers with a program including calls and Internet surfing packages, we demand monetary compensation or a credit on their bills for the consumers.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 27, 2016
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