From ‘tariff’ to ‘scam’: they denounce that Etecsa eliminates minutes and accumulated sms

Madrid, Spain.- The Telecommunications Company of Cuba (ETECSA) receives new criticism from its clients after complaints on social networks about the elimination of minutes of voice and text messages accumulated, in the midst of the implementation of its controversial tariff scheme announced on May 30.

User Yulieta Hernández Díaz He published on Facebook That, as they had told him, “the accumulated voice and SMS minutes, before the new Etecsa rates, were eliminated for those who bought the data plan without minutes, or SMS.” His question in this regard generated a wave of user responses that claim to have been affected by this measure.

“It is true, if you buy the 4.5 GB plan it does not lengthen the validity of the minutes and SMS of the previous package. They did not warn anything about that and many people have lost thousands of SMS and voice hours,” said Amanda Llamar. Lourdes García agreed: “It happened to me, I did not buy the voice and SMS plan because I had accumulated and lost them when I bought the 4.5 GB of $ 240” now.

Others reported that, according to Etecsa’s own operator, to extend the validity of the minutes and SMS it is mandatory to specifically buy these services, not only mobile data. “It seems that you have to buy the 4.5 plus one of minutes plus one of messages so that it is not lost, or combined plans … in the end they screwed us,” Odelaisy Estrada summarized.

Complaints are not limited to the loss of minutes and SMS: some users claim to have lost large amounts of accumulated data when acquiring additional packages. “A friend passed. He had 60 GB of accumulated navigation. When she bought a package of SMS and voice, she lay down the 60 GB,” Kateto Du denounced.

Etecsa receives criticism constantly for the quality of its services, the high cost of its rates and the lack of transparency in its commercial policies. The new tariff scheme, popularly known as Ratelimits monthly recharges in Cuban pesos (up to 360 CUP) and promotes offers in US dollars. The measure, which especially hits those who do not have access to foreign exchange, caused protests from university students, as well as called in networks to a “total breakdown of recharges.”