TSTT closes 9 of 10 retail stores

The Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) may be closing nine of its Trinidad retail outlets but no one is being sent home as a result.

Tobago customers will however still be able to go to the TSTT retail store in Gulf City Mall, Lowlands as that is the only one of the ten stores not being closed.

“The company’s strategy is to find more fulfilling, comparable, suitable employment for all employees who work at the bmobile retail stores.

Any information contrary to this is simply inaccurate.”

TSTT was responding to concerns raised on October 24 by the Communication Workers Union (CWU) that these closures would lead to retrenchments. TSTT said it chose to make such a move as part of its “digital transformation” after research showed more than 70 percent of the transaction activities at its bmobile retail stores are “bill related.”

This phase of the digital transformation includes the use of TSTT’s enhanced online portal, inter-connected kiosks and an expanded bill payment network including banks, Sure Pay and its dealer network.

Once the stores close, customers will pay their bills and make queries at any of TSTT’s 85-plus channel partner locations nationwide. Bill payments made at Sure Pay outlets will be processed on the same day.

TSTT is investing $1.7 billion in new technology. It believes that these improvements “must redound to its customers’ benefit as it moves Trinidad and Tobago into this new modern era.”

The CWU also raised concerns about these agents and contractors not being obligated to keep information confidential but this has been refuted by TSTT.

“It should also be noted that channel partners have been doing customer transactions for TSTT for several years, and customers can expect the same courtesy and respect for confidentiality that partners have always observed.”Meanwhile staff affected by the scheduled closures on October 31 will be reassigned to other areas of the company.