I have an issue with a local telephone company whereby I made about 30 requests to transfer an account from myself to another customer. After four months they finally agreed to resolve the issue, but for the next nine months they continued the billing. Now they are billing me for $1,000+ for charges incurred while they provided no service. Is it not fraud to charge a customer for services when the services were not provided? Where do I go to complain about this?

Auntie’s answer: This is a very timely question, following on from yesterday’s column (see Does Cayman offer protection for consumers?) looking at legal protection – or more to the point, the lack thereof — for consumers. But in this instance, I can offer a much more satisfying answer.

I asked Alee Fa’amoe, the Deputy CEO and Executive Director ICT at the Utility Regulation and Competition Office (known as OfReg), for help with your issue. He proved a very sympathetic ear, saying, “The situation described is quite disturbing,” and offering a way forward.

The next step for you is to email details of your unfortunate situation to OfReg’s complaints division. “We have a team to investigate and resolve complaints on behalf of consumers,” Mr Fa’amoe explained. More importantly after the months and months this has dragged on for you, he added, “100% of complaints are resolved and usually within a few weeks.”

It doesn’t seem that you could ask for or expect a better scenario than that. I hope it all works out for you with a solution you find satisfactory.