POND ISLAND, Sint Maarten – After weeks of closure because of the Coronavirus lockdown, TelEm Group says it will be opening its stores once again on Tuesday and the for the rest of the week – but for
limited opening hours from 9:00 am to 12:00 noon.
The concession to re-open has been granted by government to facilitate customers who want to make payment for services that they could not pay for online.
On at least two occasions in the past week, TelEm Group has had to apologize for turning many of their paying customers away after they turned up at the main office location on Pond Island only to be told the office had to remain closed as per government instructions.
TelEm Group Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), Mr. Michiel Parent, is most grateful to customers for their diligence and promises everyone will receive a warm welcome Tuesday and for the rest of the week upon their return to make their payments, even though the number of opening hours are being kept short for now.
“We are also informing customers in advance that we will be putting some strict protocols in place to ensure their safety and the safety of our staff while the offices are open for payment,” said Mr. Parent.
Amongst the safety measure being taken will be a compulsory requirement for all visiting customers to wear a mask and/or face covering prior to entering TelEm Group locations.
Customers will also be asked to obey strict social distancing rules inside the building while waiting to be served and outside the building while waiting to enter the building(s).
Mr. Parent says customers will be asked to sanitize their hands with sanitizing solutions provided for them and to allow cleaning assistants inside the buildings to disinfect and wipe down countertops after each customer has been served.
For now, a limited number of persons will be allowed into the public areas at any one time. All TelEm Group staff will also be required to wear masks, with the use of gloves being optional.
Similar to customers, staff will also be making extensive use of hand sanitizers as an additional safety precaution.
The Commercial Director assures than customers who arrive before the official closing time of 12:00 noon to make payments will be served, however anyone arriving after that time will be asked to return the following day.
Mr. Parent reminds that TelEm Group will be opening on the days also set aside by government for members of the public to visit the supermarkets, which this week is Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday due to the public holiday on Monday and Friday also of this week. The opening times next week will revert back to Monday’s Wednesdays and Fridays also as previously instructed by government.
“From Tuesday we will be focusing primarily on customers who want to pay their bill. Other non-essential staff will continue to work from home. Customers who want to report a service outage or customers with other service questions can call our Helpdesk which is open daily from 8:00 am until 6:00 pm,” said Mr. Parent. Customers can contact the helpdesk via 611, 548-help (548 4357), 546-0100 via WhatsApp 528-0100 for outage reports email info@telemgroup.sx
