Phone issues cause radio bingo confusion

Thomas Diabo is an avid Radio Bingo player, tuning in regularly to K1037 to try his luck at hitting the big prize.

On Friday, June 19, he realized he’d hit gold and had the numbers for the $5,000 jackpot.

“I tried calling but there was no answer, so I called again real quick, and it said, ‘We’re sorry, but the number you called is no longer in service,’” he said.

Unable to get through, Diabo spoke with staff at the radio station on Monday, who told him that an issue with customer phone lines had resulted in some people being unable to reach the station during the bingo session.

Ultimately, Diabo walked away with $1,250, split with other winners that night, and a free week of bingo cards - but he’s still wishing that he’d collected the $5,000 big ticket prize.

“I’m going to keep playing it, but if it happens again, I won’t keep playing anymore,” he said.

According to K1037 general manager Dennis Stacey, the issue stems from a problem with phone lines on the Bell network. That means any phones using Bell or any affiliated network weren’t functioning properly.

Stacey said that when the bingo team realized there was an issue, he returned to the station to check that all of K1037’s own equipment was functioning correctly - which he said it was - and that a Bell technician came in to confirm that everything was working on the Tuesday following the bingo session.

While Diabo said that he couldn’t see any issue with his phone, and was able to use it to call other people at the time of the incident, Stacey said that the issue was not with the radio station’s phone lines, and that the station unfortunately can’t be held responsible for customer equipment failures during bingo sessions.

Bell Media did not respond to The Eastern Door’s request for comment in time for publication.

Stacey said that anybody who had attempted to call in but couldn’t get through did still receive some form of payout, even if it wasn’t the total they had initially hoped to claim.

“This is the first time that this has ever happened,” Stacey said.

While Stacey said he’s heard a suggestion that Radio Bingo should’ve been shut down, he emphasized that there was no precedent to do that, given that the situation hadn’t happened before - he added that Radio Bingo would’ve been shut down, however, if the issue had been with K1037’s phone lines.

K1037 put out a press release yesterday (Thursday) afternoon, reiterating that the station would be taking “proactive measures to strengthen its contingency planning,” to ensure the situation doesn’t reoccur, and reminding players that, under official Radio Bingo rules, the station is not responsible for equipment or service malfunctions experienced by participants - including telephone network disruptions.

“The station remains committed to providing a fair, enjoyable, and dependable Radio Bingo experience for the community, and will continue to review its procedures to improve service reliability,” the statement reads.

K1037 will be implementing an emergency backup phone line going forward, to help ensure the situation doesn’t reoccur.

Eric Curotte-Ryder was playing with his mother, Elizabeth Tsowente Curotte, when she realized she’d won $300. The duo was disappointed that they couldn’t get through to claim their money, though they were given a one-week voucher of free radio bingo packages.

“We’ve been bingo players for years, we were on a drought in winning as of late, but we finally won a game, fairly of course,” Curotte-Ryder said.

They kept phoning but were unable to get through, and soon other numbers were called and someone else won the prize. He said it was disappointing for him and his mother, but that the emergency back-up line sounded “reassuring.”

“I hope that will help. I feel bad that happened to my family and to others,” he said. “(The emergency line) should be handy at all times so that nobody gets short-changed.”

Stacey said that K1037 will be addressing the situation in the first segment of the Tetewatharen Partyline Talk Show at 12 p.m. on Monday following the newscast.

“We’ll be discussing what we’ll be doing as an organization to mitigate anything like that ever happening again,” he said.

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