Dear Editor,
My attention has been drawn to a letter: “GPL must do something about late bills” in SN of May 1, 2011, in which the writer was castigating GPL because his/her electricity was about to be cut off for non-payment. The argument being advanced was that the bill from GPL had been received late.
The writer talked about “victims of this unjust situation” and “unprofessionalism on the part of GPL or the Post Office,” and proceeded to make suggestions about what the GPO and GPL should do “to avoid such a situation.”
I profoundly disagree with those suggestions as they, in my view, will only add more costs and further delays to the already unhappy situation.
The writer further stated: “GPL had said that a customer does not have to await a bill to pay as they can use an old bill to pay on the account.” Having set up this misunderstanding of the position, the writer proceeded to tilt at the self-created windmill, showing how this arrangement might not work. The writer’s premise was wrong, and the writer’s conclusion was wrong.
I am a pensioner after very, very many years of service in Government-type agencies. Over sixty years ago when I first got a meter from the then Demerara Electric Company, there was a clause in the contract that I signed informing me that a bill would be sent to me monthly as a courtesy only, and that it was my responsibility to ensure that any amount due was paid in full by the date due. I expect that the companies that later took over the assets and liabilities of the Demerara Electric Company still have that clause in the fine print, so I make sure that I keep myself in order. I make a note of the approximate date each month when the light bill is delivered by the Post Lady. If I get the bill during the morning, I go and pay it that afternoon. If it comes in the afternoon, I go and pay it the next morning. I always pay a higher amount in dollars rounded up, so that I don’t have to wait for change, and I know that my next light bill will reflect, as a credit, the extra amount I will have paid.
Where the light bill does not arrive within two days of the date I expect it, I do what I understand that GPL has advised that I do. I get out my last (or any previous) light bill and dial the Customer Service number printed at the top. Currently that is 226-2606. I let them know that I have not received a light bill and I ask them to give me information. I quote my Account Number (found in Column 4), ask them to tell me the Amount Due (Column 8), ask them to tell me the Due Date (Column 7) and the Bill Date (Column 6). With this information I then know how much I have to pay and by when, so I do not have to guess how much I have to pay (as I infer the writer implied before he/she started tilting at windmills).
Like the writer, I have never had my water disconnected by GWI; but perhaps unlike the writer, I am yet to receive a bill before the due date. I walk to GWI, go through the security rigmarole at the gate, brace up against the wall while I wait for them to condescend to let me cross the road and enter their holy of holies where there is not enough seating accommodation for the customers. Once or twice, if I am lucky, I see piles of bills on a desk waiting to be dispatched.
As regards what I think GPL should do: Firstly, I acknowledge that most times I receive my light bill several days before the due date, and I suspect that the writer is in the same position, too. I recognise that absences among GPL’s computer staff, computer glitches, intervening holidays and absences among Postal staff – all contribute to the possibility that my light bill may, occasionally, be received late.
Secondly, I think that GPL should publicise frequently on TV and in the print media (and on the back of the light bill, within the “Payment Policies” there set out) the steps that a customer can take where a light bill is not delivered by the date the customer expects.
Thirdly, I think that GPL should, without fear or favour, disconnect any person, or firm or organisation (e.g. the Georgetown City Council) who has not paid within three weeks of the due date. Fourthly, I think that after all payments have been made and before the customer’s service is restored, GPL should issue the customer with a warning that if ever the service has to be disconnected for non-payment again, the customer will be eligible only for pre-paid service.
Now let the debate begin/continue.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address supplied)
