Dear Editor,
I’ve been reading recently people’s experiences and a few features relevant to the state of customer – service and standards in this society.
The operatives – whether attached to the private sector or public utilities – seem – in the majority – to be unprofessional, unhelpful or just plain indifferently crude.
The Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) is a utility I try hard to be friendly with. But the challenges it has failed to surmount renders it a kind of national blight of a national essential service.
A female customer of GPL appealed to me to highlight this near–tragedy which occurred at her humble residence two days ago. The GPL is installing “smart meters” around the country apparently. Operatives in a mini-bus installed one at her West Ruimveldt home and five minutes afterwards as the bus moved away, the home’s fuse box exploded. Smoke engulfed the bedrooms causing discomfort and fear to the customer, her ailing mother and one-year grandson.
She hurried behind the contracted fellows who aggressively told her “dat en we business, call and report it to Sophia”. Now nothing was wrong with the lady’s power-supply and fuse-box for months/years before the “smart-meter” installation. Calls to “Sophia” went unanswered. So the lady used her “smart” cell phone to record the damage, the operatives and their mini bus number.
Enraged she went to the enquiries/complaints department at GPL’s Main Street head office. Again indifference was the response to her woes.
She was “advised” to wait 72 hours so GPL could “investigate”. They had/have to ascertain whose fault led to the fuse box damage and consequential loss of electricity. Obviously the besieged utility tries to do its best not to repair its own damage at its own expense!
Remember nothing was wrong before the installation. So what was/is the customer to do without electricity for three days. Her ailing mother and toddler grandson? Her perishables? It was even suggested that she replace the fuse box and some other equipment pending the GPL “investigation”. It is now to be expected that GPL will present “their side” of the incident. Especially if a fire had burnt down that range of houses.
Will new elections bring “the good life” to Guyana’s suffering consumers?
Yours faithfully,
Allan A. Fenty
