By Robert Hart, Staff Reporter
Jamaica Public Service Company (JPSCo) customers crowd its East Parade office yesterday. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
THE JAMAICA Public Service Company (JPSCo) said yesterday that it is asking customers with bill queries to visit the nearest customer service office or call 1-888-22-555-77. The requests follow weeks of protests by JPSCo customers against the multiplicity and high level of January bills.
JPSCo customer service offices visited by The Gleaner yesterday were all packed with customers either paying bills before the deadline, or seeking advice on concerns they had about their bills.
"This December's bill was terrible. How can somebody, who usually pays $3,000, have to pay $9,000?" complained a customer at the East Parade office in Kingston, who gave her name as N. Gordon. She said that even though she used no Christmas light decorations last year, she still saw an increase in her bill.
She also said that she could not understand getting two bills in one month. One was dated January 9 and the other dated January 13. She said that she was frustrated with how the JPSCo staff handled her requests for clarification of the bill. "All they tell you is that it on the computers so you have to pay," she said.
But, the public utility company yesterday affirmed that there is no trend to suggest that customers are being overcharged.
"Recent customer queries relate mainly to the receipt of bills in quick succession. This resulted from a compression in the company's bill production schedule to compensate for the non-production of bills during the initial phase of the implementation of a new customer information system last year," the JPSCo said in a release last night.
"With bills being produced in quick succession, sometimes an additional bill would be delivered before customers were able to pay the previous one, or the payment may have been made after the next bill had been already produced, a customer may receive a bill that looks unusually high, but is in fact a combination of the current charges plus the amount on the previous bill."
The company said that, typically, it has been receiving queries regarding less than one per cent of the bills produced.
The Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC) said last month that they had initiated discussions with JPSCo, in light of overwhelming complaints and were seeking answers to consumers' concerns.
CAC public relations officer, Tanikie McClarthy, said yesterday that they had been informed that the problems associated with multiple billing had been rectified, but that the JPSCo had not provided a general explanation for the questionably high bills.
Ms. McClarthy said that there would be a continuous process of investigation and that individuals must be aware of their levels of consumption and other factors that may affect their bills, such as rising world fuel prices.
