The Editor, Sir:

It has been clear to me for some time that something was wrong at the JPS, with the type of bills we have been getting both for commercial and residential contracts.

I am in charge of the administrative function at my daughter's business place, and as such I am in charge of paying the light bills on behalf of the company. Sometime in June of this year, I noticed a spike in the light bill, where the bill moved from $120,000 to $150,000 in one month. This was to be followed by a bill of $176,000 in July of 2008. We are now in receipt of the bill for August which reads $196,000.00. These bills have come despite the fact that there has been no increase in electricity load since January of this year, and there has been no additional production over the period or lengthening of business hours.

I, therefore, wrote to the JPS pointing out the discrepancies in the light bill and pointing out to them that there was an increase in our consumption of some 1000 kwh for the month of June 2008.I went in person to the JPS with two copies of the letter in hand along with a copy of the letter which was sent to the OUR.

At JPS I spoke to a customer service representative pointing out the discrepancy in the light bill and handing him two copies of the letter which he assured me he would get to the appropriate person, and that he would, in the meantime, put a hold on the account pending an investigation into the dispute.

Can you imagine my surprise that the following Friday after delivering the letter, we received a visit from a JPS disconnection crew to disconnect our light at 2 p.m. which would have left us without power for the weekend?

No diplomacy

Not only were they there to disconnect, but without exercising any diplomacy in the matter announced loudly in front of customers and staff their purpose at hand, creating great embarrassment to us by making people think that we did not pay our bills, and this was why we were being subjected to this treatment.

Fortunately, my daughter was able to tender a copy of this letter in order to avoid disconnection. They, however, advised us to check with the Ruthven Road office on the following Monday.

I returned to the JPS the following Monday where I sought out the same young man to whom I had given the letters. Can you imagine my surprise when the young man claimed to remember my lodging a complaint to him, but had no recollection whatsoever of my giving him a letter or telling me that he was going to put a hold on the account pending the settlement of the dispute?.

Now, John Public, this young man is making me out to either being a downright liar or a mental case, to imply that I walked into JPS with a letter of complaint and walked out without delivering the letter.

No attempt to apologise

I then complained to his supervisor, who asked a few questions, but made no attempt to apologise to me for what had happened or to even indicate that the young man would have been reprimanded for his action.

I, therefore, at this point decided that I would have to seek audience with the managing director of the company to let him become aware of the contempt with which his staff was treating the public. Well, it did not surprise me that the head of the organisation is no better than the tail. I have made no less that six calls to the managing director's office to get an appointment, briefing his secretary about the reason for the appointment. To date, his secretary has not called back to say 'yea' nor 'nay' in terms of the appointment.

I commend the public for taking their stance against JPS and the prime minister for intervening in the matter so that we the public can obtain justice.

I am, etc.,

CYNTHIA BURTON

Disgruntled customer

cynthiaeburton@hotmail.com