Dear Editor,

On my last visit to Jamaica, I failed to receive some monies which I thought would have been set aside for me. Therefore, on Tuesday, March 31, 2015 I visited my local financial institution to make an unplanned withdrawal.

I joined the line and waited patiently until I reached the teller. On reaching the teller, I presented two pieces of pictured identification — one of which was a valid driver’s licence, the other was a valid passport. The street address on my driver’s licence did not correspond with the address “on file” and so I was sent to the little back room to plead my case to “Ms Big”.

She advised me that the only thing which could get me out of her vice was a utility bill with my name and current street address on it. That, I did not have. And so she proceeded to ask me a slew of questions — more invasive that those of a US immigration officer.

One of her requests was that I provide her with references in the form of two attorneys. Reluctantly, I did so, as I bore in mind the fact that several attorneys have been in the news of late for the wrong reasons. But so far, so good!

Forty-five minutes into my interrogation, she then asked me to provide another reference, the name of a chartered public accountant (CPA). “Sey wah?” I asked in dismay. Ms Big was even more startled than I was. “So, Mr Ford, you mean to say you don’t have a CPA? Then, who does your taxes?” Irate, and at the end of my tether, I shot back, “jus gimme… money, and mek mi get di hell out of ‘ere”.

Startled further, she initialled my withdrawal slip and escorted me out of her back office. But, for my ‘freshness’, and to add salt to my wound, she led me to the back of the long teller line, to again extend my wait, and my agony.

“Sorry, there’s nothing I can do,” she says, and ‘wheeled her tail off’. “Your boss shall hear about this,” I said. And needless to say, he or she will.

A couple weeks after this horrendous experience, I read in the Jamaican news where upwards of some 30 per cent of Jamaicans do not have bank accounts. And now I can see why. Who wants to be on the receiving end of this outmoded, backward, and colonial-minded customer service? And, furthermore, how many of us, have chartered public accountants to use as references?

Jamaica has yet to realise that what’s holding the country back is nothing but backwardness.

Raymond Ford

Michigan, USA

fordraye1@aol.com