Dear Claudienne

I have had a landline service at my address for some 16 years now. The service has never gone down except during times of hurricanes or similar natural disasters, when there would normally be a general service disruption islandwide.

Last week, however, I decided to expand the range of business I am doing with FLOW, so I took out an internet service (Browse and Talk). That service was installed by a FLOW technician on Sunday September 4, 2016.

To my alarm and consternation, when I woke up the following morning to use my landline it was not working. I asked a friend to advise FLOW and to find out why this breakdown had occurred right after installation of the internet service. I was advised (through my friend) that FLOW said there was a problem and that the landline service would not be back up until about five days’ time. However, they could not say what the problem was. (Recall that their technician had spent some two to three hours the day before on my property installing the internet service.) Is the now non-functioning landline service merely a coincidence? I think not.

However, to flavour my wound with some of the proverbial salt (or should I say pepper), when I called FLOW the same day to get more details, the following was my experience:

The operator who answered the call, and who said his name was Nickiel, could not link me up to the technical area nor the public relations area as no one was answering the phones. This was about 10.30- 11:00 am.

When I asked for the e-mail address for the Customer Service area to allow me to document my complaint, he advised that it was not company policy to disclose his surname. He said he had no e-mail address for that area. Another example of stone-walling a customer. Since I cannot write anyone at FLOW to register my complaint, as there is no address to write to, I am writing you seeing that your column has a publicised address. THANK GOD!!!

He was apologetic given my predicament, but from all indications he could not help me beyond what he had done.

I must comment on the matter of a company policy advising operators who are its frontline personnel, not to give surnames to customers. I believe this policy is not adding any value to FLOW’s services; instead they are devaluing their customer service. What if there is more than one operator with the same first name? How will they prove which operator had taken the call?

But as noted, that’s an aside. My real problem is that after 16 years of uninterrupted landline service, FLOW (formerly Cable and Wireless) has now seen fit to deprive me of my talk now that I have taken out their Browse and Talk Internet package. What a big joke!

I would appreciate your efforts to intervene in this situation, as the customer stonewall set up by FLOW seems more intimidating and less penetrable than the once infamous Berlin Wall, which, thank God, has been taken down. I do hope FLOW’s will come down as well in the interest of good (not even excellent) customer service,w before its profits hit the floor, which is where its lack of a customer focus could well take it.

HR

Dear HR

Tell Claudienne has been in communication with FLOW about your concerns and we note that the company restored your talk service on September 10, 2016.

We also received an e-mail from Flow as follows:

We also received an e-mail from Flow as follows:

“Thank you for bringing the letter below to our attention.

We would like to firstly apologise to HR for her experience. We appreciate our customers and welcome every opportunity to serve them.

While we have several channels through which our customers are able to interact with us, we do regret that when she tried to make contact with specific teams, she was unable to do so. We are pleased to report that our team has since been in frequent contact with HR with regard to her concerns.

With regard to the agent in question, we wish to advise that we do have a policy which stipulates that where requested by the customer, first and last names should be provided. The agent acted counter to this policy and the necessary disciplinary action has been taken.

Please note as well that we do have an e-mail address, customerexperienceja@cwc.com.

Finally, we also wish to advise that the technical issue that impacted HR’s talk service was addressed on September 10, and she has been fully utilising our services since.

In closing, we thank HR for highlighting her other concerns as they provided us with another learning opportunity for our team and to remind each other of the policies that govern our interaction with our customers. We continue to engage her as we seek to further enhance her overall experience with us.

Thank you again for giving us an opportunity to resolve this issue.”

All the best.

Have a problem with a store, utility, a company?Telephone 936-9436 or write to: Tell Claudienne c/o Sunday Finance, Jamaica Observer, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5; or e-mail:edwardsc@jamaicaobserver.com. Please include a contact phone number.