The OUR has not answered my question
Dear Editor,
Mr Gordon Brown, writing in your newspaper as public affairs coordinator of the OUR, has attempted to answer my letter complaining about being asked to pay ‘service’ and other charges on a National Water Commission (NWC) bill when no water was used.
Despite his extensive attempt to answer my letter, he has not done so, because he has not dealt with my questions as to WHY a customer should be asked to pay ‘service’ charges when no service was given.
The ‘service’ charges, I contended, should only be due if a ‘service’ had been provided. The person who read the meter would have performed a service to the NWC, but he had not performed any ‘service’ to me, the customer, since I had used NO WATER. Since all the other charges were percentages of the ‘service’ charge, these also should not be legally due if no water was used.
Maybe I should have asked the question of a legal mind, and not of the OUR; that is why I suggested that the national ombudsman should take a look at this matter. Multitudes of Jamaican citizens have been shown complaining on our newscasts in the past of the same matter: being sent bills for water when they had received no water for extended periods of time.
The official explanation of the OUR may be based on the policies laid down. But they certainly do not represent justice due to the consumer: they only benefit the monopoly.
The OUR is a government agency that works off certain guidelines, and thus Mr Brown’s response has only explained the guidelines that has been set. he is not really defending us, the consumers. But somebody needs to take a second look at this matter for the Jamaican consumers. These monopolies should not be charging for services that they do not provide, or when consumers do not use their offered services.
WE NEED HELP! WE NEED TRUE JUSTICE on this issue.
Lloyd A Cooke
Royal Flat
Box 642, Mandeville PO