Dear Claudienne,

Since September 2023 an amount of $6,997.03 appeared suddenly on my telephone bill as an overdue balance, which I have not paid because I know I have paid all my bills and Flow is yet to prove that I have an overdue balance.

This problem started on March 14, 2023, when my telephone service was disconnected without warning. When I checked my records to see if I was at fault, I realised that I was indeed at fault as I had inadvertently missed one month’s payment. I immediately went online and made a payment of $6,997.03 to settle the overdue balance. At that time, I decided to pay for the month of March 2023 as well and made a second payment of a similar amount ($6,997.03). Payment for March was early as the due date for my Flow bill is the 25th of the month. Everything went smoothly after that and no more missed payments and no overdue balance appeared on my bills.

In May 2023, my Internet service was upgraded from copper to fibre and that resulted in an increase of the monthly rate to $7,933.91. In June 2023, I paid $11,023.52 because the new rate was prorated for a part of the month of May. Up until this time when my account was being reviewed for a rate change, there was no overdue balance; it did not come up in my discussions with the Flow employee who called me to discuss the rate change. The $6,997.03 I allegedly owed was not added to the new rate nor was it on any of my bills.

On Sunday, September 24, 2023 as I was preparing to make the payment for that month, I noticed that the text message sent by Flow showed an amount due over and above the new monthly rate. That amount was $6,997.03. I called Flow and the person I spoke with told me that Flow had just done some adjustments to their accounts and I should ignore the additional amount and go ahead and pay the regular monthly rate.

I mentioned to her that if that were the case then, my bill should not show an account adjustment for Flow’s internal affairs; nonetheless, I went ahead and paid $7,933.91.

On October 4, 2023, my services were disconnected and when I called Flow, I was told that I had an overdue balance of $6,997.03. This is six months after I missed a payment and made two payments in the month of March as explained above. I had a lengthy discussion at which time I provided information about the two payments made in March 2023. The Flow employee informed me that although Flow’s system showed the two payments the company had attributed this to the duplication of a payment by the computer system.

I was asked for relevant information including details of my debit card which I provided to facilitate an investigation which would take 30 days after which I would get a response. My service was reconnected pending that investigation but to date, I am yet to get a response/feedback on the findings of the investigation.

Since October 4, 2023, I have had a flood of calls from several Flow employees about this (erroneous) overdue balance plus emails and text messages threatening to disconnect my service if the amount is not paid. I have not paid the $6,997.03 because I do not owe that amount.

I have been with Flow for well over 20 years and this has broken my spirit. As such, I want to terminate my contract with them. However, in reading the terms and conditions of their contract, I realise that I may not be able to terminate with this overdue balance on my account.

As such, I am seeking your help to resolve that matter before I can embark on termination of the contract.

BD

Dear BD

The Tell Claudienne column has been in communication with Flow in respect of your disquiet about the billing of your account. Flow has sent the following email to the column:

“We can confirm that following an investigation by our Customer Experience Team, the payment in question was reapplied to BD’s account and she was so advised by email on December 14, 2023.

Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention and we do apologise for any inconvenience experienced by BD, our valued and loyal customer.”

We wish you all the best.

Have a problem with a store, utility company? Telephone 876-936-9346 or Cell # 876-484-1349 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.