Bills & Less Bills

I don't understand.

Today my wife and I received our first phone bill. I felt like we had arrived. We moved into our apartment on August 1st and today, Nov 9th, was the day that marked the first utility bill arrived.

Why?

Well, it happened to be the phone bill, and it came this late because it took C&W so long to install a simple phone line, that we have had service for only a little more than a month.

That was bad, but as it turns out, not too bad.

We have still not received an electrical bill from JPS.

Before today, we called JPS twice since Aug 1st; and in each case the CSR explained that they had not yet read the meter, or done the computations, or checked the runes, etc. We decided to go ahead and pre-pay about US$100, as we had heard reports that the non-receipt of a bill meant nothing when JPS was looking for a payment. We got the account number, and trotted off to Paymaster to ensure that my erstwhile blogging could continue without interruptions.

Finally, today we called again and a patient CSR explained that three bills had been sent out, and that we should have received them. He did not go as far as to say that we should have paid the bills, as that would have just taken the cake... and I guess he was not hungry for the taste of yet another confused customer. Anyways, he proceeded to explain how much we owed and when the payment was due, and we asked him if he could fax over a copy of the bill. He agreed, to our surprise, and in less than two minutes the fax line was ringing.

Now, this was a whole new level of service, I thought. Maybe they have developed a customer branded experience, and were just looking at ways to implement it! Perhaps all the complaining that I had heard about JPS was all exaggerated, and blown out of proportion.

Then I saw the bill, or more accurately, "attempted to understand it."

My wife has three degrees, and I have two. We are each over 35 years old... and we could not figure out the bill.

I instantly recalled the complaints that I had heard about people not having a clue as to what their JPS bills meant, and we slipped.... while trying to resist... into their ranks.

So, we will call JPS tomorrow and join the ranks of my country-men (or, would-be country-men, given my apparent non-citizenship of Jamaica.) We also do not have a clue, and it seems that that must be the way that JPS likes it.

Why?

Because it's been this way for a loooooong time.