I WRITE THIS LETTER to register my complaints about the service (or lack of) I have been getting from FLOW.
I fully understand that I am one of thousands of Barbadians who complain daily about the services provided to them by FLOW. The many customers who flock to the offices attest to this.
I suspect, though, that this letter will not move FLOW to improve its services to their customers and they will continue to treat customers with scant respect.
I live overseas, but I maintain a home in Barbados. I come home every year to visit friends and family and to enjoy the many good things that Barbados has to offer. As a consequence, I ensure that the water and electricity bills are paid and until last year, when in frustration I disconnected the telephone services, I was paying FLOW.
Although the telephone bills were paid on time by my friend, every time I came home the telephone service was down, so essentially I was paying for a service I did not receive. That required visits to the FLOW offices to join other upset customers in politely requesting that the service be connected, as I required telephone services to contact family and friends overseas.
Calling the numbers provided only connects one to answering services in Jamaica or Trinidad. I must confess that the customer service representatives try their best but to little avail.
On my last visit to the offices, I was advised that the line needed upgrading, as the “old” line was primarily the cause of the poor service I was getting. I was assured or promised that the services would improve with the installation of fibre optics cable and that the technicians would call to arrange a date and time for the installation. We believed them!
My friend was even informed that the technicians would install the cable on March 15, 2017.
Of course, FLOW did not provide a time for the installation, so my friend waited until he got frustrated – did not see the need to wait any longer and returned to his home. FLOW did not show.
Naturally, no one had the courtesy to call to apologise or to give a reason for not showing up (guess that would be asking too much, given how customers are treated) and to rearrange a date and time for the installation. I am still without service, even though the houses around me have.
Is there any hope that FLOW will respond and do the right thing, that is, not only arrange a date and time for the installation, but show up and fix the problem?
Should I continue to live in hope?
– COLIN BLADES
