Former Health Minister complains about VINLEC

Former Minister of Health, lawyer, Luke Browne is calling on utility companies like the St. Vincent Electricity Services Limited (VINLEC), to interact with the public on a more professional level.

“I want to see change at our utility companies. I made a post about the CWSA on Tuesday (March 7). I also think that there is a serious problem with VINLEC,” the Unity Labour Party (ULP) politician said in a Facebook post on Thursday, March 9.

Browne is of the opinion that VINLEC’s cuastomer service is “notoriously poor”.

“You can hardly ever reach that company by telephone – it has an automated answering machine which seems to have been designed to frustrate the living daylights out of you! You could be trying for hours or even days to reach someone at that company without success. The same is generally true about VINLEC’s response rate to correspondence and general enquiries. This is abominable,” Browne said in his post.

He also described VINLEC as “very insensitive” in terms of its disconnection practices.

“For instance, last Thursday (March 2) at around 9:30 a.m VINLEC disconnected the electricity supply to the office of one of its corporate customers without notice for arrears.

“VINLEC took this action despite the fact that the amount of arrears was small. The electricity supply was restored in the afternoon after the customer paid the bill. This meant that there was an approximately five hour disruption to the course of business at the peak of the work day. This was unnecessary,” Browne said.

“VINLEC could have achieved the same revenue collection objective by giving the customer notice of the arrears and an opportunity to settle the bill prior to disconnection. Disconnection should be seen as a LAST resort. Not a “FIRST” resort.

“I would like to see VINLEC adopt more sensitive and sensible policies,” Browne stressed.

In response, VINLEC said on Thursday, March 9, that as a matter of policy, they refrain from commenting in public on individual cases regarding customers but noted however that disconnection of service is never VINLEC’s first resort.

“We strive to work with our customers to address any outstanding balances or issues before resorting to service disconnection. It is our standard practice to notify customers of any impending service disconnection, although we may not always be able to reach every customer directly,” the company said.

“With regard to the matter of arrears, any outstanding balances are reflected on customers’ monthly bill statements,” a representative from VINLEC told SEARCHLIGHT.