Showing posts with label General. Show all posts

Customer Dis_Service

Yet another experience of bad customer service. This time with Digcel Trinidad.

On Friday 28th September, before noon, a reppresentitive from Digicel Trinidad & Tobago called me with an offter to experience their 4G service. The rep indicated that they are offering customers the chance to experience their 4G service for one week at a cost of $5.95 and I agreed, I mean, which trini you know passes up on freeness? I then asked what will happen after the week is up; she said that I would then go in to a Digicel outlet and sign up for the service. She informed me that I would get a text stating that the service was activated, a few minutes later I was actually able to access the 4G Service. I left it on and continued with my job responsibilities. The text actually came in 6.00pm that day, it read:

"Thank you for accepting our FREE trial Offer. Your 7-Day Unlimited 4G Free Trial Will expire on 2012/09/28 17:58."

However, on reaching home that day I tried to access the service only to get a message telling me to check my data balance. This suggested that I was paying for a service and need to check if I had credit. But this cannot be right. It was a free service. So I lost around $70.00 in credit that I had before the Free Service was activated. I called Digicel and was informed that that Dep’t was off and was advised to call back on Monday between 8am - 4pm.

I called back on the following Monday and explained what had happened, the person on the other end [who was a bit rude] indicated that she will put in a report and have someone call me. Well, today is 04/10/2012 and no one has called me.

On 25/09/2012 at 6:40pm I got a text from Digicel:

"Your 7-Day Unlimited 4G FREE Trial has expired. To keep browsing at 4G speeds, pay as you go for 0.30 TTD VAT excl per MB until your plan expires in 23 days."

I am asking Digicel to refund every cent they took from me and ensure that others are not hoodwinked in such a manner or I will take this issue up with Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago.

As the carnival season approaches, locals and foreigners alike are in for a long season, carnival carded for March 7th and 8th. All would be treated to the many fetes that the various promoters put on. Many trinbagonians look forward to this time of the year where they can celebrate the greatest show on earth.
However, at what expense should we be able to enjoy ourselves? Should we be allowed to ignore others? Should we be allowed to disturb the sick, the children/babies? Is there a balance? Is there a compromise/alterative?

Developed Country Status

During the past ten years we have seen a lot of work toward “developed country status” as articulated by the government at the time. Port of Spain has been transformed, literally overnight, into a city filled with skyscrapers. We have what is labelled an International Water Front supposedly as a demonstration that we are a developed country, at least to the eyes. For that is just what it is. This is nothing more than someone experiencing an increase in income and spends it on bling. For the real development, development of the people has not even left the gates.

To be fair, there has been an education drive toward developing an innovative people. I have always been of the view that the only way to develop a people is to educate them which leads to them being productive citizens rather than depend on hand outs, the country benefits. But what has this achieved? Has anyone collect data on what the system has churned out compared to enrolment? Has anyone looked at the drop outs and the waste of public funds in this regard? It it enough for you to say that we have “free “nursery to tertiary” education without knowing the returns on that investment by tax payers?

Today we are experiencing what some may tern a stagnant economy, no activity they say. Why is this so? My suggestion would be that we decided to spend everything that we earned whilst the stream was unending, at least so many thought. I have no doubt that eventually we would in fact get to a state in our development that we would in fact be considered a developed country. My concerns however are in relation to the processes used to get there. Should this development be all at once or should it be a phased process? Had we phased out the development in terms of infrastructure we would have effectively not created a situation where inflation would have been a factor to contend with for example. And as revenue falls, we would have had some savings s activity could have been sustained thereby maintaining employment and encouraging investment.

But it was argued at the time that if we don’t do it now, we would not be able to do it later at the cost we were doing it at. But is that so? Almost ALL of the projects undertaken were over budget and overdue in terms of delivery. Further, there is the priority factor, today after billions in expenditure many of the problems we face ten years ago are still with us today. Maybe they would have disappeared in 2020.

Corruption is but the main reason the former regime was removed from office. The manner in which allegations were dealt with, the key factor. What this effectively did was to raise concerns about the real aim of the government. Whilst we saw all the tall buildings in POS the real aim may have been to siphon funds into private bank accounts. None of the projects had any positive direct impact on the ordinary citizen. Had the intention been to really improve the lives of the ordinary man, many may not be demanding from the present regime what past government failed to provide given the revenue stream and the wastage.

Social Programs, aimed at improving the lives of the small man. I would agree that there were several social programs that seek to address some of the needs of the poor man but were they effective or were they just there to maintain the vote bank. I pity those who access these programs knowing that their lives would be no different five, ten years down the road. What these programs have done is to keep persons in a state of dependency, where they are beholden to a government. Is this people development? Should we demand more? Or should we just continue to vote for hand outs whilst an elite few benefit from the largesse created by our tax dollar.

Development must mean more and we must demand more.

An Immigration Blunder or Vote Bank Creation?

I was listening to a talk formatted program yesterday and the issue regarding the freeing up of requirement for Indians and Russians to come to this country was discussed. I must point out here that I agree fully with the concerns expressed. Those concerns relate to persons who initially would have come into the country to invest, work etc. The host indicated that after they have been here for some time and have become comfortable and have settled in they may not be willing to return to their home country considering that they may have been at the lower end of the social ladder at home.

In relation to these persons wanting to remain in this country, the host raised a very important issue related to elections. His concern (and I support this concern) was that by having persons come here and eventually being able to vote, a government can secure victory at the polls. This is very possible, think otherwise and you are fooling yourself. This was done decades ago with our neighbouring islanders.

The issue of persons coming into our country and eventually being able to vote and as voters would be loyal to a particular party has been a concern by many for a long time. We all have heard of the complaints about persons from up the islands coming in and voting for a particular party thereby giving them an unfair hold on power. Which over time contributed to the mess we are in today, because of this advantage, there was no real democracy in terms of our elections. It is in this context I share the concerns of this host

I cannot understand why any government would have to go out of their way to get persons to invest in a country, It is either we are attractive to investors or not. And if we are attractive to foreign investors, then we should be capitalising on those investments, not create a situation where persons would come in, get all these perks and then export their earnings. How does the country benefit from this arrangement? Unless of course the aim is not investment.

The same goes for tourism, tourist are attracted to what a country can offer in terms of its sites, culture etc. In other words, what that country has that is unique so as to get people to visit. Tourists, IMO would not be attracted to a country as a tourist destination because they don’t have to get a VISA, I don’t get this.

Easily Distracted? YES and we encourage it.

Am always amazed at how people can allow themselves to be led like sheep, this is so easy to do and is all possible because of our politics. Politics that has divided us into we and them. When we engage in such trivial matters, we fuel the politician’s eagerness to keep us fighting against each other whilst they carry one with their agenda. Their agenda of

Our Development, what is it?

The continued promotion of particular groups in society is the major contributor to the state we are in today. This must stop, we must instead begin to promote the well being of an entire society rather than that of particular groups. Once we continue to do this, we are in effect encouraging and promoting a divide of “them and us”. We continue to say to each other that as we strive to get to the top we must trample on each other.

A Flood of Errors

The floods over the past weekend, stepped up a notch from what has become an annual phenomenon. From captain to cook, all have spewed a plethora of excuses packaged as reasons for this. Coming in at the top of the list is “an act of god” others include; littering, poor/no development planning, inadequate drainage, clogged drains, altered water courses, illegal dumping of refuse (white waste), high tide/low tide and on and on and on.
Each of us must accept our share of blame, to put it nicely, we are nasty people. It has become part of our culture, for example, to dump our old appliances in a river, and empty lots, cane fields etc. Sometimes we do this out of necessity, not that it’s an excuse, but had the authorities done what they are supposed to do and provide means of disposal of such items, people would not have to practice this part of our culture.

With respect to development, roads, houses/communities, business centres etc we have failed miserable in ensuring that all is done according to the strictest of guidelines for reasons unknown to me. However I can offer some reasonable assumptions and all begins with politics. It’s about garnering support and retaining it. In an interview recently, former Minister of Works, Colm Imbert said the laws related to development are very weak, that people (my words) do what they want, and that the existing laws are difficult to implement.
· Why haven’t we fixed those laws?
· Is it because there is enough influence by particular interest’s groups/persons that blocks any attempts to update our laws?
I am not sure that our flooding is “random act of nature”. The annual flooding experienced here is a direct result of what we do or not do.
· What would happen if we were to experience a category five hurricane?
· Could we then say it was “an act of god”?
But we have already used that excuse every time the streets of Port of Spain floods after 30 minutes of rainfall.
Whatever the reasons for our annual phenomenon, one thing remain critical, we must act so as to prevent this and no amount of rhetoric will ease the pain and discomfort of those affected. Every visit by government official, wearing of boots, handing out of mattresses, hampers, free pizzas or any of the other piece meal gestures would come to zero, if when the rain ends all go back to business as usual.
Immediate plans must be implemented in the short term to ensure minimal damage to property via floods. De-silting/widening of rivers, clearing of drains, removal of illegal dump sites, immediate stop to all illegal development (put some teeth in the EMA, town and country).

Simultaneously, medium and long term plans must also be drawn up so as to eliminate this problem of flooding. There must be action now, rather than reaction. The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM) needs restructuring, they should be given powers to monitor and hold persons responsible for engaging in acts that contribute to flooding.
Serious action must be a priority, lip service does no one any good, leave lip service for the bedroom.

“Rum Songs” – are they contributing to family life deterioration?

Presently there is a raging debate on the influence of the rapidly growing popularity of so called rum songs.
The first incarnation of this modern day “rum song” was Adesh Samaros’s “rum till ah die”. But we all know that this is not the genesis of this offspring of the parent genre-Chutney. As a young boy growing up, I have heard many songs that glorified rum.
And even worst, some chutney songs even placed our nanny’s on bicycles and pelt she in the grass etc. It would seem to me that some have awaken one morning and realised that they finally have a scape-goat to use for the state of a section of our community. I think that because these songs has made transparent, a reality that has existed fro decades, that suddenly some has become so ashamed, that they are eager to kill it.
Now, I am not saying that there is absolutely no merit in the argument that “rum songs” have an influence on the behaviour of a society, I agree. What I have an issue with is when some find it so easy to target this new form of expression. I am saying also that what the songs are perceived to be contributing to, has been evident for a very long time.
Those who wants to characterise these songs as the root cause for the problems of alcoholism, bad parenting, broken homes etc. must provide data to support this. My contention is that wife beating, rum drinking men have existed before these songs, has anything been done about this, maybe I don’t know. Do we have data to show that since the, “rum till I die” fame, there has been some drastic increase in alcohol consumption, if this is a case, then bring that evidence and use that. But to simply say that it has is not good enough, rather at all.
Some are going to extreme pains to align “rum songs” with the deterioration of families in a particular sector, but the fact remains that excessive rum drinking has existed before the proliferation of these songs. Whilst I am confident that alcohol is a contributor, again my contention is that the “rum songs” is by no means the main culprit/contributor. We could stop singing the songs tomorrow and I am confident that the problems would still be alive and kicking. This is so because, it’s not simply a matter of glorifying such music, rather it’s about a culture of a people, these songs only mirrors what exist.

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