"Customer Service!"

Paul Andrew Bourne, BSc. (Hons) Demography/Economics


As someone who has taught in the public sector for approximately fourteen (14) years, I have had to learn ?'good' customer relation skills and have come to expect the same from others with whom I do business. I had countless cogent experiences with individuals in Customer Service at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus that speaks to a trend in ?'poor' service from that department. However, it appears that some of the ?'customer service and billings' representatives are either untrained in the ethics of business or hospitality. Wow - Customer Service!

In weekending December 17, 2004, the billing representative for Social Sciences students was pejorative in her relation to me as a customer. What is the matter? The incident is that I was very unaware that I was granted leave of absence for Semester II for academic year 2001/2002. Although I am no longer an undergraduate student but a student nevertheless, I requested a copy of the letter that stated the previously mentioned matter. After receiving the document, I proceeded to the customer service department. The front desk representative instructed me to speak with Mr. Nelson who although he was busy, offered limited assistance as it relates to closure of my concern. He referred me to the billing representative for Social Sciences (Ms. Gillan Montague) who seemed angry and distant from wanting me to explain my reason for being there in the first place.

I informed the clerk that I was granted leave of absence of which, I was incognizant. As such, I am requesting that the amount be levied on my present balance for postgraduate tuition. Instead of listening to my concern in its entirety, she interjected in a derogatory matter saying, "did you pay the $3,000 fine as stated by the letter". I remarked that I was oblivious to such a matter given that I know of the leave of absence approval a few days ago. Afterwards, the representative in an aggressive and demeaning matter said "yu pay the fine". Before I could say I was unaware of the situation initially, I was able to utter an explanation, the seemingly obdurate and motherly stern looking representative utter "dat means yu never pay de fine". It was the first time in my adult years that I felt like an infidel. This situation happened in my fifth year at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus.

As a postgraduate student and a tutor for the Department of Sociology, to be humbled in this manner is an ideography of poor customer service offered by an institution that seeks to position itself as the premier University for the Caribbean. Knowing that students are continuously interfacing with the Department of Customer Service and Billing, I am forwarding a position that is a typical experience of countless University students. If this institution of which I am wholeheartedly pleased to be associated with does not recognize that those individuals will anodyne the University from some of its clients. And that if the same company do not insist that all of its employees protect the image of the institution then the service to which it wants to achieve by it mandate cannot never be attain.

"Has a similar situation ever occurred to you?" If your response is "yes", what was it like?