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Last week, I began recounting my recent unfortunate experience with LIME and its apparently new approach to customer service in Barbados.

I do not normally make a hullabaloo about bad service in the Caribbean since the effort it takes is more costly in the long run than any positive outcome. This is probably why service is so poor: people on the receiving end usually take whatever is dished out and move on.

But my recent encounter with LIME was so distasteful I had to draw a line in the sand.

What follows is an abbreviated re-enactment, from memory, of what happened when one of LIME’s female technicians in Barbados called me on January 8 to follow up on a request for technical assistance filed by their customer service centre in St. Lucia.

ACB:  Annalee Babb, hello.

LIME Technician: Hello.  I received a report you are having problems with your Internet.

ACB:  Yes.

LT:  What is wrong with it?

ACB [Long pause]: I cannot connect to the Internet.

LT:  You will have to take your modem to the Windsor Lodge office to be checked.

ACB:  But I spoke with a customer service representative in St. Lucia who said someone would come to check it for me.

LT [In an impatient, dismissive tone]: No. No!  You will have to take it to Windsor Lodge!

ACB:  But one of your reps came to my house a few months back, checked the modem, and told me I didn’t need to do anything.

LT:  How long ago is a few months?  That was last year?  Last year is last year.  You will have to take it to Windsor Lodge to be checked!

ACB:  I run a small business with clients all over the world. For the last two days, I have had no Internet service.  I spoke to a young man in St. Lucia who said …

LT [Cutting me off]: Ma’am, I said you will have to take the modem to Windsor Lodge!

ACB:  I would appreciate it if you would do me the courtesy of allowing me to complete a sentence!  I am a paying customer with a concern and I am tired of dealing with people in this country with bad attitudes who don’t understand how they are supposed to deal with their own customers!

From there, the encounter went downhill.  The technician aggressively demanded I repeat what she had just said.  I asked for her name, which she conveyed in measured tones [I was surprised she didn’t spell it for me, such was the clarity of her enunciation!].  I ended the conversation by indicating I would be writing on the matter [which clearly didn’t faze her].

The upshot is I called TeleBarbados the same day and enquired about their service.  I eventually chose their 1mb Internet package, which I am told responds like a 2mb.  A delightful young lady at TeleBarbados, Nicola, made an appointment for a technician to do the installation on January 14 at 2 p.m.   At 10:45 that morning, the technician, a professional youngster named Marlon, called to ask for directions.  He arrived at 11 a.m., did the installation, and I now have a robust Internet service.

I will disconnect all LIME service effective the end of the month and communicate with business associates via TeleBarbados’ high-speed Internet and my Digicel mobile phone.  My company’s web development team is setting up a virtual office for me and my clients through which we can connect regardless of time or distance.

American abolitionist Frederick Douglass once said:  “Power concedes nothing without a demand, it never did and it never will.  Men may not get all they pay for in this world, but they must certainly pay for what they get.”

So, what are the lessons I’ve learned from this encounter?

#1:  I may not get the service I pay for, but I will not pay for disrespect.

#2:  If power concedes nothing without a demand, Barbadian consumers need to start demanding quality service as a basic requirement for enjoying their custom.

Tune in next week for the lessons this encounter taught me about our market-based decision-making models, and get my free advice to LIME!

--acb

PS: Special thanks to Mr. Patrick Hinkson and the TeleBarbados team for their professionalism and efficiency in making sure I got reconnected!