RBL Follow up

This is an update to my previous post.
I have to say kudos to the RBL PR person for doing a really brilliant job of getting things done in a short time. RBL Powers That Be (PTB) were not content to send me an emailed apology only, they actually managed to get me into "the system" (and notified me of it within a day or two of the first email) so I do not have to show my Professional Club (PC) card the next time I say I am a member and they don't believe me, they just have to check. And I know it works too, because I went today to get the draft made, finally. Again the clerk mentioned the commission and I replied that I am a member of the PC and she glanced across at the screen and saw that it was true so she said "Ok" and didn't ask anything further.

I know it's nitpicking and probably asking too much, and maybe they just never think to check, but couldn't she have shown the initiative to first check "the system" to see if I was a member of the PC so she wouldn't even have to mention the commission? I probably shouldn't expect that much! Or maybe they just hope we forget that little fee waiver and go ahead and pay the commission. No refunds right?!

RBL - the customer friendly bank?

I recently had a lovely encounter with RBL employees which shows me clearly they may "say" they are committed to customer service, but the result "on the ground" at the level of the customers is very, very different.
I called the branch (~5 minutes to closing) to ask if it was too late for me to come get a draft made. The person on the other end "waffles" and says well, you have three minutes, can you make it? I said, yes. (I was only a minute away.) She asked my name and the draft amount, and repeated the question about whether I would be able to reach in time. I told her, yes, if I can get off the phone. So then I hung up and literally did a 100m dash across to the bank, only to find the door locked. I wrestled with my courage and knocked, telling the security I had just spoken with someone a minute ago, and it couldn't be too late already. He asked who I spoke with then said, the bank is closed, because of course, I did not have time to get a name. I asked, 'Can you check and find out who answered the line," I told him the extension I called. He gave a half-committal nod and then closed the door. After a little while, I asked him if he was finding out for me or if I was just standing there for no good reason. He told me they were going to check with the manager, but he/she was in the bathroom. I said ok, and waited some more. He finally did let me in somewhat grudgingly. I mentioned to one of the customer service people that I had called about a draft, she said I had to go to the counter. I proceeded to the counter. I started to wonder if a draft had been prepared for me so I asked again. She said "I was there when you called" (She might have said that before!) and then she left, I guess to double-check, but it appeared that no draft had been started, although I had spent precious seconds giving my information on the phone.
Finally at the counter, I start to give my information about the draft, they mention the commission, I say that I am a Professional Club Member although I forgot the card in my other wallet. They check the computer. I am not in the system as a member. "Do you have an account with us?" I say yes, it's a fixed deposit. One "helpful" clerk adds "You don't have a running account with us." I ask if that would explain why it's not in the system. No, it's not. So why tell me this irrelevant information?! I tell them I am not used to paying the commission so I will not go ahead with the draft if I have to pay the commission because I am a member of the Professional Club. I then leave, to return another day, 20 minutes wasted. What gets me most is that I have come to the bank so many times to have drafts made, and each time it's the same thing, I am not in the system, but as long as I have my card, they will process it without the fee. Not once would they think to say "Let me direct you to the person who can put you in the system, so you don't have to show us the card." Is this the height of customer service? They show no initiative, no common courtesy and instead prefer to baffle your brain with unnecessary facts. I sent an email to the RBL comment address and got a response within one day. Clearly the upper hierarchy are embarassed enough to respond, the question is whether that response will turn out to be lip service only.

Cookies!

Who has the best cookies? Is it Subway or Mario's Blimpie? Some other food place? I've tried both Subway and Blimpie and in terms of value, it appears the better deal is with Blimpie because you get three giant sized cookies (almost double the size of the Subway version) for 6.50 as opposed to 3 small cookies at Subway for $5.00. However in terms of flavour they are about equal. I think Blimpie may also have the edge because they offer macadamia nut cookies while Subway does not have these. All in all, they are probably too pricey, but when you're in the mood for a sugar high, and that's all that is available, they suddenly look very affordable.

Food Court - Auzonville Shopping Centre, Tunapuna

The new Auzonville Shopping Centre has a small food court on the ground floor. I have only tried the first place on the right (southwest corner of the food area) where you can buy East Indian food aka roti or paratha (buss-up shut), as well as other local dishes such as macaroni pie, rice, stewed chicken etc. I have never tried anything but the paratha which I must say is not of consistent quality but is of good enough quality for me to recommend, because I have had worse. The sauces are usually decent, some very good, especially the massala mango, which I always have. You are allowed two sides with your paratha, but they almost always offer potato and channa, so if you don't want a particular side, feel free to say so before they start dishing out your order. I usually have channa, pumpkin and mango ($1 for the extra side). The best thing about this place is they really do cook WITHOUT pepper and that to me is a big plus. I do not eat pepper but most places that serve paratha which I love, usually serve the sides with pepper and they always say it's just for flavour or "you won't notice/taste it", but I can always taste it! So this place gets top points for recognising that pepper is not a staple but a condiment and for leaving it where it belongs; on the side, as an option, and not compelling poor unsuspecting people to eat what their body cannot tolerate. That being said, I don't think their pepper sauce is the best because it made my friend ill, but I still will recommend the place,...maybe you could just avoid the pepper sauce. Who needs it anyway?
The mall has a Chinese restaurant on the top floor which I have not yet tried. There's an interesting soup place on the north west corner of the ground floor, which I have not tried either. Someone I know did purchase soup there, though and seemed to enjoy it.

Rituals Coffee House

Their coffee chillers are pretty decent. I don't like the synthetic cream they use, but other than that, you get a decent drink. I never have coffee but others have had it and commented on the taste. My "ritual" is the Belgian Chocolate Chiller which I had at UWI's Rituals as well as at the Rituals on South Quay. When I had it at UWI, I found the chocolate was not well blended, so the drink was not very smooth. At South Quay, the texture was smoother so I enjoyed it more.

Now I want to post a specific review of the Fish Panini (Sandwich) offered at Rituals Coffee House on UWI St. Augustine. If I could use the words: "nasty, stink or disgusting" I would, but I fear those might be too strong and offensive. So I will just state the sandwich was unbelievably unpalatable. The only reason I ate it was to stave off starvation because I was hungry. I will never buy that sandwich again. The "fish" turned out to be two flat rectangles which looked like processed meat with a "fish flavour" although I honestly do not know what they used. Silly me! I was expecting real fish! I would not recommend that sandwich to anyone. I am certainly not going to buy it again.

Deep Discount DVD

I purchased the Cinderella (1957) DVD when it was released from the online DVD store: Deep Discount DVD. The DVD appeared to have been lost in the mail because it did not arrive in the usual time which I expect orders from this store to arrive, so I wrote a note to the customer service department about it, and they said they would mail out a new one, and they did. The next thing that happened is two DVDs arrive at my house...not at the same time, but there was not a long time in between arrivals either. I don't know why the first one took so much longer than usual. But anyway, there I was with two DVDs having only paid for one, so I sent an email to customer service explaining what happened and offering to pay for the extra DVD. So far they have not taken me up on my offer, so I got an extra DVD for free. I feel bad about that, but I have been a good customer (so maybe it was decided I deserved a bonus! lol) and I did offer to pay so I don't know what else I could have done.

myLot Profile

Geeks.com

Another good news story! I have purchased quite a lot of items from Geeks.com, and while I think sometimes their prices are not as good as some places, and the cheaper items may not live up to all their expectations, they cannot be faulted for their dedication to good customer service. I once received a USB flash drive wristband that was defective and I shipped it back to them and got a refund without a hassle. Another time, I had a problem with an mp3 player which appeared not to be reading SD cards, and I wrote to them about it. They promptly sent me a replacement. I didn't even have to send back the "defective" player...which actually, it turns out, does read some SD cards...it is apparently a bit selective, so I ended up with two working players. I feel like I probably should have paid for the second one, but the truth is, both players do not work "as promised" in that they are supposed to read both mp3 files and wma files but only read mp3 files, so I gave myself the benefit of the doubt and didn't offer to pay. I don't know if they would have accepted though...see my story on Deep Discount DVD for why I think so.

JSL

I have a good news story...actually a few...but this is just one of them...I will post others later.
JSL Speedpak may be the last mail-forwarding (aka skybox) service in Trinidad that actually has a free (as in "no annual fee") option and their service is not at all bad...at least, so far. They do have a strange "add-on" fee of $30 per invoice to clear in through customs, which means if you buy a lot of stuff, it is best to buy them in batches and not individually so that they can all be cleared by customs at the same time for the same $30 fee or you can choose to clear them yourself, and you won't have to pay the fee.
I have found that the total amount I have been paying for my packages is not any higher than I was paying the previous companies and in fact I think in some cases, I am paying less, so I am very happy with this "skybox" service and definitely think it is worth a try for anyone who is not satisfied with their current service. I have tried both Ecourier (formerly the TTPost skybox) and UPXpress before. I believe JSL offers the same value with better customer service than these two. UPXpress still owes me money and shows no sign of wanting to pay for the last time they over-charged me for a package. And I am sure they have over-charged me in the past as well, but I did not check on it and so I probably lost the opportunity to ever recoup those monies. I can safely say I will not be using their service any more, especially after the "attitude" I got from the delivery guy when I told him I could not renew on the day that he informed me the renewal was due and that the rate would after that day.

Still with JSL here, (some years down the road) just a few things you should be aware of. The free service comes with the condition that you must call or email them to request delivery. Since they rarely answer their phones, I recommend email. Also, if you want to use a credit card to pay, you will have to go to their office since they do not have a portable device for credit card transactions.

Drugstore ding-dongs

Had to fill a prescription for my cousin and it's a C-DAP prescription so I went to the first drugstore that had the C-DAP sign, and talked to the person filling prescriptions. This turned out to be Delta Drugs in Arima. The person, whom I am not entirely sure is a pharmacist, so I am not calling her that, said that only one of the drugs could be obtained freely with C-DAP, and I would have to pay for the other two. She told me the cost...I thought it was a bit high so decided to "shop around." The next drugstore I landed at, Bhagan's (on Broadway), the C-DAP drug was available, but the woman at the counter (and her cohort) told me I would have to verify with the doctor the exact "augmentation" because they couldn't understand it from the prescription. So I told them the first person who saw the prescription had no such problem. They apparently had such great confidence in their "ignorance" that they told me I could go and get the prescription elsewhere if I could. So I did. I went to Ross next. The person repeated what Bhagan's people said. So now I am wondering if the Dr. really wrote so illegibly they couldn't understand, and also wondering why the person at Delta drugs had no such trouble deciphering the handwriting. Luckily my next stop would be the last in my quest! At Maxsal, the person filling prescriptions was a gentleman. He told me at first I couldn't get the C-DAP drug but then when I mentioned I couldn't fill the prescription if I could only get two out of the three drugs, he apparently changed his mind...or maybe he remembered he did have the third drug after all. At any rate, he also did not have a problem deciphering how long the prescription should be filled for. So I asked him to tell me how he figured it out because the other drugstore people did not seem to understand and he explained the very simple coding the doctor had used. I guess the people at Ross or Bhagan's are not as experienced at filling prescriptions as one would think, if they cannot figure out that 2/52 means 2 weeks and 1/12 means 1 month. I don't think I will be filling too many prescriptions there at any rate. They have dropped in my estimation, and the customer service was not at all commendable. Even if they could not have helped me, they could have maintained a pleasant demeanour. This is not the first time I have dealt with unpleasant people who are there to "serve" customers. It is rampant in T&T, and patently obvious that there is a gross disregard for customers in many stores, where the people who are hired to serve customers never actually care about them and show it by their actions.

Flow - madness!

Now suddenly since Flow came, customers can only have two cable boxes per signup. What kind of madness is that? This is Trinidad not America where the average household has only two kids!! The average household has a lot more people in it and we all want our own cable box! Why is Flow attempting to curb our only joy?
Worse yet, they apparently cannot give out any boxes right now because they are manually changing over to some new system and cannot cater to customers who want an extra box until the change over is complete....I never heard such madness from a company like this before! And you just know they are trying to find a way to make us pay extra for channels like HBO and Cinemax (just like US cable companies) when they talk about this new system they want to implement! Good thing I don't watch that much TV! They have yet to bring us anything useful since they took over from CCTT....I could do without the way things are "flow"ing these days!!!

HiLo

This happened to my sister recently in HiLo. It demonstrates the utter lack of courtesy generally extended to customers in Trinidad and is a sad commentary on the state of consumer affairs.
We had planned a trip to Tobago and so at around 9:30pm my sister found it necessary to get to HiLo for some last minute supplies. She arrived well before closing time however by the time 10pm rolled around she had not finished getting all the items she needed. That's when the trouble started. First the manager came rudely over to announce that they were closed, as if my sister wasn't aware of that by just looking around. Then they proceeded to stalk and harass her and at one point even attempted to prevent her from getting something that she wanted, because they wanted to hustle her to the cashier to cash out.
My sister was very troubled, needless to say and disturbed by the treatment, both verbal and silent dished out to her. She didn't forget to tell them what she thought of it, but they were heedless and stubborn, never once apologizing for their treatment of her.
She would like to say that she wouldn't go back to that grocery, but there aren't many choices in our area, so more than likely she will have to go there and so will we.
Now, I understand that grocery staff need to leave as soon as or soon after the clock strikes closing time, fair enough, but surely the situation could have been handled with a little more finesse, and a lot more courtesy, whether or not my sister is a frequent customer there, which by the way, she is. For one thing, the store needs to have a stated policy about what happens from 15 min before closing time if it is indeed their hope to leave exactly on the hour that is stated on the door. Although, clearly that ideal is impossible anyway. However for argument's sake, let's assume that is what they want to do. Then they should close the door at 9:45pm and not at 10:00pm. Leaving the door open means that anyone can come in, and should be allowed to shop until they are satisfied they have all they need, UNLESS a specific policy is stated and known to the customers about closing time, or unless, an announcement is made to kindly inform shoppers that closing time is in 15 minutes and they need to bring their items to the cashier immediately or within 5 minutes or something like that. If they do not state this, they have no business harassing any shoppers to hustle them out of the store. Yet even, for argument's sake, let's say they did announce this, and a shopper did not heed the announcement...maybe they were hearing-impaired, you never know, then what should have been done, is to kindly let the customer know that closing time was announced and ask them if there was any way they could be helped to complete their shopping in a timely manner. This way, the shopper does not go away with the idea that this store does not care about its customers and the store personnel can get home as early as possible. Antagonizing a customer will only prolong the torture for both parties, since they are more likely to stand and express their discontent, thus spending even more time in the store than they would normally have, and then they also may take longer to finish because they have been harassed to the point where they have to think longer about what they need to get etc etc. So, clearly, everything points to the management adopting a more proactive approach to ensure both the customer and the store personnel remain happy. I wonder if any business in T&T will ever get it right? We can always hope.

DirecTV - finally freed!

I must say quite honestly I will miss the reruns of some cool shows like The Nanny and Seinfeld etc which air on the Sony channels of DirecTV and of course I will miss American Idol, which only just started back...that show is not over-rated. (Come on Columbus Cable or whatever your name is, bring us Fox!) But I will not miss the exorbitant monthly fee for basic service and the 'per-box' monthly rental and I will definitely not miss the bondage of an annual contract! I will miss the "guide" which was really cool. I kinda liked being able to pre-select certain TV shows and also to lock the box so it wouldn't switch channels! However, these minor conveniences are not worth the extra money or the iron-clad contract which DirecTV is free to break but the customer is not. I say this because when I signed up, I was shown a list of channels which I would have access to, and then a few months into the contract, they abruptly deleted some channels from my service without even the courtesy of a letter of apology/notification for the change.
I will also not miss the "Spanish-language-only" content on some of the channels, and not being able to predict when this will happen, or the lack of "Alt audio" even when it is supposed to be available. And I will definitely NOT miss the Spanish subtitles in my face all the time! I have nothing against Spanish. In fact, I would like to learn it a bit more, but not while I'm watching TV!