OUR rakes in $160m for customers
Published:Thursday | December 28, 2023 | 12:12 AM
The Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) has reported that $160 million was secured for utility customers during the January to September 2023 period.
Of this amount, 99 per cent was secured via the guaranteed standard, and the remaining one per cent was secured through the OUR’s direct intervention.
Ansord Hewitt, director general, OUR, made the disclosure during the company’s Central Focus engagement, which was held online through a Zoom meeting on December 13.
That meeting had a focus on community interests primarily in the parishes of St Elizabeth, Manchester, and Clarendon.
He said the OUR has also continued its own direct intervention from time to time to resolve complaints and mystery-shopping investigations.
“Some of you would have seen the release of our latest annual mystery-shopping fidnings. It is designed to monitor the customer service levels delivered to consumers by JPS, the NWC, Digicel, FLOW, the majors. The score represents an average of in-store score, the call centre, online chats, chat box, and mobile apps, with a comparative view of scores obtained during peak and off-peak periods,” he said.
From the mystery shopping, Hewitt said the top utility performer was FLOW at 65 per cent, followed by Digicel at 59 per cent, the JPS at 55 per cent, and the NWC at 43 per cent.
“These figures are not great. Nothing to crow about there, and we continue to dialogue with the utilities about aspects of our findings where they have been found wanting,” he said.