My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica: 74 Percent increase in FLOW Jamaica problems to OUR - FLOW's infrastructure problems as Digicel Fibre is coming

Thursday, October 15, 2015

74 Percent increase in FLOW Jamaica problems to OUR - FLOW's infrastructure problems as Digicel Fibre is coming

Sometimes as a CEO of a company, you have to be careful what you wish for.

FLOW Jamaica is now facing a 74% increase in complaints during the Second Quarter of 2015 reported in the article “74 Per Cent Increase In Complaints Against Flow ... OUR Summons Company”, published Wednesday October 14, 2015, The Jamaica Gleaner.

You know when it's serious when customer complains about their service results in them being called by the OUR (Office of Utilities Regulation) for a meeting on Friday October 15th 2015 as reported in the article “OUR, FLOW to meet as customer complaints increase”, published Wednesday, October 14, 2015, The Jamaica Observer.   

So what exactly are the complaints against FLOW Jamaica?

Customer complains to OUR about FLOW Jamaica - Analysis by the numbers

A few weeks prior CEO of FLOW Garry Sinclair had stated on via live video chat on Monday October 5th 2015 FLOW Jamaica’s position of not offering Rebates to customer for lost Cable channels as noted in the article “Why Flow Will Not Rebate Customers For Lost Cable Channels”, published Monday October 5, 2015 by Damion Mitchell, Editor - Radio & Online, The Jamaica Gleaner.  

He might have to reconsider those statements! The complaints to the OUR mainly relate to the following:

1.      Billing matters
2.      Disputed
3.      Dropped calls
4.      Poor quality of service
5.      Service disruptions

Broken down, from January 1st 2015 to September 30th 2015 over three Quarters, the complaints to the OUR read as thus:

1.      400 contacts from FLOW customers
2.      20 related to broadband service
3.      360 complaints from LIME customers for mobile, Internet and landline services

So what's causing the increase in complains?

74 Percent increase in FLOW Jamaica problems to OUR - FLOW's infrastructure problems as Digicel Fibre is coming

FLOW Jamaica, the new name for LIME Jamaica after they had done their Caribbean-wide rebranding on Friday August 31st 2015 as reported in the article “New FLOW Launched In Jamaica - Company Details Plans For Heavy Investment”, published Monday September 7, 2015, The Jamaica Gleaner, has not bought the company more love.

They'd done a survey in December 2014 that told them that across the Caribbean FLOW was a name associated with positive feeling and that their old name wasn't cool as noted in my Geezam blog article entitled “LIME Jamaica Goes with the FLOW thanks to Caribbean-wide Survey”.

However, the requirement to block some nineteen (19) Cable channels and the result price hike as reported in my blog article entitled “FLOW increases Cable Package prices - 19 channel removal on MNP, LNP Day as Summer of 2015 for Streaming and Downloading”  apparently did not sit well with a lot of FLOW customers.

But LIME will have very little time to rest.

Not only do they have to fix FLOW's Network, but they'll also have to upgrade to a Fiber Optic Network to compete with the coming of Digicel Fiber as I'd predicted in my Geezam blog article entitled “Digicel Sportsmax NBA deal means fiber and 4G LTE coming this year”.


LIME Jamaica, or Cable and Wireless, in taking on the name FLOW Jamaica, has also taken on the problems of the previous company now magnified by the removal of Choice Cable Channels and having to pay more for poor quality service.   


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