Following the public’s reaction to the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Electricity Services’ recent measures related to unpaid bill balances throughout the country, CEO of the company Dr. Vaughn Lewis says they don’t want public panic.
Dr. Lewis, who was at the time speaking on WE FM’s Issue At Hand program, said that the company does not want customers to be fearful but instead want to create an environment where they can work together.
“We want a responsive customer, to the debt, but we don’t want public panic and we don’t want persons to be, you know, stuck in long lines for very long periods of time feeling that the big bad wolf is coming to get them. You know, you can look at it two ways, we do need to collect those resources to function properly, at the same time we—I definitely didn’t anticipate some of the responses that I’ve seen over social media,” he said.
Dr. Lewis also noted that the majority of customers affected by the company’s disconnection measures have since settled their bills.
“The number of disconnections that we’ve done is definitely less than two percent and the majority of persons who were disconnected did settle their bills. So we had a greater drive but I think being in the news, the drive, the social media response in particular in relation to the work we have done has had a greater impact than definitely I anticipated,” he said.
Vinlec’s CEO reiterated that the company does not want customers being inconvenienced and scared of Vinlec but encouraged customers to work along with the company to discuss how best they can work together to reduce outstanding debt.
