Paying lip service

The number of times I have written to CAL to report the loss of my PIN or to ask them to issue me a ticket is innumerable. I have explained the situation; I have provided them with my account number, yet the stock answer: no PIN, no ticket, as if I was writing to a robot. Absolutely no customer service, no guidance on how to go about retrieving the PIN or how to apply for a new one. Complete disinterest is all I get from the airline, though I have continued to be a loyal customer: I took a CAL flight from London to Port-of-Spain last September and this year I have purchased two tickets for flights to and from the US. But my loyalty is of no bearing. Little wonder that the airline is in the state it is! It could care not a whit about its customers.

Well, after this year I shall be flying CAL no more and I have ceased using the credit card by which I earned all those miles. I’ll be wasting no more of my money on the airline, nor do I see the point of purchasing items with the credit card so I can gain miles. I wonder if the banks who issue these cards know that their clients are getting short shrift from CAL. Nor will I be writing any further letters to CAL requesting tickets or assistance. I’ve been cheated of my miles on a technicality.

I understand the need to protect the client by asking for the PIN, but at the very least I should have been told how I could go about rectifying the situation. What CAL has done to me would be akin to a bank telling a client who had forgotten the PIN of his or her debit card that the funds in the account are no longer available to them. So, CAL please take me off your mailing list — your adverts and greeting cards serve only to annoy me.

I would have also liked to appeal to bmobile to stop sending me regular play whe, pick two, pick four, cash pot and lotto results, which reduce my credit balance, but I realise that I will be wasting my time. I play none of these games and thus I have no need for regular updates. I recently put $40 on a phone I recently bought and though I have not yet used the phone to call or text anyone the balance now stands at $26. I have tried on several occasions to stop these messages from being sent to me, but on each, bmobile’s response is “The previous request could not be processed.” So, a service I have neither solicited nor desire is robbing me daily of money and I am absolutely helpless to stop the relentless thievery, thus twice a day I am forced to receive information that is of absolutely no use to me. I have put away the phone and have decided to purchase one from the competition. Let bmobile take the $26, but it will be getting no more of my hard earned money.

I am certain that I am not the only customer who is losing money from these daily announcements and promotions. Indeed, I have been told by more than one person that they are bombarded with texts by bmobile, texts for which they must pay. How could this be fair or legal? I wonder if the Consumer Affairs Division, a consumer protection agency which offers advice and assistance to all citizens of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and which comes under the purview of the Ministry of Legal Affairs is cognizant of the money bmobile is making from these transactions. Surely such abuse of clients should be of interest to them. On behalf of all of the customers that receive bmobile’s regular texts which are reducing their account credit I am requesting that they investigate these “customer services.”

As for CAL, I am appealing to the airline’s management to review its policies with regard to the use of miles. At the very least, the airline must assist customers who have lost either their PIN or account numbers. There must be a viable solution of some sort to that which is an understandable and not unusual scenario, but it has become clear to me that CAL doesn’t care to find one. So please, spare me the ads!

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