Your Utility Company Could Owe You Money — Here’s How to Claim It

Your utility company could owe you money!

We’re always hearing about the money customers owe utility companies. But sometimes, the utility actually owes YOU.

According to the Office of Utilities Regulation, customers received more than 20 million Jamaican dollars in credits and compensation during the April-to-June quarter. That’s about 125-thousand US dollars.

Nearly 9 million JMD came through the OUR’s intervention in customer complaints.

And the other JMD 11 million was paid by NWC under its Guaranteed Standards.

Those are service requirements that can trigger compensation when a utility breaches them, subject to the applicable conditions.

For NWC customers, the standards cover things like wrongful disconnection, responding to written complaints, faulty meters and certain billing problems.

So if something goes wrong, don’t assume your only option is to complain and move on.

Ask whether the problem qualifies for compensation.

Here’s where people can miss out: some payments should happen automatically, while others require a claim.

And compensation generally means a credit to your account. It doesn’t necessarily mean somebody is handing you cash.

Keep your bills, payment receipts, complaint reference numbers and the dates you contacted the company.

Report the problem to your provider and ask which Guaranteed Standard applies, whether you need a claim form, and what deadline you must meet.

If the company doesn’t resolve your complaint satisfactorily, you can take it to the OUR.

Now not every outage or service problem qualifies. But customer service standards are supposed to have consequences when companies fail to meet them.

And that’s the bottom line.

Have you ever received compensation from a utility company—or is this the first you’re hearing about it?