Shelly-Ann Thompson, Staff Reporter

A Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) customer got the shock of her life yesterday when she received an electricity bill from the light and power company for more than $400,000.

The customer's electricity charges for a 29-day period amounted to $398,589.44, with a balance brought forward of $2,719.93, due to be paid by September 26.

The woman, a resident of Portmore, St Catherine, lives alone and works off the island six days per month.

She told The Gleaner that some days, she reports to work at 4:00 a.m. and gets home the earliest 5:30 p.m., often working overtime until 8:30 at nights.

"This is just ridiculous," the customer said, noting that the electrical appliances she owns are a refrigerator, a fan and a 14-inch television.

The bill is an actual meter reading and shows fuel and IPP (Independent Power Providers) charges of more than $257,000.

Mocked

The disturbed customer reported the matter to The Gleaner after, she claims, being mocked by a telephone operator who answered the power company's toll-free line.

"When I called them about the bill, they behaved as if I was lying," she said.

"All they said was that they will investigate and that they will put a stop order so it's (the power) not disconnected," she added.

Winsome Callum, head of corporate communication at JPS, acknowledged that an incorrect bill was issued to the woman.

The customer was given an indefinite time frame by the operator for the completion of the investigation, but Callum told The Gleaner within an hour that a JPS employee was at fault.

"Our checks have revealed that this bill was not actually issued to the customer in the normal bill-delivery process," she said.

Abnormally high

Callum claimed the bill had been identified as abnormally high by the billing system, and was actually being checked as part of the usual process of checks and balances.

"However, it appears that on the request of the customer for a bill, one of our customer-service agents emailed the erroneous bill to the customer, not realising that the bill had been pulled for investigation."

The Gleaner last night received a copy of what Callum said was the woman's corrected bill.

The corrected bill, now due on September 29, amounts to $2,229.42.

Less than two weeks ago, residents of Portmore, St Catherine, protested against their escalating electricity bills.

Earlier this week, residents of Montego Bay, St James, descended on JPS's offices, complaining about unusually high electri-city bills.

Callum said: "It is very unfortunate that this sort of bill has gone out when people have been getting high bills due to high petrol prices."

shelly-ann.thompson@gleanerjm.com.