By Terry Nisbett
I like paying my bills. I enjoy the experience. I personally pay my bills standing in line at the cable, electricity and water companies. Lots of humour, camaraderie and good advice often swirl around those lines. There is often a display of the helpful side of human nature too. “Granny, give me the bill.” I have often heard younger persons say as they use their place in the line to help much older persons get out faster and avoid standing for a long time. In some places now, though, there is a special line for senior citizens and persons with disabilities; seating is also provided for them.
I enjoy listening to the joking and teasing that spill out when friends and neighbours meet. “If I knew you were going to be in here, I would’ve made you pay mine too.” Sometimes although everybody is in town paying bills, someone would tell a friend, “Martha Simmonds, you can’t keep outta town.” One of the best responses I have heard is, “I here paying my bills because I too old to head water and I too old to light candle.” That is funny, but it is also a concise assessment of the consequences of not paying the bill as well as a philosophical acceptance that improving your standard of living comes with a cost. Getting water from the community stand-pipe is free and using candles would certainly be cheaper than using electric lights, but the speaker appreciates even more her comfort over the freeness and the cost saving, especially at her age. There are things to learn when standing in line paying bills.
Because many people would have similar dates when the bills are due and because some bills tend to be due close to the end of the month, you can find yourself in a group of people whom you meet again and again from one line to the next at the different utility companies. Like you, they have decided to pay all the bills that morning or that afternoon. You recognise the person, who was behind you at the cable office, ahead of you in the line at the electricity company. The standard joke for that one is: “Are you following me around?” or “I meet you again?” The other day, a young man who, like me, was paying bills at the cable and electricity companies, turned to me and anticipating the next line we would be in said, “Don’t tell me you are going to water next?” I said, “Yes.” Basseterre is small and the offices to get to are all walking distance away so if most people are determined to pay off their major utilities in an hour or two, they are bound to meet the same faces wherever they go.
I know that you are thinking – an hour or two – instead of five minutes in the other type of line, that is, online at my computer. I could save time paying online it is true, but I am at the computer often enough already. I have to see some faces and I like to hear people talk and interact. The things people say and do make it seem like you are hearing one big calypso. Apart from the humour and friendliness, some bill payers could be unreasonable; they could show their annoyance and they could expect special treatment. That is part of the experience. It allows you to observe different personalities, various aspects of human nature at work. When they are disgruntled, bill payers can give an accurate assessment of the current failings of the particular company. Definite on the spot feedback better expressed than anything dropped in the suggestion box. Some of the observations reveal how the company reacts to customers. Over time, you can observe more space in the customer service area, more modern technology employed and additions such as the seating and priority attention for seniors and persons with disabilities. Those improvements make you feel the customer is appreciated and you pay your bill even more willingly.
I will confess that there is one instance where I use the electronic line instead. Although I still go in to pay my telephone bill personally, I use the payment kiosks rather than stand in line. The line doesn’t look like fun anymore. The customer space is reconfigured and there is hardly space for the bill paying line. There are so many other people in the same space doing other transactions. The atmosphere has changed. I don’t hear the banter and chatter. It wasn’t unusual to hear someone ask, “Well how is Gregory?” And the reply: “Boy he was here last week. He just gone back.” I know that the new space is meant to make the customers more comfortable. I am aware too that it is meant to eliminate or at least reduce the line for bill payment. It has not happened yet. Customers still seem to choose the line instead of the kiosks. The line remains but I have dropped out of that one. I am sure the company is happy about that. I will have to take my observations elsewhere or when I drop in to use the kiosks I could stay awhile to observe the resilience of the line and how the use of the kiosks is faring.
I might be one of the few persons who can glean some enjoyment out of the bill paying experience. Like the customer who prefers paying for her electricity rather than using candles, I tell myself if I used the services then I should expect to pay for them. I do query unusual totals and charges, however. Even walking from one company to another, I count as going towards my daily requirement for exercise. It is just a matter of my unusual bill paying attitude. I have somehow found something else in the lines of customers paying bills other than the expected resignation or annoyance.
