5 Things Only a Trini Customer Will Understand

1. “We out of that!” and by ‘that,’ meaning everything you wanted off that menu. Far too many times at local food establishments, the attendant offers an unpalatable response that the ‘much-eyed-dish’ is not in stock and they are happy and most willing to substitute it with a lower quality product, and of course at the same price.

1. The ghost service counters at the banks seem to be a plague in T&T. Have you ever gone into the bank on a month’s end and noticed that you are standing at the top of the line for some thirty minutes and there are five plus counters but strangely just one attendant? Chances of being waited on any time soon seem like waiting for a message in a bottle on a deserted island.

1. At times you may feel like you are in a live video game when being serviced. After exhausting all the self-restraint superpowers, from reacting to the previous long wait and the fact that they no longer have the item that you wanted in stock, you are now faced with round three of the customer service battle. At this point your video game screen shows that your life is on the line and it is the crucial part, where you either choose from the limited options or meet your fate. You are forced to swallow the lump of whatever has gone before and then suddenly you get a, ‘Hadoken move,’ when the customer service representative,‘gives you attitude,’ or is most upset about you standing there to place this order. Do you mutter a few forbidden words or peacefully smile and just leave with something close to what you wanted?

1. Sometimes in a mad dash through traffic, daring to drive through the seedy streets that ‘Waze,’ directs you through, you still happen to arrive at your store destination. You have won the race and gotten that golden, parking spot and like a champion you march towards the doors of the store to purchase your winnings, yet to your horror, the doors wouldn’t open. As your eyes travel downwards in dismay, you suddenly notice a small sign saying closed and another one with the store’s operating hours…8am-4pm. With great doubt about the time, you check your watch to verify whether your driving skills were compromised and notice that it is only 3:30pm. “Is this sign carrying Chinese time?” you wonder.

1. Another classic moment happens when you painstakingly pick the perfect piece in the store and purchase it, however upon arriving home to use it you realize that it is damaged. Indeed the law of the land entitles a customer the opportunity to exchange or obtain a refund but when you reach to the counter you are transferred from one supervisor to another. At times it feels like you’re a football being whacked around Messi-styled, by customer service representatives with strange foreign accents. Other times you leave the store with the replaced item feeling like you have committed an offense by exchanging the damaged merchandise. After sales service seems so rare in these parts.