Living in IT hell in Trinidad and Tobago
In this column, I recently wrote about the pointlessness of comparing Bajans and Trinis.To enter TT, everyone requires a digital TTravel Pass, which can be printed or saved to a mobile electronic device. Without it, you cannot board an aircraft.It took me just over an hour the night before my return trip to Trinidad last month to complete the exercise, because the online interface is inadequate, the form torturous, and the ministry’s website upload and download speeds too slow to cope with the demand.It is not to say that our public and private sectors cannot manage digital technology successfully, but the difference in efficiency is staggering.
It took several months of repeatedly trying before securing an online appointment to renew my six-months-expired driver’s permit.But at least the Ministry of Works and Transport website interface is friendly, simple and efficient. The NIB process for online payments, a year ago when I last ventured onto it, would challenge any scholarship winner.
The TSTT/bmobile online payment system is beyond useless if you have to pay more than one account at the same time. After nearly two years of erroneous credits while other accounts remained unpaid, I figured out that their system cannot handle more than a single transaction at a time.
On the other hand, T&TEC offers a variety of quick automated payment methods, and WASA is very on the ball when it comes to collecting my direct-debit payments quarterly, even if there is no water in the mains, the water is the colour of mud when there is, and the filter is full of brown slush.
The banking sector, which has some very happy shareholders, is among the worst operators of digital technology. There is a litany of failures, exacerbated by the pandemic – branch and credit-card customer services are understaffed, interbank payments frequently disappear without explanation, inter-account payments (at my bank at least) now happen a day later, etc, etc. Our banks are pushing customers towards online banking, but they are as under prepared as we are.
My bank – Republic– recently introduced the worst of all new online banking systems, and, like the TT Travel Pass, it demands too much information. Now, to set up a new payee, you must have the person’s ID information, which many people refuse to give, so we have to revert to cheques. Progress!Digitalisation and automation are meant to be advantageous, but we have not caught up with the rest of the world in understanding their true purpose or mastering them.
While we don’t, Trinis endure a living IT hell.
It took several months of repeatedly trying before securing an online appointment to renew my six-months-expired driver’s permit.But at least the Ministry of Works and Transport website interface is friendly, simple and efficient. The NIB process for online payments, a year ago when I last ventured onto it, would challenge any scholarship winner.
The TSTT/bmobile online payment system is beyond useless if you have to pay more than one account at the same time. After nearly two years of erroneous credits while other accounts remained unpaid, I figured out that their system cannot handle more than a single transaction at a time.
On the other hand, T&TEC offers a variety of quick automated payment methods, and WASA is very on the ball when it comes to collecting my direct-debit payments quarterly, even if there is no water in the mains, the water is the colour of mud when there is, and the filter is full of brown slush.
The banking sector, which has some very happy shareholders, is among the worst operators of digital technology. There is a litany of failures, exacerbated by the pandemic – branch and credit-card customer services are understaffed, interbank payments frequently disappear without explanation, inter-account payments (at my bank at least) now happen a day later, etc, etc. Our banks are pushing customers towards online banking, but they are as under prepared as we are.
My bank – Republic– recently introduced the worst of all new online banking systems, and, like the TT Travel Pass, it demands too much information. Now, to set up a new payee, you must have the person’s ID information, which many people refuse to give, so we have to revert to cheques. Progress!Digitalisation and automation are meant to be advantageous, but we have not caught up with the rest of the world in understanding their true purpose or mastering them.
While we don’t, Trinis endure a living IT hell.
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