KARACHI, June 20: Citizens, especially those coming to pay their utility bills, complained that they suffer a lot due to slackness in customer care at Gulshan-i-Iqbal post office.

Though the depositors of utility bills are generally taken as granted everywhere, as despite court orders very few utility-bill collecting facilities provide shady places and drinking water to their customers, the problems of customers go aggravated when concerned staff comes late on their duty.

When this scribe visited the Gulshan-i-Iqbal post office on Saturday at 9am majority of its staff was on duty, but not the utility bills collector. Some half a dozen customers, including senior citizens, were waiting there to get their utility bills paid. Around 9:15am, some junior staffers of post office informally told this scribe that the concerned clerk was perhaps late or absent today and the customers had to wait till his replacement was found. But this waiting went prolonged, despite sufferings of customers waiting under scorching heat.

By 9:40, when this scribe contacted Senior Post Master Mr Pervez, he regretted that customers were suffering due to absence of an employee. He said that he himself was on a dual charge and preoccupied with some urgent official matter. He said that in fact he did not know about the situation at utility bill collection desk, as no one had yet complained to him.

He said that normally the utility-bill collection started by 9am but it was unfortunate that the concerned clerk had not reported on duty that day. He said that he was always eager to solve the problems of customers. He promised to arrange a substitute clerk within five minutes so that utility bill collection could be started. An alternate man was indeed arranged within no time, when this courteous office raised a hell, and well before the promised five minutes the work of utility bill collection began.

However, many customers were not happy with the performance of the post office. They charged that the utility bill collecting staff often came late and precious time of customers was being wasted.

A man, an employee of a private firm, said that he came early in anticipation to deposit his utility bills before leaving for work, but his precious time went wasted.

Other customers said that it was not only the post office to blame as the general performance of all government offices was not satisfactory.

They agreed that being a human being the concerned employee might be facing with some problems or emergency, “he might have a nagging wife or a sick child at home”, but it was the job of administration to provide alternate arrangements in case of absence of any employee to keep the things rolling.

The utility bill collection work provides a certain amount of commission/ service charge on every bill to the utility bill collecting bodies. During the late start of work at the Gulshan-i-Iqbal post office many disappointed customers left to the nearest bank branches to deposit their bills, hence this government-run institution not only suffered in terms of reputation but also revenue.

The customers suggested that all public-dealing institutions should ensure that their counters like utility bill collection desks should open strictly on their proper timing to save precious time of customers.—PPI