Credit where it is due

As told to BC Pires

My name is Subash Mootoor and I help people when they lose their credit cards in a foreign country.

I’m from Tunapuna, born and bred. Just south of the Main Road. Maybe five minutes’ drive from the market. You could walk from where I live to the market. But you wouldn’t.

I also spent about three years of my life in Canada, as a child.

I come from a really big extended family. My parents have nine siblings. On each side. Dozens of cousins is right.

My own direct family is small, though. One sibling, my brother Rudra, currently in the US. Most of my parents Krish and Vashti’s siblings have one or two kids themselves.

I’m currently single, unmarried and don’t think I want children.

Not because I think the world is in a bad way. I just don’t think I’m cut out for it.

I much rather have a dog.

I went to El Dorado Hindu Primary and Hillview College, my first choice from Common Entrance, not SEA.

I started a first degree I didn’t like and then I started to work a summer job at the bank. Work paid me and the degree did not. So work got the better of it.

My summer job was my first – and only – job. I’ve had different roles, different bosses, but always in the same company.

I don’t regret not finishing my first degree. I have just got my MBA from Bedfordshire University!

When I realised covid was going to last a while – and I was getting fed-up binge-watching TV – the idea of going back to education came up. I could go straight to a one-year MBA because of my managerial experience.

Covid took all the things I liked – going out to dinner and for drinks; going to the beach and gym; travelling – away from me immediately.

Covid changed how I worked too. Our big team in one central location in Chaguanas split up and I took a team with me to St Augustine. Just to keep people apart, in case someone became infected.

Since then we have kind of re-emerged, but I spend most days working from home.

I was raised in Hinduism and remain a believer.

I (reconcile) my belief in a loving god with the suffering I witness in the world through karma. God didn’t create this. We did.

I guess I’d have to go along with BC Pires saying I give God a free pass, but understanding my religion, I look at the bigger picture.

I’ve travelled to 16 countries and to every continent but Australia. I

love that my organisation insists you must take your vacation every year – and I love that the reason is (to ensure) mental health.

I’ve capitalised on that. By breaking up my 21 business days annual holiday, coupled with the huge amount of public holidays we have, it’s very easy to travel far.

I do all my bookings myself through Expedia and I’ve figured out which airports are cheaper, how to use air miles and things.

I loved Thailand, Italy, Spain, the UK, India, Dubai, the US and Canada.

I’ve been to Kenya, the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands. Also Venezuela, Guyana, Grenada, Mexico.

But I have not reached Barbados yet. All I ever saw of Barbados was the airport. From the aeroplane window.

I love Carnival. I’ve played mas ten times in Trinidad. Mostly with Tribe & Bliss but I started with Poison.

I manage a team of 18 agents who handle lost credit cards. I was an agent once myself.

When people get in touch with us, they are usually very stressed because they’ve just lost their credit card.

And I will say this because I always find it’s true: an angry person is usually angry with themselves. At the back of their mind, they’re like, “Yeah, this is really my fault!” I lost the card! But, of course, we’re not getting paid to tell you, “Hey, you should be angry with yourself!” We’re paid to help.

Once the lost/stolen card is blocked, the other needful things can happen.

When a client is in distress, regardless of the reason, we show that we are there. We get the replacement card to the client, wherever in the world they are, in a week. It could be shorter, depending on the situation in (the replacement card-supplying and client-destination) countries.

When you pay your membership fee, this is what you’re paying for: the support of the bank when the worst happens.

Android phones? Oh, no, no, no, no. No. Use an iPhone. Please.

Because a lot of our banking is now online, you’ll find that clients who call in to us are usually not yet engaged in that digital space or they’re calling for a client irritant, something that has gone bad or wrong.

Roughly ten or 20 per cent of our clients would be calling in already frustrated or annoyed. Sometimes it’s our fault and we have to make it right for that client. It could get quite complex depending on the nature of the complaint or irritant.

The best part of my job is twofold: making clients happy; but also the employee experience.

I have to jump in with clients who would just have been speaking with an agent. And very quickly marry both ends or sides (of the issue).

So for me, the best part is knowing both the client and the agent are left happy, both feeling comfortable, supported and satisfied.

The bad part of my job is, before you get to the good part, you have to go through “the journey.”

It can lead to a lot of frustration. A lot of interesting words.

I don’t take expletives personally, like a lot of other people, because we live in a world where profanity is “a thing.” Every single TV show, on Netflix, it’s there!

When a customer uses profanity, it’s not (aimed personally at) me. It’s how they express themselves.

I remind them, “Hey, this is a professional space and I’m sure you wouldn’t want your call to be recorded (with you) using that sort of language. I understand you’re frustrated. Allow me to help you.”

Sometimes I may need to review a call with the agent concerned.

“This is where you went wrong. This is where you could do better. Let’s fix this so it doesn’t happen again.”

Music is absolutely huge in my life and I listen to diverse forms. My spiritual music, of course, bhajans.

But also 80s rock music, soca, old school calypso like Sparrow, that era.

And I love very old music like the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel.

But I can also pick up a rag and jump around the place when a Machel song comes up on my gym playlist.

My favourite song in life is John Lennon’s Imagine. If I had a hope for the human race it would be: “Imagine all the people living life as one.”

(In that John Lennon sense) I will consider myself a dreamer.

A Trini is someone who is very open-minded to everything: different religions, different cultures, different foods, everything. Christians lighting deyas for Divali. Hindus going to mosque. We’ll have macaroni pie and curry chicken.

And from all those cultures, Trinis create something that is totally our own. Like doubles, pelau and dhalpuri roti.

I’ve been to India three times. You can’t find a (handheld) roti like ours anywhere!

I truly believe that Trinidad and Tobago is the place where that dream that I have of John Lennon’s Imagine (coming true) will manifest.

Read the full version of this feature on Saturday at www.BCPires.com