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Saturday, May 10, 2008

Electronic Gas Meters Infuriate Customers



      Someone in management needs to walk down the hall and have a talk with the folks in customer service. Word apparently hasn't filtered down to the service reps that Public Service Company of New Mexico has been insisting it needs a rate increase.
       You'd think the power company would be trying to win friends among customers as it attempts to make its case with regulators. Instead, PNM has hardly lifted a finger to help customers who became guinea pigs in a troubled pilot project with electronic gas meters. Installed at 1,366 homes and buildings where meter readers have had difficulty reaching conventional meters, the new ones can be read from the street. It's a great idea — except the readings were wrong on 439 of them — for up to a year.
       This is exactly why you have a customer service department. Someone needed to explain to the guinea pigs that their bills had been too low and — “we certainly apologize for any inconvenience” — a surcharge was being added for the last six months — the longest period for which a utility can back-bill.
       Susan Valdez did not have that experience. In a letter to the Journal, she said, “I must have spent 20 minutes dialing and re-dialing, pushing different buttons” before giving up on customer service. PNM's emergency number led her to a service rep she says suggested she pay her $200 surcharge with her economic stimulus check. “How dare they!” wrote Valdez, who lives on a fixed income.
       PNM does not appear to have monitored its pilot program very well, or prepared its service reps to help customers through the rough spots. Any expansion of electronic metering should wait until monitoring and customer service are strengthened.
      

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