NEWS: COMED CLIENTS BLOW A FUSE OVER BILL SNAFUS

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While not local news, this will serve as an example, and is an important story that may make for the generation of some locally flavored "electro-centric" investigative reporting...

This piece was forwarded by Harlan Smith today...(We can only hope the URL is still alive.)

The original story is (was?) located here: http://chicagotribune.com/splash/article/0,1051,SAV-9811140099,00.html

[snip]

COMED CLIENTS BLOW A FUSE OVER BILL SNAFUS

By Cornelia Grumman
Tribune Staff Writer
November 14, 1998

Problems with a new multimillion-dollar billing system have left thousands of Commonwealth Edison's commercial and industrial customers confused, angry and worried they might face power cutoffs.

Regular monthly electricity bills never arrive, and in other cases, months go by with no bill, then customers suddenly get socked with a whopper. Late fees are slapped on bills that were never paid because they never arrived. Worse, many businesses and building managers are receiving notices that their power is about to be shut off because of non-payment.

"Edison's billing system is a mess," said Martin Cohen, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board watchdog group. "There are all sorts of bugs in the software, and customers are very frustrated by their inability to get accurate information or real bills with real numbers they can understand."

CUB's phone lines have been flooded in recent weeks by complaints from both commercial and residential customers, Cohen said. The Illinois Commerce Commission, which oversees the state's utilities, also has received a rash of billing complaints, according to spokeswoman Beth Bosch.

ComEd acknowledges the problems and even has returned to its old system--one that had been in place for 35 years--for 7,000 of its larger customers.

The troubles have put a strain on the company's cash flow by as much as $200 million a month, or three times normal levels for delayed billing, said William Downey, vice president of customer operations. [lot's more]



-- Bill (billdale@lakesnet.net), November 14, 1998


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