Complaints rise for utility's gas and electricity divisions February 7, 2002

BY MELANIE D. SCOTT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Detroit Edison customer Diane Hutcherson is sick of excuses.

The Detroit resident has been without power for almost a week, and is fed up with the lack of customer service.

The Michigan Public Service Commission started investigating the utility's parent company, DTE Energy Co., on Wednesday after it got a flood of complaints about shoddy service and billing problems from other Detroit Edison and MichCon customers. MichCon became a DTE Energy subsidiary in June.

The commission received 168 more complaints about the utilities between Dec. 1, 2001, and Jan. 25 than they got in the same period last year, said commission spokeswoman Mary Jo Kunkle.

Commission officials said complaints covered billing errors, the length of time customers waited before speaking to representatives and other problems.

The commission ordered DTE to submit a report by March 6 and address problems that resulted in 480,000 MichCon customers getting January bills that contained errors, the number of service representatives and the average consumer waiting time.

After viewing the report, the commission will meet with DTE officials to discuss solutions.

"We fully intend to work with the commission to resolve these issues," said DTE spokesman Scott Simons. "We've already implemented some things and are working to have a long-term plan in place."

The company is committed to improving service by lowering the average telephone waiting time to 90 seconds in the next four weeks and having representatives on the phones for three more hours each evening, Simons said.

"While we commend Detroit Edison and Michigan Consolidated Gas for the efforts they have undertaken to notify the public about service quality issues, we continue to be concerned about the significant increase in consumer complaints, billing problems and changes in policy that resulted in shutoffs for some consumers," commission chairwoman Laura Chappelle said in a statement.

While Detroit Edison officials said Wednesday that all customers had power again, there were lingering complaints about partial electricity or no electricity at all.

"I just sent the payment and they cashed my check," said Hutcherson. "I pay because I want the service, so I expect service. They would not want excuses from me if I didn't pay."

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-- Anonymous, February 07, 2002