My Unbiased Opinion

Lane Column: Resolution rates on informal complaints are 98 percent The statistic that astounds me yearly at the Public Service Commission of West Virginia is our ability to settle thousands of cases on an informal basis and without resorting to lawyers or litigation of any kind. Our most recent report shows that we received more than nine-thousand-five-hundred informal complaints last year. These types of complaints happen when you have experienced a service interruption, when the service you have is poor, when you can’t get ser-vice, or if you have a billing issue that you cannot get resolved. You want to talk with somebody about it. You have attempted to resolve your issue directly with the company and received no resolution. And then you call us. Our agency’s telephone number is located on your utility bills and notices. You want to air your grievance, but you’re not sure you want to go through what can be a long, and possibly pricy, process through our formal case procedure. We have a much faster and much simpler system set up, and that is the informal complaints process. We have two highly dedicated groups of consumer affairs specialists to help you. They are called CAS for short. You begin by filing your informal complaint with the CAS. You share your problem by telephone, letter, or online filing, and what you would like as a resolution. We take it from there. The specialist contacts the utility involved, shares your complaint issues, and works towards a positive resolution if one can be reached between the parties. These people are very good at their work. How do I know? Well, of the 9,506 informal complaints filed with us last year, they resolved 98 percent. That is an astounding resolution rate and a true credit to their abilities. These specialists dealt with complaints involving water, electric, telephones, sewer, cable and gas. And let me give you an idea of the number of individual complaints. More than 3,200 came last year in electric power complaints. Another 2,700 came in water cases. Telephones accounted for 1,400. The rest were at smaller levels, but I think you get the idea. So, as always, if you have a complaint, I, and the Commission, are here to help. But on the way to the PSC, you may want to save all of us a little time by seeing if one of the consumer affairs specialists might be able to help make life easier for you.