"Huh? Excuse you?" That was my first thought when I got the letter on Saturday (when their Customer Service is closed by the way). OK, OK, there were more expletives in there. I'll admit it. *eye roll*
I emailed their "feedback" email. No response. No call back. So I called them. There was almost a 2 hour wait but they'll call me when it's my turn. And they did, almost two hours later. The woman informed me there was no record of me calling to ask about the credit and stated that since there was no record she had to assume it didn't happen (excuse you? so a computer can misapply a payment but not miss logging a call? OK, got ya) and was just generally hostile. So I told her to have a good day and hung up before paying or making payment arrangements with her.
I went home and wrote a nice long letter with suggestions for how to improve. Not that they care, they're the only provider in town, who cares if we hate them? I stated in my letter that I knew it would get trashed even. So I would like to share it with you and the rest of the Internet because you know what? Nobody important at CPS is going to see that letter, and there's no identifying information in it to damn anyone personally. It's all accurate information that can be documented (since they recorded my call!). So here's what I wrote to them:
March 18, 2013
To Whom It May Concern:
Attached you will find the payment coupon for customer
number X for a balance that was recently found to be incorrectly
credited to our account. When I noticed this inaccuracy, I called CPS upon receiving
my statement and asked if the amount was due to estimated usage versus actual
usage differences. The woman I spoke to said she did not know and would get
back to me. She never did. We then received a disconnect notice in the mail
this past Friday or Saturday – by the time I received the notice the offices
for Customer Service were closed and I was unable to ask about these supposed
charges that we had not paid. Upon researching my bills, I found that this
amount matched the incorrectly credited amount from January. I called CPS
Monday and waited over an hour to be called back. While I was informed of this
wait time, I think it might be useful for CPS to provide more Customer Service
Representatives so that wait times are not so long.
When I did speak to a CSR, I was informed that all of
their calls were logged by a computer and there was no record of me calling to
ask about the credit. The CSR became disrespectful and I exited the
conversation – I will not set up a payment plan with a CSR who is not well
trained enough to not give a customer attitude. I find it questionable that a
computer system (or a human) can misapply a payment but that a computer system
is not capable of not logging that I called. I find it further questionable and
incredibly unprofessional that CPS did not contact us regarding the incorrectly
applied payment before simply sending
us a disconnect notice. If I had received a letter stating that an error had
been made and that the funds needed to be repaid, I would have done so quickly
and easily. Instead, I am left wishing that there was another electricity
provider in San Antonio that I could switch to – that is how disrespected as a
customer and as a human I feel.
Please take these suggestions to heart:
1)
Admit any errors when they are recognized and
inform the customer in writing of the error. Ask them to contact Billing in
order to make payment arrangements as most people cannot pay double their bill
in one month. For us, I simply did not want to call back and talk to
another rude CSR and thus I took money out of our college savings to simply pay
this off and be done with it.
A possible letter could read:
Dear Mr. X:
We
recently recognized that a credit of $230.03 was inappropriately applied to
your account. We apologize for this error and any inconvenience this may cause
you. This credit needs to be re-paid, and as it was our error we would like to
work with you to set up payment arrangements so that the repayment can be less
of a financial burden. Please contact our Payments office at X
Monday through Friday between the hours of 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. to discus payment
arrangements.
Sincerely,
Customer Service
2)
Train CSRs so that they do not become hostile
even with frustrated customers. Customers are not your sounding board; you cannot get
“mouthy” with them and expect them to be polite or hospitable to you.
3)
Actually offer Customer Service on the
weekends. This would no doubt cut down on the number of calls you have to
field during the week, which will cut down on wait time and increase customer
satisfaction. Your communications with your customers indicate they can receive
Customer Service 24 hours per day. This is incorrect. They can hear an
automated system tell them how much their bill is 24 hours per day. That is not
customer service.
I am aware that this letter will most likely be thrown in the trash –
what motivation does a company have to make itself better when it is the only
electricity provider in town? None. If this letter isn’t thrown away
immediately upon opening, I hope that someone who is capable of making changes
reads it and at least thinks about the suggestions I have described here.
Sincerely,
Me
