Both requests for payment agreements (PARs) and overall consumer complaints about utilities decreased and a majority of customers contacting the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) for assistance rated it as a positive experience, according to the 2009 Utility Consumer Activities Report and Evaluation (UCARE) released by the PUC.

"While consumer complaints are on the decline, we want to emphasize to utility consumers that there are resources available to help them,” said Commission Chairman James H. Cawley. “Consumers should call their utility first. If they are unable to reach an agreement with the utility, we urge them to call the PUC at 1-800-692-7380 for assistance. We have employees who are trained to navigate the programs designed to help consumers restore and maintain service and, as this report shows, calling the PUC is a positive experience.”

The report is an annual evaluation of the customer service performance of the state’s major jurisdictional electric, natural gas, water and telephone companies. A copy of the report is available on the PUC’s website.

Residential electric, natural gas, water and sewer customers filed 54,284 PARs in 2009 – a decrease of 8 percent. Residential customers of the telephone utilities filed 945 PARs, a 33 percent decrease.

The report also shows that 81 percent of consumers reported that they would contact the PUC again if they had another problem with a utility that they could not resolve with the company. Further, 76 percent rated the service they received from the PUC as “good” or “excellent”.

Most consumer complaints about the electric industry (15 percent) involved credit and deposit issues. Most natural gas consumer complaints were about billing issues (23 percent). Billing dispute issues were also the main reason (44 percent) for residential consumer complaints about the telephone industry.

Additional highlights from the 2009 report include:

• 73,765 utility customer contacts to the PUC required review – a 9 percent increase from 2008. Of these contacts, 18,147 were consumer complaints and 55,618 were PARs. In addition, 75,329 consumer contacts in 2009 were classified as inquiries.
   
• Inquiries increased by 10 percent with 20 percent of inquiries related to termination or suspension of utility service and 19 percent involving CAP issues. Data shows that 7,081 inquiries recorded in 2009 were consumer contacts requesting new PARs that PUC representatives were not able to accommodate for various reasons.
   
• During 2009, the PUC received 9,905 consumer complaints from residential customers of the electric, natural gas, water and sewer companies. Residential customers of telephone utilities lodged 6,221 consumer complaints in 2009.

From 2008 to 2009, the volume of consumer complaints decreased by 5 percent in the electric utilities, by 3 percent in the natural gas utilities and by 20 percent in the telecommunications industry.

To help consumers make accurate comparisons between companies of various sizes, the PUC calculates the number of justified complaints per 1,000 residential customers. A complaint is considered “justified” if the Commission finds that the company did not comply with PUC regulations and policies when handling the dispute. A significant increase in a justified rate would prompt a review of a utility’s complaint handling procedures. Consumer complaint rates and justified consumer complaint rates are located in Appendix F of the report.