BY KEITH LACEY
Sudbury Hydro is sorry. It will change a customer service policy after an Azilda man complained.
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THERRIAULT |
Rick Therriault ?couldn?t believe it? when he got what he considered to be a ?threatening letter? earlier this week from Sudbury Hydro informing him his bank account was short when his direct payment to the utility was processed. He was told he had to pay the outstanding bill of $180 in a hurry.
Therriault says he was transferring money around from different bank accounts just before Christmas and this caused the problem. He has an outstanding credit rating with Sudbury Hydro.
He owns his own residence and numerous apartment blocks. As a Sudbury Hydro customer for 30 years, he would have preferred a polite phone call instead of a threatening letter. When he did complain to a customer service representative earlier this week, she didn?t show any compassion. She told him form letters are sent to all customers who have insufficient funds (in their bank accounts), and there was nothing she could do to help him, he said.
Therriault was so frustrated by the experience he told his story to Northern Life. When we talked to customer service supervisor Greg Field about the complaint, the utility issued an apology to Therriault. Field also promised changes would be made so a similar incident doesn?t happen again.
The letter didn?t threaten to cut off power, but simply asked him to make payment or face withdrawal from the automatic billing plan offered by Sudbury Hydro, said Field.
?We did not threaten to cut off his power...but the wording is such that people might not understand,? he said.
A loyal customer like Therriault should have been given the benefit of the doubt. Form letters sent to loyal customers will have certain wording changed to ensure more time for payment and are not threatening in tone, said Field.
?I can assure you we will be changing the wording to ensure this doesn?t happen again,? he said.
Therriault is impressed Field handled the problems so quickly.
?Absolutely, I was very impressed a manager would call me like that and apologize,? said Therriault. ?I?m very happy with the way things were
handled. They handled things very professionally and that?s the way it should be.?
Therriault is also pleased Sudbury Hydro is changing the way it informs reliable customers that there may be problems with their accounts. Field also said he would talk to the customer service representative involved.
The reason form letters are sent instead of phone calls when payments are late or there are insufficient funds is ?we have 65,000 customers? and most of them work during office hours. The utility doesn?t have the resources or manpower to make the number of phone calls required to deal with
billing problems, he said.
