'Hopeless quagmire': Ombud highlights Hydro One complaints
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TORONTO - Complaints about Hydro One’s billing practices continue to pile up in the office of the province’s crusading Ombudsman Andre Marin.
A total of 7,961 complaints had been received by his office as of March 31, Marin said in his annual report released Monday.
His investigators found a lack of transparency in how bills were calculated, lack of communication and delays in dealing with customers and poor training of customer service and billing staff.
Marin said dealing with the giant utility is like wrestling a “slippery pig.”
Complaints ranged from unintelligible billing, erratic billing and unexplained withdrawals from customers’ accounts.
There were also cases of overbilling, lack of meter readings and Smart Meter malfunctions, Marin said.
One customer whose house had burned down continued to get a bill from Hydro One.
“It’s actually quite incredible,” Marin told reporters.
“For many of these people, it’s been a hopeless quagmire and we started this investigation becaues we felt it was like wrestling with a slippery pig,” he said.
Marin said that while Hydro One has been co-operative, there’s still work to do.
“Hydro One may have staunched the bleeding, but the patient is still critical” he said.
“We’re not out of the woods.”
Hydro One CEO Carmine Marcello responded to Marin’s report saying the utility is “working tirelessly,” to fix the problems.
“Hydro One has reviewed the Ombudsman’s Annual Report and would like its customers to know that we been working tirelessly – and have made progress - to resolve the customer service issues currently before us.
“We are taking the opportunity to not only resolve technical problems that resulted from introducing a new billing system, but to also improve service through new customer-friendly policies and by changing our customer service culture,” Marcello said in a statement.