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PUC investigated 504 complaints in 2011

Apr 05, 2012 News

… $8M credited to consumers as GPL continues to attract the most complaints

 

By Rabindra Rooplall
For last year the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) dealt with 504 complaints that were lodged with the Commission against the four regulated utility companies during 2011, according to the Public Utility Commission annual 2011 report.
The complaints lodged were against:  Guyana Power Light (GPL) – 372, Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) – 84, Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) – 47 and Digicel-01.
According to the PUC, as of December 31, 2011, there were 409 complaints resolved. As a result of this $8,134,408 were awarded to consumers’ accounts. GPL paid $7,059,223; GWI – $1,073,912; GTT – $1,173; and DIGICEL $100.
It was further noted that the remaining 95 complaints were still being actively pursued by the Commission at the end of December 2011.
The 2011 reports stated that GPL continues to attract more complaints than the other regulated utilities.  A review of the complaints received indicates that 195 of the 372 consumer complaints in the electricity sector related to billing queries.
These complaints included debit adjustments following allegations of tampering by the company: adjustments to bills as a result of prolonged periods of estimation and over-estimation of bills due to the company not reading meters; and debit adjustments resulting from the changing of defective meters.
There were also instances of incorrect readings recorded on the consumers’ accounts resulting in them being billed higher than their actual consumption.
Sixty four complaints against the company involved consumers being accused of tampering with their service. These accusations resulted from GPL’s investigations at consumers’ premises. However, consumers continue to question the credibility and complain about the manner in which these investigations are conducted claiming that investigations were done without their knowledge.
Other areas of concern during 2011 were GPL’s sloth in issuing new services and change of tenancy agreements with some 41 persons complaining about the extended waiting period between application and activation.
For GWI, 84 complaints were received against the water company during 2011. Forty-nine of these were billing queries, while ten were for the company’s failure to correct technical faults within a reasonable timeframe; 16 claimed wrongful disconnections; seven were for the company’s sloth in connecting a new service and one each was for the company’s alleged failure to issue a new account to a consumer who had changed his residence.
For GT&T, 47 complaints were lodged against the company and three of these were being actively pursued at the end of 2011. It was noted that the company’s response to technical issues appears to be a matter of concern.
In addition, 33 complaints were for the company’s alleged failure to promptly put an attend to technical issues affecting the service to consumers and six for failure to provide new service; two were billing queries; two claimed wrongful disconnection while three were for the company’s alleged tardiness in transferring services at consumers’ request.
For U-mobile (Cellular) Inc. (DIGICEL Guyana) one complaint was lodged against this company. Even though the company claimed it was not at fault the complainant was awarded a credit. The complainant claimed that text messages sent to an overseas number were not received but the cost was deducted from the prepaid balance.
The Company claimed that their partner company to which the text message was sent had indicated that the intended recipient had received the message thus the charge.

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