Commission investigates Idaho Power’s Hailey operations
Office reported closed during business hours
By TRAVIS PURSER
Express Staff Writer
The Idaho Public Utilities Commission has initiated an investigation of
the quality of customer service at Idaho Power Company’s office in Hailey following a
written complaint by a local rancher.
In a Jan. 16 letter to the commission, Picabo rancher Nick Purdy wrote
that he had been "shocked" to find office blinds and doors sealed tight and a
"closed" sign displayed during normal weekday business hours.
Another sign announced the office had cut back its customer service to
four hours a day—from 8 a.m. until noon—and that payments should be made at
nearby Paul’s Market, according to Purdy’s letter.
Purdy wrote that when he complained to an Idaho Power employee, "I
was told that the employees were still working regular hours in the office but they did
not want to be bothered by the customers."
Purdy said also, "I was told by one of the employees that they had a
policy of rotating the [telephone] numbers so that the public could not learn them."
Dennis Lopez of Idaho Power’s corporate communications said during a
telephone interview from his Boise office that calls to local branches are sometimes
forwarded to a call center in Boise. Otherwise, he said he wasn’t aware of any phone
numbers being rotated.
Idaho state law requires that every public utility provide reasonable
service to its patrons. However, the law does not specify location or hours of operation
for customer service.
During a telephone interview from Boise, utilities commission president
Dennis Hansen said he has generally been supportive of the trend to replace local utility
company offices with customer call centers and local pay stations.
"The commission has been reluctant to micro-manage utility
operations," Hansen added, citing call centers and pay stations as a way to
"keep costs down."
However, Hansen insisted the commission is "very concerned about
customer service." The power company should not be rotating numbers in an effort to
dodge customers, he said.
Beginning late in January, the utilities commission’s consumer
division began a 30-day investigation of Purdy’s concerns.
Depending on the investigation’s outcome, Hansen said, the commission
could order the Idaho Power Hailey branch to reopen its doors during afternoon hours.
Purdy specifically asked: What requirements does Idaho Power have to
communicate with customers? Does Idaho Power’s new policy meet those requirements?
Does the commission approve of Idaho Power isolating itself from customers?
"This isolation is becoming very fashionable in the private sector
but the customer has the alternative of taking their business elsewhere," Purdy
wrote. "However, the Idaho Power customer does not have this option."
Because Idaho Power operates under governmental regulation, it is
guaranteed the ability to sell electricity in a market free of competition, a situation
Purdy suggests has encouraged the company to focus on bottom-line financial concerns
rather than customer welfare.
While centralizing service might be a good move financially, it is a
"disaster," Purdy wrote, for customer service. People working in call centers
halfway across the state don’t know the local area and therefore don’t have the
commitment that local employees have, he wrote. "It’s just human nature,"
his letter says.
As for Idaho Power’s position on centralized call centers,
"They’ve assured us it wouldn’t make any difference in service
quality," commission chief Hansen said. In fact, he added, Idaho Power has even
suggested that call centers offer improved service due to greater efficiency resulting
from economies of scale.
With a deregulation bill currently working its way through Congress,
Hansen said, all of this has been a "hot topic" recently.
It is generally acknowledged that deregulation would bring more
electricity companies to the state, which would compete with each other in customer
service, among other areas. That competition could mean better service for customers and
innovations in technology that could benefit customers. What many question is whether
rates would go up or down.
Idaho has the lowest electricity rates in the nation, Hansen said, in part
because the state produces almost half its power with hydroelectric dams—one of the
cheapest means of producing electricity.
Deregulation, Hansen suggested, would encourage Idaho electricity
producers to sell in markets outside the state where prices are higher. That could
eventually drive up prices in Idaho.
Hansen pointed to California as an example of one state where rates have
skyrocketed following deregulation.
For his part, Purdy dismisses Hansen’s theory. At 60 years old, Purdy
has been a rancher all his life. He said in an interview that he likes the idea of local
service provided by people who know his name and know the area. And he likes competition.
"Look at phone rates," he said of the deregulated telephone
industry. "They haven’t gone up."
