http://news.nationalpost.com/news/c...suit-against-hydro-one-over-billing-practices
TORONTO — A class action lawsuit has been launched against Hydro One claiming customers were victims of a new billing system brought in by the utility.
The statement of claim, filed Wednesday in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice, alleges widespread billing problems after Hydro One introduced the new management system in May 2013.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
Bill Bennett, a Gravenhurst, Ont., resident is the proposed plaintiff in the suit who allegedly experienced numerous billing issues including unexplained increases in cost.
The claim says Bennett, for example, received an envelope from Hydro One in April 2015 that contained nearly 40 revised bills for a four-year period that represented about a 185 per cent increase in the cost of his electricity bills.
Daffyd Roderick, the director of corporate affairs with Hydro One, says he cannot comment as the matter is before the courts. The suit is claiming damages for $125-million.
“Many of Hydro One’s customers simply cannot afford to take legal action,” said Eric R. Hoaken, a lawyer with the firm Lax O’Sullivan Scott Lisus that has brought the lawsuit along with the firm Koskie Minsky.
“A class action is the only way they will be able to achieve meaningful access to justice against Hydro One.”
Bennett has not received an “adequate response” from Hydro One about the bills, according to the claim.
Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin released a scathing report in May into the billing practices of Hydro One that said the company, which is wholly owned by the government of Ontario, sent faulty bills to 100,000 customers, tried to cover up the issues and spent $88.3 million dollars trying to fix the problem. (** our money)
For that, Hydro One apologized to its customers and agreed to the recommendations suggested by Marin and said it had fixed many of the problems identified in the report.
“We let them down and then we didn’t treat them well when they had a problem,” said Hydro One CEO Carm Marcello at the time. “I’m sorry we put our customers through that negative experience and they felt that they had no recourse but to go to the Ombudsman.”
Bennett’s statement of claim said tens of thousands of customers stopped receiving bills, some received large catch-up bills and many had large sums of money withdrawn automatically from their bank accounts by Hydro One and thousands more were affected by billing errors that “didn’t reflect the electricity actually consumed.”
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http://news.nationalpost.com/full-c...l-of-customer-service-hell-courtesy-hydro-one
Soon after the explosive report this week by the Ontario ombudsman, dealing with Hydro One, I did a quick check of Dante’s imperishable Inferno and learned the noble Italian neglected to assign a place for corporate communications — customer complaint division. They inflict miseries on a grand scale, resign their victims to futile and wearying efforts to right those wrongs, and after much anguish and anger borne by their “clients,” suffer no more than one of those “mistakes were made” treacle-apologies, supplemented by a mewling declaration that they “will try to do better.” Dante missed this one.
Hydro One is Ontario’s problem. But the findings of the ombudsman echo and resonate in every province. Customers of the Internet service providers, telephone companies, banks, any large-scale company or public utilities in any province or territory, will have fables of equal strength, if not equal horror, to that unveiled here in the corporate heartland this week.
The ombudsman’s report tells a near-gothic story of a billing system installed at a cost close to $200 million! That is a pile of cash. How much money is Hydro One taking in that they spend $200 million merely to send out the bills? Sour icing on this indigestible cake comes with the extra information that they plan to spend another roughly $85 million to “fix” the failing whistles and bells on their brand new system. Another $85 million … for a computer patch.
A needed patch, though — the system did not work! A hundred thousand people in the People’s Republic of Green Ontario received bills that were flat-out wrong, and in some cases not only just wrong, but outrageously, defiantly, exuberantly wrong.
The customers who received these bills, after they revived, entered the world of corporate complaints. I shudder to think of the ordeal they faced. Just trying to make contact is a kind of hell. Is there any lie in our modern world more completely shameless, more decked in mealy mouthed corpSpeak, than the message a customer receives after tediously navigating some 1-800 number or its equivalent, declaring a language preference, listening to old clips of Celine Dion, waiting for the endless list of options to select and then hearing this heart-buster: “Please stay on the line. Your call is important to us.”
It is a lie. Your call, or anyone else’s, is a damn nuisance to that “us.”
Back to Hydro One. Some of the “mistakes” were so brutal they entered the region where horror fuses with a kind of dark demented humour. Take the case of the ski resort owner who received a bill for $37,000. He — ungrateful wretch — complained or sought to correct the amount. Hydro One, presumably with the help of their multi-million-dollar billing system, sent him a corrected bill — for $37 million! It’s Hydro One’s reverse lottery. Complain, and owe millions!
Another poor lady, 84 years of age, was hammered with a bill for $9,000. Her real debt was but $640. Nothing like putting a sharp scare into the aged. Yet one more gentleman was hurled into the salivating and tireless jaws of a collection agency after receiving a bill for over $18,000 dollars. The real bill, was just a tad less: $56.35. There are more examples, some involving Hydro One reaching into the bank accounts and stripping money straight from the source.
Now none of these specific instances gives anything like the real story here. The anguish of old people thinking they are afoul of the utility, that their electricity might be cut off is the real story. The nerve-destroying attempts to get in touch with Hydro One and having them explain and correct their mistakes. The interminable wait for someone to help and fix the situation. Sitting at home under siege from the collection agencies.
And then, when the ombudsman blew the whole thing up — what was the response? One of those bland, formulaic, cliché-infested corporate-speak useless apologies. From the head of Hydro One came this explanation: it was the work of “bugs.”
“We’ve been working out some of the bugs,” he said. “A few of the problems — the more complicated ones — have gotten away from us and now we’re doubling down on solving those problems.… People who have overpaid can ask for their money back, and no fees or interest will be charged if Hydro One has made a mistake.”
This is not an apology or a repair. The ones subjected to wrong bills have had at least part of their lives upset, in some cases put through weeks or months of frustration and worry, and those fed to the collection agencies actively harassed and pilloried. Doesn’t Hydro One have some obligation to these folks? Can they simply declare it’s a mistake made by their $200-million billing system and walk quietly off?
The CEO himself should visit some of these customers. Show up at their doors — feel the cost of what his behemoth of a company has inflicted on ordinary people. Grievances of this number, incompetence on this scale, cannot be washed away with the wave of an apology wand and a tepid resolution that “we’re working on it.” Customers deserve so much better.
(** What is the salary of that CEO? Does he worth that salary and also collecting hugh performance bonus?)
What if the above is under Tory Government? Again fault of Mike Harris (who left nearly fifteen years ago!)
TORONTO — A class action lawsuit has been launched against Hydro One claiming customers were victims of a new billing system brought in by the utility.
The statement of claim, filed Wednesday in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice, alleges widespread billing problems after Hydro One introduced the new management system in May 2013.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
Bill Bennett, a Gravenhurst, Ont., resident is the proposed plaintiff in the suit who allegedly experienced numerous billing issues including unexplained increases in cost.
The claim says Bennett, for example, received an envelope from Hydro One in April 2015 that contained nearly 40 revised bills for a four-year period that represented about a 185 per cent increase in the cost of his electricity bills.
Daffyd Roderick, the director of corporate affairs with Hydro One, says he cannot comment as the matter is before the courts. The suit is claiming damages for $125-million.
“Many of Hydro One’s customers simply cannot afford to take legal action,” said Eric R. Hoaken, a lawyer with the firm Lax O’Sullivan Scott Lisus that has brought the lawsuit along with the firm Koskie Minsky.
“A class action is the only way they will be able to achieve meaningful access to justice against Hydro One.”
Bennett has not received an “adequate response” from Hydro One about the bills, according to the claim.
Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin released a scathing report in May into the billing practices of Hydro One that said the company, which is wholly owned by the government of Ontario, sent faulty bills to 100,000 customers, tried to cover up the issues and spent $88.3 million dollars trying to fix the problem. (** our money)
For that, Hydro One apologized to its customers and agreed to the recommendations suggested by Marin and said it had fixed many of the problems identified in the report.
“We let them down and then we didn’t treat them well when they had a problem,” said Hydro One CEO Carm Marcello at the time. “I’m sorry we put our customers through that negative experience and they felt that they had no recourse but to go to the Ombudsman.”
Bennett’s statement of claim said tens of thousands of customers stopped receiving bills, some received large catch-up bills and many had large sums of money withdrawn automatically from their bank accounts by Hydro One and thousands more were affected by billing errors that “didn’t reflect the electricity actually consumed.”
---------------------------------------------
http://news.nationalpost.com/full-c...l-of-customer-service-hell-courtesy-hydro-one
Soon after the explosive report this week by the Ontario ombudsman, dealing with Hydro One, I did a quick check of Dante’s imperishable Inferno and learned the noble Italian neglected to assign a place for corporate communications — customer complaint division. They inflict miseries on a grand scale, resign their victims to futile and wearying efforts to right those wrongs, and after much anguish and anger borne by their “clients,” suffer no more than one of those “mistakes were made” treacle-apologies, supplemented by a mewling declaration that they “will try to do better.” Dante missed this one.
Hydro One is Ontario’s problem. But the findings of the ombudsman echo and resonate in every province. Customers of the Internet service providers, telephone companies, banks, any large-scale company or public utilities in any province or territory, will have fables of equal strength, if not equal horror, to that unveiled here in the corporate heartland this week.
The ombudsman’s report tells a near-gothic story of a billing system installed at a cost close to $200 million! That is a pile of cash. How much money is Hydro One taking in that they spend $200 million merely to send out the bills? Sour icing on this indigestible cake comes with the extra information that they plan to spend another roughly $85 million to “fix” the failing whistles and bells on their brand new system. Another $85 million … for a computer patch.
A needed patch, though — the system did not work! A hundred thousand people in the People’s Republic of Green Ontario received bills that were flat-out wrong, and in some cases not only just wrong, but outrageously, defiantly, exuberantly wrong.
The customers who received these bills, after they revived, entered the world of corporate complaints. I shudder to think of the ordeal they faced. Just trying to make contact is a kind of hell. Is there any lie in our modern world more completely shameless, more decked in mealy mouthed corpSpeak, than the message a customer receives after tediously navigating some 1-800 number or its equivalent, declaring a language preference, listening to old clips of Celine Dion, waiting for the endless list of options to select and then hearing this heart-buster: “Please stay on the line. Your call is important to us.”
It is a lie. Your call, or anyone else’s, is a damn nuisance to that “us.”
Back to Hydro One. Some of the “mistakes” were so brutal they entered the region where horror fuses with a kind of dark demented humour. Take the case of the ski resort owner who received a bill for $37,000. He — ungrateful wretch — complained or sought to correct the amount. Hydro One, presumably with the help of their multi-million-dollar billing system, sent him a corrected bill — for $37 million! It’s Hydro One’s reverse lottery. Complain, and owe millions!
Another poor lady, 84 years of age, was hammered with a bill for $9,000. Her real debt was but $640. Nothing like putting a sharp scare into the aged. Yet one more gentleman was hurled into the salivating and tireless jaws of a collection agency after receiving a bill for over $18,000 dollars. The real bill, was just a tad less: $56.35. There are more examples, some involving Hydro One reaching into the bank accounts and stripping money straight from the source.
Now none of these specific instances gives anything like the real story here. The anguish of old people thinking they are afoul of the utility, that their electricity might be cut off is the real story. The nerve-destroying attempts to get in touch with Hydro One and having them explain and correct their mistakes. The interminable wait for someone to help and fix the situation. Sitting at home under siege from the collection agencies.
And then, when the ombudsman blew the whole thing up — what was the response? One of those bland, formulaic, cliché-infested corporate-speak useless apologies. From the head of Hydro One came this explanation: it was the work of “bugs.”
“We’ve been working out some of the bugs,” he said. “A few of the problems — the more complicated ones — have gotten away from us and now we’re doubling down on solving those problems.… People who have overpaid can ask for their money back, and no fees or interest will be charged if Hydro One has made a mistake.”
This is not an apology or a repair. The ones subjected to wrong bills have had at least part of their lives upset, in some cases put through weeks or months of frustration and worry, and those fed to the collection agencies actively harassed and pilloried. Doesn’t Hydro One have some obligation to these folks? Can they simply declare it’s a mistake made by their $200-million billing system and walk quietly off?
The CEO himself should visit some of these customers. Show up at their doors — feel the cost of what his behemoth of a company has inflicted on ordinary people. Grievances of this number, incompetence on this scale, cannot be washed away with the wave of an apology wand and a tepid resolution that “we’re working on it.” Customers deserve so much better.
(** What is the salary of that CEO? Does he worth that salary and also collecting hugh performance bonus?)
What if the above is under Tory Government? Again fault of Mike Harris (who left nearly fifteen years ago!)
