THUNDER BAY - Hydro One vice-president Ferio Pugliese says the company is "flipping the switch" on how it does business, and focusing on how it can better service customers in their own communities.
The effort includes opening customer service offices in three cities—Sudbury, London and Markham—where staff are available to meet customers face-to-face.
Pugliese said the efforts the company is taking are "specifically aimed at affordability and timely customer service where they need us, when they need us."
Hydro One spokesman Jay Armitage told tbnewswatch.com on Tuesday there are no plans to open such a customer service office in Thunder Bay.
Armitage said the three centres were chosen because Hydro already had staff in those locations working in the area of customer service. "It was a matter of opening the doors to the public, and that's why we chose those three."
Thunder Bay, she said, is one of the communities where the company plans to set up a community drop-in this fall.
Among 40 drop-ins to be held across the province, Armitage said it will give customers who have had issues with Hydro billing a chance to have their accounts reviewed on the spot and have the problem solved.
She said the program is a response to that segment of the customer base that would prefer to deal with a Hydro representative in person.
Two years ago, a report by Ontario's provincial ombudsman, Andre Marin, concluded that Hydro One had mistreated and deceived customers with incorrect billing, and had delivered "outrageously bad" customer service after technical glitches developed with a new information system.
In her interview with Tbnewswatch, Armitage said "we've changed as a company," noting that Hydro One will even make phone calls to customers who have had billing problems, to invite them in advance to a community drop-in.
