Consumer Advocates & Service Quality

Dianne E. DusmanSr. Asst. Consumer AdvocatePennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate (PAOCA)555 Walnut St., 5th Floor, Forum PlaceHarrisburg, PA 17101-1923(717) 783-5048www.oca.state.pa.us

Background

• Formal Complaints- Remedy for small areas/subgroups only

• Rulemakings and Collaboratives- Industry wide stds. or guidelines

• Base Rate Cases-Quality issues can impact rate claims

• Mergers & Acquisitions- Specific co. stds. – can exceed regs

Formal Complaints

• Electric Industry– Recurrent outages– High Bill complaints

• Telephone Industry– Fraud– Extended Area Service

• Water Industry– Water Quality– Service Interruptions– Main Extensions

• Gas Industry– Service Abandonment

Recent Electric Industry Proceedings

• FirstEnergy Investigation, I-0040102

• GPU/FirstEnergy Merger, A-110300.F095

• PECO/Unicom Merger, A-110550F.0147

• Exelon/PSE&G Merger, A-110550F0160

Exelon/PSE&G Service QualityRELIABILITY AND CUSTOMER SERVICE

QUALITY OF SERVICE PLAN

Performance Area Index Performance Threshold*

RELIABILITY

SAIFI (12-month) 1.28

CAIDI (12-month) 125

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Percentage of calls answered within 30 seconds (as defined by the Company).

70%

Average “Busy-Out” rate (% of calls that encounter a busy signal).

.5%

Average Call Abandonment Rate. 5%

**Company agrees to target performance at 4% but non-compliance will still be determined by the Threshold.

Percentage of residential bills not rendered once every billing period.

.02%

Gas Response Time to Safety Calls 99% within one hour.

OSHA Lost Work Days Cases Target: Top 10% of EEI comparable companies (1500-4000 employees)

Non-Compliance: Top 20% of EEI comparable companies (1500-4000 employees)

*Performance Threshold is the number by which performance is measured for purposes of determining non-compliance and application of the enforcement provisions of this Settlement Agreement.

• Interim Guidelines Establishing Quality of Service Procedures for Jurisdictional Telecommunications Companies. M-00011582 (2002)

• Petition of OCA For Rulemaking To Amend Title Pa. Code Section 63.1 et seq, P-00021985 (Published 2002)

• Verizon/MCI Merger, A-310580F9 (2005)

Telecommunications

Verizon/MCI Merger

• Importance of maintaining service quality where reductions in work force will occur.

• Consumer safeguards to ensure affirmative benefits to residential/small business customers.

FCC ARMIS Reports

Table 5. Customer Trouble Reports per 100 LinesStd 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Verizon – PA - 2.16 1.88 1.54 1.29 1.31 1.36 1.19 1.11 1.31 1.30

Verizon – North - 2.00 2.25 1.72 1.78 1.62 1.69 1.64 1.61 1.84 1.83

Verizon – N – PA - 1.31 1.33 1.04 1.25 1.28 1.25 0.99 0.98 1.06 1.09

Verizon – N – QS - 1.81 1.71 1.41 1.43 1.26 1.61 1.34 1.26 1.11 1.36

Source: FCC ARMIS Report 43-05

Ch. 63 Service Quality Infraction Rates

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

Infr

actio

ns p

er 1

,000

Lin

es

Bell Atlantic

GTE

Verizon-PA Atlantic

Verizon NO

Source: BCS UCARE Reports 1997-2003

Tennessee-American Water Co. Service Quality Metrics Settlement

• Quarterly Customer Satisfaction Surveys

– Reaching TAWC Call Center

– Call Center Problem Resolution

– Co. Response to Service Call

– Water Quality

TAWC Scorecard

TAWC Scorecard

Tennessee Service Quality Metric Natural Gas Order

NASUCA Minimum Service Quality Resolution

• Call for State Commissions to establish

– Regular reporting requirements– Minimum performance standards– Appropriate enforcement provisions

So that adequate, reliable and safe service is achieved and maintained…

Service Quality Resolution – cont’d

• Recognizes that service quality is

– Vital to our economy, US position in global economy and national security;

– Essential to everyday life and nearly every societal function;

– Threatened by mergers, eg, & push to cut costs.

Service Quality Resolution – cont’d

… and that without

– regular monitoring of service quality

– specific performance areas – measurable reporting standards

Neither regulators nor advocates can detect service quality deterioration.

Service Quality Resolution – cont’d

• Calls for appropriate enforcement provisions to support performance standards

• Public availability of service quality data for maximum accountability and to enhance competition where available.

Approved unanimously by NASUCA, New Orleans, LA, 6/14/2005

The End

For more information about NASUCA & texts of other resolutions:

www.nasuca.org

For more information about the PAOCA:

www.oca.state.pa.us