They were in a hurry & didn't test.
link to Trib
Some selected text:
Since July, at least 200,000
customers--including residential,
commercial and industrial--have
experienced headaches ranging from no bills
to estimated bills, late payment charges for
bills they never received and trouble getting
through to customer service agents.
ComEd traces the problems to the hurried
installation last July of an Andersen
Consulting system. Worried about Year
2000 compliance, new tax laws and last
August's 15 percent discount for residential
customers, utility officials wanted the new
billing and metering software activated
before fully testing it.
According to ComEd's most recent filings
with the Securities Exchange Commission,
the billing problems have resulted in a $470
million cash flow shortage from uncollected
monthly charges. In the prior two years,
annual cash flows were in the black, ranging
from $24 million to $71 million.
-- Deborah (sorry@comed.chi), February 26, 1999
Still having problems......
Trib
ComEd's new bills heavy on details
March 22, 1999
BY BECKY BEAUPRE SUBURBAN REPORTER
Oswego treasurer Angie Daniels knew it was bad news
when two thick
envelopes arrived at village hall last month.
The packages were from Commonwealth Edison, and
they were marked ``1 of
3'' and ``3 of 3.'' The middle section of the
village's electric bill arrived the next
day.
``I just started laughing,'' Daniels said of the
23-pound statement, which
covered three months of traffic light electricity
and cost nearly $20 to mail. ``I
was ready to call and say, `Come pick this up.' ''
She isn't laughing anymore. The bulky bills are the
intended product of a new
computer system ComEd installed last summer.
The updated system was designed to generate more
detail. In the case of
Oswego and a few other suburbs, that means
itemizing every street light and
traffic signal in town--something suburban
officials say is unnecessary and
irritating.
Even before Oswego's infamous 23-pound traffic
light bill arrived, Daniels had
spent several months grappling with bills for the
town's street light account. In
September, they had skyrocketed from six to 10
pages to nearly 200.
``Every time a ComEd bill comes, I cringe a
little,'' Daniels said.
A 23-pound electric bill can take up a lot of space
on one's desk and doesn't
exactly fit in a filing cabinet.
``They have been relegated to a storage closet,''
Oswego village administrator
Bruce Bonebrake said. ``There is no other room.''
In Schaumburg, where electric bills used to be
seven or eight pages long,
three-inch-thick tomes began arriving two months
ago. They are stacked
alongside a desk in the finance office.
``The young lady who processes them was quite
stunned,'' Schaumburg finance
director Keith Wendland said.
She is now spending about five hours a month paying
the electric bill, several
more hours than she spent before, Wendland said.
Daniels also spends extra hours scrutinizing
Oswego's bill. In December,
ComEd's computer system accidentally sent the
village a bill for $7
million--more than $6.9 million too much.
``I tend not to just pay them,'' she said.
ComEd's new system has experienced other
difficulties, too. Bills have been
delayed, sometimes arriving with a late fee
attached.
ComEd spokesman Keith Bromery said the utility
hopes to have the kinks
worked out by May. But the bulky bills, which he
said are only going out to a
``minority'' of towns on certain rate plans, aren't
actually a mistake.
He said ComEd is working on suburbs' concerns by
offering to send out
summaries as brief as a few pages. For Oswego, that
means the 23-pound
traffic light bill should shrink to 20 to 25 pages.
Daniels is cautious, however. Her hopes went up a
few months ago, when the
lighting bill shrank to 10 pages--temporarily.
``Then they immediately went back
up to 200 pages,'' she said.
Wendland also is hoping for relief. ``I think they
are starting to get their act in
order,'' he said of ComEd. ``They're killing a lot
of trees in the forest.''
(SNIP)
p.s. I just heard of yet another person I know that has not received
a bill in months. He called them to see what was going on, the rep
said no one in that building was being charged...would he like to be
put down as the person to be billed (he doesn't own the building).
The other people I know not billed? A multi million dollar
corporation. (they moved & didn't receive a bill for at least 9 mos.
-- Deborah (infowars@yahoo.com), March 25, 1999.