Board of Public Utilities

July 29,2015Revdex.comBryant Woods SouthAmherst, New York 14228Attn: [redacted] Complaint HandlerDear [redacted] :This is in response to your complaint ID# [redacted] Customer, [redacted] claims to have moved out of [redacted] in January The forwarding address provided by her at that time was Stowe StJamestown, N.YWe were just recently made aware that she has now moved to Barbara Place Buffalo, N.YShould you have any further questions, please call me @ ###-###-####Sincerely,Michael AA [redacted] Business Manager

We have been in contact with this consumer, had a meeting last week and a follow up is upcomingWe are trying to work things out with her

Revdex.com:I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, we would like to know your view on the matter.]I have read the response from the Board of Public Utilities It states that I was properly notified of the disconnect I was not properly notified of the amount of the final bill from the previous place *** *** The bill had been returned to the office The representative even confirmed that that final bill had been sent back to their officeI understand that the disconnect was possible because of the past due, that I would have paid in the office anyways I am disputing the amount that I had to pay in order to restore service, the rudeness of management, and the process She made comments like "you used the service didn't you?" Those comments are unprofessional and un-called for There were other comments that I cannot remember specifically Plus I never once used foul language when I went in to find out about the shut-off There was a lot of arguing about the amount that needed to be paid in order to restore service.As I stated, it was never received The day I transferred service I did go into the office and was never advised that the bill was so high I did struggle to pay the bill at the previous address because they were so expensiveMost customers in the area would have had a difficult time paying such a large amountIf I had known the bill was there I would have resolved the issue by going into the office sooner.Also, the manager was extremely rude, as they always are in that office Regards,*** ***

In response to complaint# ***, a customer service representative spoke with the customer on 8/8/and discussed the charge for the televisions collected on 7/17/The customer was transferred to the Garbage Hotline and left a voicemail stating that she was calling about the charge and it
was wrong; that there were no televisions collected and she wanted the fee deleted.This complaint was researchedOur solid waste collectors took photographs of the items sitting in front of the house on 7/An employee spoke with the property owner who confirmed that the televisions belonged to the customer.The customer left another voicemail on 8/18/stating that she was not paying the charges because she didn't ask us to collect any televisions and wanted a call backThe customer did not answer the phone, and a return message was left by an administrative clerk advising her the complaint was researched and the BPU had photographic evidence that the items were collected on the date in questionShe was the responsible party for the solid waste service atthat location and the charge was her responsibilityAs of 9/1/2017, the BPU has not received any further communications from the customer regarding this charge, The customer did not request to discuss this situation with a supervisor.While the BPU does not guarantee immediate collection of any items requiring special handling, these items may be collected right away if the solid waste department has the available time and space.If the customer would like to contact me directly by calling the BPU, I would be willing to discuss the situation with her further.James ***Solid Waste Supervisor

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.They still have not showed me how my bill of something dollars all of a sudden turned into something dollarsI have told them I have no way out there at the moment and that I also am not stabled to be able to pay that amount at the moment and if they could give me an extendes amount of tome to pay this amount of money and not send it to collections yetThere will be no way I will be paying this amount of money without anyone explanations as to why my bill of something dollars turned into something dollarsI have not recieved any letters, emails, nor phone calls ragrding to this bill beforeThe only letter I have received from them was the final notice which was sent to my mothers homeThe day I went into Bpu to turn off my lights no one there has told me that there will be any further fees nor did they tell me that my bill of something dollars could be added up if I did not pay it in a certain amount of time.
Regards,
*** *** ***

I had wrote earlier but I really wanted to make sure that my complaint went threw and I went over the documents I have very closely too so that I could be clear on my issues I am havingI have lived in *** on and off within years and I had some outstanding bills with the local BPUWithin
the last three years I have had to make payment arrangments one after the otherWell they updated and got a new system and ever since they have billing me for old accounts over and overThe Supervisor is using the old system to pull old accounts and make payment plans for bills over years oldThe bills can not be verified threw the *** *** only one can be from what I can tellThe supervisor refuses to give me a complete record or access to my complete payment recordI know for a fact and can prove that she added accounts up and added them onto a bill a old residence and there are multiple bills as oneI have a record of the bills and the original payment agreementI also requested a summary of my credit report and the only one on my report is the one she added these accounts toThey equal out to bucks on her end, on collection recovery I.Elocal department, but I have her writing that states there is only a balance of bucks on that billing addressYet she put it into collections on my credit scorerecieved money and never reported it and I received that report and have documents that she indeed did not report these paymentsThere are many rules to having service here, you can not have an existing amount on your water and waste here if you want new servicesI have had to pay every single on of these debts when I have moved and I have moved several timesThe funny thing is the payment agreement doesnt have my legal mailing address, but has the service location on it, it has all the bills to this address for this payment agreement for this and its to a landlord whom I rented from and I never even had water on in my name at this residentShe even changed the owners name on the document when his last name is ***These bills span back to years or moreI have never even lived at one of these residents on this historyI was forced to make several agreements over the last three years and I paid off all my debt before Auguest of because I was getting marriedMy fiance and family helped me pay them but I made poor judgement and paid in cash, but I recently started paying with Checks and money order and I am seeing now charges on my bill conveniently afterwards of MISC billings for over $and getting receipts not saying hat accounts their being paid toHad my utilities shut off and I am receiving bills and shut off within days of each otherMy receipt say amount not appliedLike where is my money going? I call and question them as I have been making payments and I get hung up on and get no answers and they tell me Pay the bill or deal with the outcomeI have paid these bills at least once alreadyI know I didIt was not until until I got off of public services and they got this new system till she started thisI have a ghost bill and payments that I am payingShe goes to the back and gets files that are not in the system and pulls it up on the old system and then applies it in the system as not appliedsounds a lot like embezzlementI wasnt sure if I had the documentation to prove anything I was saying or reason for anyone to believe me till recently but if I am not taken seriously I will be going to The Attorney Generals office or wherever I may need to go to get helpI have never lived in such fear of a company in my whole lifeShe is having me pay accounts with no numbers all 0000's theres not legal names on it and the money is what she thinkscan not be tracedWell if I am wrong then I am wrong but all they needed to do was give me access to all of my records so I know what I am paying and clear billing or explanation but I rather laughed at and taunted and they like to keep my services off even though I pay my billsI have records now I have found them of recent activity and I am very serious as to wanting to have them explain their billing with actual documentation and not verbal warnings and threats.I would like explanation of charges, copies of all payments received in the old system and new, refunded for old payment, correction to credit report as I know that I have in her own documentation that she received payment for an account and never reported it to my Credit Report, Actually I would like everyone of the Billing and Payments team reviewed and if founded that they knew what they were doing that they all be charged

Thank you for the recent customer feedbackBelow is a summary of the events that lead to Ms***service being disconnected:• Ms*** received a past due disconnection notice from the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities("BPU") on or around November 7th for an unpaid amount of $118.14, which
highlighted that herservice was at risk of being disconnected because of non-payment• Ms*** made a payment by credit card, on-line on November 28th of $Because she did notpay the full past due amount, and because she did not come into the office and pay in person(where she would have been advised that she needed to pay more), her account was stillscheduled for disconnection.• Once her current account went past due, our system highlighted that she also had a "final bill"from a previous address that had never been paidThis "final bill" amount was added to theamount of money that Ms*** owed the BPU, however, it was not the reason for the waterdisconnect.• The water service was disconnected on November 29"A payment was made on-line later thatday and service was restored on the following day per policy and practice.The BPU followed standard practice and policyMo*** was properly notified of her delinquent accountand was given ample time to make a payment to avoid service disconnectionBecause of this, there willbe no adjustments to Ms*** account at this time.If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me directly.Sincerely,David ** *** , General Manager

July 29,2015Revdex.com100 Bryant Woods SouthAmherst, New York 14228Attn: [redacted] Complaint HandlerDear [redacted]:This is in response to your complaint ID# [redacted]Customer, [redacted] claims to have moved out of [redacted] in January 2015. The forwarding...

address provided by her at that time was 10 Stowe St. Jamestown, N.Y. We were just recently made aware that she has now moved to 103 Barbara Place Buffalo, N.Y. Should you have any further questions, please call me @ ###-###-####. Sincerely,Michael A. A[redacted]Business Manager

We have been in contact with this consumer, had a meeting last week and a follow up is upcoming. We are trying to work things out with her.

The electric service was disconnected for nonpayment on 5/1 for a past due amount of$390 .62, after several notices sent out by the utility in attempts to collect. This amountwas made up of 2 months of past due service.On 2/16 customer was mailed a current statement reflecting a due date of...

3/12/18.When payment was not made a disconnect notice was sent 3/14 giving the last day topay to prevent shut off as 3/29/18. Also on 3/16 , the next current statement was sentalso including the past due information including to pay the amount by 3/29/18 to avoiddisconnect. This documentation illustrates $126 .36 of the total $390.62 past duedisconnected 5/1 .On 3/16 customer was sent a statement reflecting current charges due by 4/9, and alsothe amount past due from previous bill as stated before. Payment was not received 4/9so on 4/11 a disconnect notice for this amount was sent giving a last day to pay of4/26/19 . Again, on 4/16 the next current notice went out recapping the terms needed toavoid disconnect. The amount in question for proper notification and quick disconnectwas communicated to the customer via 5 notices over a time period of 69 days.For the safety of our employees in the field, our collection policy states, they will notcollect cash, they will travel in pairs and they are not required to seek out the customerbefore shut off, but if encountered and customer wants to provide them with a check orif they only have cash it is of the discretion of the employee to provide the customer withmore time. Typically the employee will not allow more time only if the service wasalready disconnected.Another point to make with this case is that Ms. [redacted] is not the customer of recordand it is not our policy to discuss account details with anyone other than the accountholder. Given she is not the account holder supports the statement that she was onlytold "the order was sent out". The Public Service Commission requires us to restoreservice within 24 hours of payment. This service was disconnected on 5/1 and at 2:46pm payment was made which generated a reconnect order. Service was restored 5/2at 8:43 am. Utility well within regulations.All supporting documentation has been included.Regards,Christy [redacted]Jamestown Board of Public UtilitiesCustomer Service Supervisor