Liberty Utilities

We've spoken to Ms [redacted] again this afternoon and worked with her to make her payments and reconnect her natural gas service.
We consider the issue resolved.

We have reviewed our records and contacts with Ms [redacted] and despite our error in allowing her service to be re-instated without full payment of the debts she owes us, we have agreed to leave the service active for thirty days. In that time, we've requested that Ms [redacted] secure the means to pay...

us for the natural gas she has used in the past and for which she legitimately owes us and that she make a security deposit. We have provided the names of local agencies who may be able to assit her financially via our website.
 
We made an error in our quote to her initially, to re-establish her service, and we've apologized for that error. We feel this decision to leave the service active temporarily on our part more than makes amends for that error. The issue of paying for services she's used and a security deposit remains for Ms [redacted] to satisfy.

Ms [redacted] visited our office and we met with her. We apologized for any errors, waived her reconnection fee, waived her deposit requirement and applied her payment to her account where it will be credited against future charges.
Below is her verbatim email response to us:
From: [redacted]...

[redacted] [mailto:[redacted]]
Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2015 6:30 AM
Subject: Re: LIBERTY UTILITIES BILLING ADJUSTMENT
Thank you so much for your genuine concern. I appreciate very much how it was handle.
[redacted]
We consider this complaint closed.
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.The issue still is not justified on my behalf. Last time I checked Georgia does not accept common law marriages so you all could have garnished his wages to prevent the gas being turned on in my name ([redacted]), but anyways he is going to ay for it since you all can't settle it were he is the only one held responsible for his own debts. So if me and him split up I would have helped you all make him pay a debt just for my account. Smh thank you for your time.
Regards,
[redacted]

We certainly would like to have all our customers' services turned on immediately, too. It would help us to have every customer connected, every day of the year. And we agree that waiting for service is inconvenient ANY time it happens.
Our employees are working overtime and on weekends...

to provide service to as many customers as we safely can. Despite our efforts, we do have a waiting list at this time. We've talked to other HVAC, plumbing and service companies who are also experiencing wait times right now, too.
We've circulated newspaper articles, newsletters, bill inserts and bill messagelines, trying to encourage people to take care of their utility business BEFORE cold weather arrives but unfortunately, many customers have not done so. Now that cooler weather has arrived, the result is a waiting list.
We will continue to work through our list and provide the best service we can under the circumstances. Thank goodness the temperatures will remain relatively warm most of this week as we do so.

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.
Regards,
[redacted]

We have contacted our customer, explained her bill, made all the necessary corrections and received a complimentary email back from her.
 
Resolved
[redacted]

Mr. [redacted] is not on the account as a Authorized or Secondary, meaning he can make a payment but cannot have services turned off or on.
Mr. [redacted] did pay the past due amount, and I reached out to the owner of the property, Mr. [redacted].
Mr. [redacted] did inform me that Mr. [redacted] is leasing the...

property from him and he authorized for the services to be reconnected.
Since this issue has gone on for a week, I went outside of our normal procedures to have the services reconnected today.
After speaking with Mr. [redacted] and Mr. [redacted] they both seem satisfied with the results.

We have researched this account and discussed it with our customer service representative, [redacted] (mistakenly identified as "[redacted]" by our customer)and the others involved. There was no "cussing out" or other unprofessional behavior we found; however, we have reminded our employees to be courteous...

and polite in all their contacts with our customers.
Ms. [redacted] had a past due amount on her natural gas bill that went unpaid long enough that it made her account eligible for disconnection. When we didn't receive payment from her or reach any agreement on payment arrangements with her, her service was terminated.
Since that time, we have had multiple discussions with Ms [redacted] and she has talked to our manager about payment alternatives, as he attempted to work with her. Unfortunately, despite our discussions with her, Ms [redacted] feels that she does not owe the past due amount since she says she did not always get her bill.
We have offered to waive her deposit requirement, waive her reconnection fee and to provide her with same-day reconnection of her service if she will pay the past due amount...but to date, she refuses to do so.
At this point, we have done all we can do to assist her by waiving our legitimate deposit and reconnection fees to help her get reconnected. However, we cannot provide natural gas service without payment for it. The decision to re-establish service is now hers to make and we remain open to working with her.

Final Consumer Response /* (2000, 16, 2015/08/24) */
The company has corrected their records and sent me a corrected bill.

I have reached out to Mr. [redacted] and we have resolved his issue with his billing. I believe we have satisfied all of his request. We are sending him an email, per his request, with all we have discussed.

I have spoken with Mr. [redacted] and advised him of the actions we have already taken on this issue, prior to this communication.   We further discussed the issue and at this point Mr. [redacted] is fine with us considering this complaint closed. 
Thank you,
[redacted],...

Supervisor-Customer Care

I spoke with our Service Department Supervisor, [redacted].  He felt the best action for us was to contact Mr. [redacted] and set-up a time for the two of them...

to meet and discuss the entire situation.
Mr. [redacted] and Mr. [redacted] met on Monday, 4/25/16.  Below is Mr. [redacted]'s assessment of the situation after their meeting:
I met with Mr. [redacted] this morning. He was very polite. I looked at his meter and how difficult it is to read. You can easily see the meter from his gate. I did get a faint odor of gas as we approached the meter. I have a service technician out checking it now. He is also going to change the meter.  I believe changing the meter will satisfy Mr. [redacted].
We have also addressed this issue with our meter reading department.
Thank you,
[redacted]

Unfortunately, when a customer allows a bill to go unpaid for 45 days and does not respond to our two phone calls and two written notices about the impending service termination over that time period, we terminate the service in accordance with the date provided to the customer.
Often, a contact...

to us at any time in that time period can help delay the service termination -- an email, visit, letter or phone call to discuss the account can help address the balance due.
However, when we do not get a response, we review the account and to protect all our other customers, our company and sometimes the customer him/herself, we terminate the service.
As Ms [redacted] acknowledges, her bill was not paid and that led to this termination. We're grateful that the account hasn't gone this long without payment or customer response in the past.
We have not accepted cash in our office for over fifteen years (as Ms [redacted] points out when she attempted to pay us her security deposit with cash).
Her security deposit will accumulate 7% interest per annum and will be credited back to her account with the interest at the end of a year of on-time payments.

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's response.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I received a response from a supervisor the same day as I made this complaint. They sent someone to turn on the gas that evening with no reconnection fee. This supervisor let me know that they had an issue with billing that affected many people and she apologized.
Today, I received another call from their Customer Service Manager further explaining the situation, apologizing and letting me know that I will also be receiving an apology letter from the president of Liberty. He also explained that he would be putting policies and procedures in place to prevent this from happening again, and would implement more customer service training classes. I am satisfied with these responses.
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.
Regards,
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.I understand the business's standpoint of requiring the deposit, however considering that I'm not the account holder but authorized on the account, I feel the need to point out that the account holder is a disabled Marine veteran, and we have been informed in the past that Liberty waives deposits based on that status. Aside from that, it makes me ill to think that any business is allowed to lie, repeatedly, to customers, be verbally abusive and otherwise treat people disrespectfully, and they see no reason to rectify this situation. I've received NO apology, either via e-mail or over the phone, but I DID get THREE bills in succession, old bills, one dated one day and the next two dated the next two days in my mailbox yesterday. Not only is Liberty run by people who have ZERO business sense, but they also feel the need to send bills for something I've already paid! I refuse to pay the deposit until I speak with a senior representative about this matter and receive an apology for not only my fiance being treated like he was dirt, but myself as well. This is unbelievable. 
Regards,
[redacted]

I listened to the calls and he states Ms. [redacted] is his wife, while she states he is her fiancé'. Since they are both living at the same address our policy is to collect any bad debt,

Mr [redacted] online auto-draft account drafted twice in December...

2013. We were not able to definitively determine the reason for this;  we could not positively state that it was due to something in our system or something due to actions from others.
 
Regardless, we immediately escalated his concerns issue through multiple layers of the system and several different individuals to correct it. When we confirmed that it had double drafted, we hand-processed an individual check through our local Finance and Administration Department for the total amount of the repeated draft. We then personally delivered that check directly to Mr [redacted] with our apologies for the error, no matter what its origin was.
Mr. Ketterlinus had spoken with three of our employees prior to this in December; one on December 18 and two others on December 23. 
 
The account was protected from our normal deliquency process of payment calls and letters, as another gesture of apology for the double-drafting, during this time.
 
 
June 11, 2014.

Yes, I think I sent it Thursday. If you didn't get it, please respond. He's happy now.

We were amazed at the quick response! We were called just a few hours after posting this cmplaint.
Thank you,
[redacted] & [redacted]