Luttenberger & Company

We have investigated the situation resulting in the letter of complaint from the consumer.  Piedmont is committed to providing high quality service while complying with all regulations.  The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act) requires utilities to implement an identity...

theft prevention program to reduce the risk of identity theft.  In particular, the FACT Act requires utilities to screen potential customers to verify their identity.  Piedmont does not prohibit non married parties from being listed as a secondary account holder however, Piedmont will not add a secondary account holder without the authorization of the primary account holder, and without speaking to the secondary in order to complete verification of their identity.  Our records reflect the request for service received in February 2015 was in the name of the husband only and that a verbal password was added to the account.  It is our policy that anyone who is able to verify the verbal password on an account can take any action on the account that the account holder can with the exception of changing the verbal password.  Records reflect the consumer contacted us in March 2015 with a request to service gas logs and she was able to verify the verbal password; as she was able to do so, the request for service was scheduled and provided.  Our records also reflect the husband contacted us on February 3, 2016 to verify service was active.  At this time he authorized adding his wife to the account however, review of our audit trail reflects the wife’s identity was not verified and the request to add her name to the account was not completed.  We received additional contact from the wife in June 2016; at this time she was unable to verify the verbal password on the account and we were unable to provide with her with account information.  In July 2017 we received a request from the consumer for an estimate to run a gas line for a range.  This information was provided to the consumer without requiring her to verify the verbal password or being listed as a secondary on the account as no account information was being provided and no action was being taken on the account.  The information provided was simply an estimate based on Piedmont labor and material charges.  When the consumer contacted us on the afternoon of December 28th she was unable to verify the verbal password on the account.  Following our internal policies in place to protect customer account information our representatives declined to provide information and/or make changes to the account.  Our records reflect that we contacted the consumer later that evening and spoke with both the consumer and her husband.  We scheduled an appointment to service the gas logs, successfully verified the consumer’s identity, added her name to the account, and established a new verbal password.  The consumer should not have any further issues obtaining information or making changes to the account.  We hope this is a satisfactory explanation and will gladly answer any additional questions or concerns the consumer may have.

I am rejecting this response because: Piedmont Natural gas was not forthcoming about the basis of their charges.