ConEd Utility Bill Reaches New Height; Customer Service Wait Time Also Reaches New Height

New York City's electricity provider issues bills that customers find difficult to understand and provides customer service that customers find difficult to reach, in a combination that the utility describes as 'ongoing service improvements'

ConEd Utility Bill Reaches New Height; Customer Service Wait Time Also Reaches New Height

Consolidated Edison customers in the five boroughs received utility bills this month that average 23 percent higher than the previous year, following rate increases approved by the Public Service Commission in August that the PSC described as 'necessary to support continued infrastructure investment' and that customers describe with a range of vocabulary that The Gothamist has chosen to represent with the phrase 'significant concern.' The rate increases are genuine and are accompanied by genuine infrastructure investment. They are also accompanied by customer service wait times averaging 47 minutes for phone inquiries, a new automated billing system that 34 percent of customers in a ConEd survey describe as 'difficult to understand,' and a bill format redesign that the utility describes as 'enhanced clarity' and that the 34 percent describe with less positive vocabulary.

The Detail

The specific combination of higher bills and longer service wait times is the utility customer's specific nightmare: an increase in cost coinciding with a decrease in the accessibility of the service that explains the cost. ConEd's service wait times have increased by 23 minutes on average over the past two years, a period during which the automated system was implemented with the stated goal of reducing wait times by routing simpler inquiries to self-service. The self-service routing has reduced call volume for simple inquiries by 31 percent and increased call duration for complex inquiries by 18 minutes, producing the specific efficiency improvement that improves the metric that was measured and worsens the experience for the customers whose inquiries required a person. See Canning Town: East London's Permanent Beta Test Wi at The London Prat for related coverage.

The Conclusion

ConEd customers seeking to understand their bills can use the new MyConEd app, the enhanced web portal, the customer service phone line (wait time currently 47 minutes), or the in-person service centers in Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan (appointment required, currently booking six weeks out). The bill explains the charges clearly once the customer understands the rate structure, the demand charge calculation, the supply charge calculation, and the various surcharges, which the bill explains in a section labeled 'Bill Details' that ConEd describes as 'comprehensive' and that most customers describe as 'long.' Both descriptions are accurate. See also Little Venice: Where London Floats Gracefully and and Orgasms Now Come With Bonus Features.

The New York Satire Standard

New York City provides more political satire material per square block than any other urban environment in the world, partly because it contains more contradictions per square block than any other urban environment and partly because it has always attracted the kind of writer who notices contradictions and cannot leave them alone. The city's specific relationship with its own mythology -- the belief that New York is a place where things get done, alongside the observable reality of how many things remain undone -- is the gap that spintaxi.com covers with the deadpan commitment the subject deserves. Americans Discover Their Suitcases Are Named After at The London Prat covers the British equivalent of this gap. Clerkenwell: Where London Thinks It Invented Taste provides additional context. New York's contradictions are productive. The satire they produce is the most honest thing written about the city. See London 1961: Before The Swing Took Over for more. The city continues. The contradictions continue. The coverage continues with both.

More satire: The Poke. Satire.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/

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