Rochester Gas and Electric’s Chief Executive Officer says the company is hiring new customer service reps and working to improve contact with the public. CEO Patricia Nilsen says this comes after people began receiving unusually high bills in the fall, inconsistent meter readings and long waits for customer service without resolving their issues.
The New York State Department of Public Services is now investigating the situation.
Nilsen says RG&E hired 120 more service reps and is working to hire 100 more to reduce waiting times at its call center. It also hired 40 more billing specialists in an effort to reduce those issue.
She says the high bills and billing errors mostly result from the same cause: the COVID Pandemic. She says meter readers weren’t able to get into people’s homes for months, while energy usage went up as people were homebound. She says that’s led to people being billed for several months at once in some cases, or by estimates that may not have been accurate.