Power Company Pays Customers to Withdraw Formal Complaints

Middle Smithfield Township, Monroe County - An electric company is paying customers to take back complaints they made against it.

After Hurricane Sandy, many people said MetEd did a bad job responding to customers about storm damage. Those people filed official complaints with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC). Now customers are withdrawing those complaints in exchange for financial settlements.

MetEd spokesman Scott Surgeoner said the company has reached settlements with customers who complained to the government. To get the money, customers agree in a settlement that the original complaint issues have been resolved.

Middle Smithfield Township Supervisor Annette Atkinson remembers many people complained about MetEd's response to damage from Hurricane Sandy. She said, "The first complaint was that they were getting no response at all from MetEd. They couldn't get anyone on the phone."

More than a dozen people were so angry with MetEd that they filed formal complaints with the PUC. Township leaders helped residents with the process hoping it would make a difference in the future. Atkinson noted, "We thought once the PUC collects all these complaints they could aggregate similar complaints together."

PUC spokesperson Jennifer Kocher said individual complaints are not aggregated. They go before a judge. The individual complaints have nothing to do with the state's investigation into MetEd's storm response. She emphasized, "They have no impact on the handling of the formal review."

Kocher also explained that a judge cannot give orders for an electric company to compensate a customer financially or do something like purchase a generator. A judge can only require an electric provider to improve its services in the future.

Using that information, MetEd has convinced some customers to withdraw their complaints. One customer, who asked to remain anonymous, filed a complaint against MetEd because of its response to damage from Hurricane Sandy..

The customer said a MetEd representative contacted her over the phone. That representative explained that the customer's formal complaint likely wouldn't make a difference. Over the course of multiple phone calls, the representative emphasized that going forward with the formal complaint process could be inconvenient and time consuming. He offered a financial settlement.

The customer agreed to accept $300 in exchange for saying her issues were resolved and withdrawing her PUC complaint. Middle Smithfield Township residents were shocked. Zack Brower reacted, "I think if you're paying for someone to take their complaint away, you know you did something wrong." Settlement paperwork shows that by agreeing to a settlement MetEd is not admitting to any wrongdoing.

People were also surprised to learn the settlements are legal. Jeffrey Bower of Middle Smithfield Township said, "Legal doesn't necessarily mean ethical. They are not the same."

Atkinson said she was surprised the PUC allows this because other agencies would not be allowed to pay to have complaints against them withdrawn. She added, "The Township has no process for withdrawing complaints other than to improve our service and improve ourselves. We have no such process of paying people to take their complaints back."

Kocher said in the two months following Hurricane Sandy the PUC received 14 formal complaints against MetEd. Seven of those have been withdrawn. Kocher said she would need more time to look up exactly why each was pulled.

When Eyewitness News spoke to Surgeoner Tuesday morning, he said he would find out how many people received settlement money. At  5:30 pm Tuesday, Surgeoner said he needed more time to get the details on how many people took settlements and how much they got paid. He said some of the information may be private but he would have more specific details on Wednesday.

Surgeoner also noted that settlements are not unusual. He said that this is not the first time they have been offered and that it will not be the last time they are offered. He said they are common practice in utility industries. He added, "It is entirely up to the customer whether they accept that settlement offer or not."