THE Panay Electric Company Inc. (Peco) has resolved several complaints of their consumers right after the two-day closed-door conference with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and stakeholders at the Iloilo Midtown Hotel on April 17 and 18.
ERC listened to the complainants of the consumers regarding the difficulties they faced for the electrical usage especially the overbilling issues.
ERC Consumer Service Division head Gregorio Ofalsa said on Wednesday that most of the resolutions were the accumulated billings and remaining “unbilled” consumption.
Thus ERC and Peco conducted recalculations and review to the data of each consumer especially the billing history.
“So nakita namin, merong adjustments kaming nagawa, kung anong nararapat sa batas. Pinag-aralan namin hanggang sa bumaba ang claim ng PECO,” Ofalsa said.
After the said move, they asked the complainant if they concur and were satisfied with the computation and if they are willing to pay the amount in an installment base.
Peco vice president for operations Engr. Randy Pastolero admitted that the electric company have also committed some faults with billing issues.
Pastolero said that they shouldn’t have oblige the consumers to pay “all at once or under your terms” and they should at least give a latitude to settle the payments based on their status.
“There were a lot of issues that was resolve in that way,” he added.
Ofalsa expressed that he also encountered a complaint with regards to the arrogance of the Peco’s customer welfare desk.
“Kaya nga kinakausap ko nga ang management nila, actually andito sila ngayon,” Ofalsa said.
For him, the specified complaint was unacceptable but he deemed that “this were all allegations,” saying Peco will address the issue.
“We will invite them (consumers) through a letter in the office to try to settle the issues of their billing, in a set up like this. Only without ERC, we will try the same manner,” Pastolero said, adding that they will address all complaints and not wait for a memo from ERC.
“We take this as an opportunity to improve our service and we saw how the ERC handled the complaints,” Pastolero said. “There will be changes on our system, front liners and sa costumer welfare desk and of course the billing and metering.”