Another Way For LP&L To Stick It To Customers

It should come as no big shock to anyone living within the city limits that LP&L has a horrible reputation for being crooks, well until now, I have pretty much kept my opinions to myself... Until today....

Yesterday, I got a phone call from a pretty upset Woody telling me she had gotten a call from LP&L stating the electric bill was past due and that we needed to make a payment by 5:00 p.m. or in addition to the monthly amount (we are currently on budget billing so the bill is consistent) we would also have an addition late fee and a reconnect fee.

She proceeded to tell the kind woman who was given the duty to make this type of call there must be some sort of mistake because our payments are set to auto pay each month. She got the name and number of the lady and told her she would call her back.

My Wood then made a stop by our bank to inquire if there had been a problem processing the payment. It was then she found out that the bill had in fact been paid on time and was given the confirmation number to give to LP&L to clear the matter up.

Upon calling the pleasant customer service person at LP&L she offered the confirmation number not once, not twice, not even three times, but a total of FOUR times and not once did the person on the other end ask for the number.

Instead, the LP&L employee began questioning Woodmaker as to how the account was set up, through our bank or through the LP&L payment center.

When she responded through our local bank the woman informed her that LP&L recommend customers use the LP&L payment center on their website rather than their personal banks because the banks take eight to ten days to actually process the payment.

Naturally, Wood explained the account has always been set up this way and there has never been an issue with it being paid on time before so when did this become the case... to which the worker had no logical explanation.

Upon further investigation we found LP&L charges an addition processing fee for payments made online through their system.

For the record, I know the customer service folks at LP&L are following the guidelines set by the board members of LP&L; like most of us...they're just doing their jobs.