Utility Companies' Argument Holds Little Water With MP

Thursday, 10 July 2008

United Utilities have defended recent changes made to their bill-paying process in a letter to Southport's MP. John Pugh had written to the company seeking an explanation for the changes, which he says were "ill-conceived, unnecessary, and poorly implemented" - and this morning he says he is "far from impressed" by the companies response.

The Utility company recently wrote to customers informing them that they could no longer pay their bills for free at either Post Offices or 'PayPoint' outlets, with free payments now being restricted to 'Payzone' machines instead. In the letter to Dr Pugh, the company claim that though "it is regrettable if these changes are causing any inconvenience for our elderly customers, we hope that once they become accustomed to the changes they will quickly find them more convenient." They also reiterate the claim that "there are more Payzone outlets in Southport than Paypoint and post offices combined" - an argument the MP says "does not seem to stand up":

"Despite myself and several local people making this abundantly clear to them, United Utilities simply do not seem to grasp the fact that they are directing people to outlets with neither the capacity nor the desire to process bill payments.

"We have already established for instance that the 'Payzone' machines in Bargain Booze don't have the ability to process these kind of payments, nor do the owners of these stores want these machines used in this way. In short, United Utilities are sending people to places where the owners neither offer, nor want to offer, the services they're describing.

"If customer convenience is indeed of "the upmost importance" to the company - as their letter claims - then why on earth have they brought in changes that don't work, and that nobody wants?"

In an attempt to discover reason for the changes the Lib Dem MP asked United Utilities what the financial advantage of transferring payments to Payzone would be to the company. Their answer was that "this is commercially confidential information between ourselves and Payzone, and as such we are not at liberty to reveal this to you" - a reply which once again left Dr Pugh distinctly unimpressed:

"I would think United Utilities customer's have a right to know whether they are being inconvenienced purely to put more money into the pockets of shareholders already making a killing from rising utility prices. If this is not the case, why can they simply not come out and say so?"

The MP has now again contacted the company in order to seek further clarification on this issue:

"So far this whole process has been a shambles; an unnecessary change, that was poorly researched, and ineptly implemented. When you add to this the vulnerable nature of many of the people affected, then this completely avoidable situation becomes even harder to justify.

"People have a right to expect better."