SAIPAN resident Del Benson has requested the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. board to improve what he says is a “laborious” process of connecting new accounts to the CUC power grid.
Benson attended the CUC board meeting last week to share his frustration with the current system.
“You are in a position to do something,” he told the board members. “Please do something — come up with a [better] system. I think you need to totally revamp [it]. It’s not working — there’s no communication, it’s a disruption, it’s slow, it’s just a waste of energy on our part.”
Benson said he feels sorry for CUC’s customer service personnel. “They are the ones [on] the front line, they are the ones that take the hit, they are the ones that deal with the frustrations.”
He added, “I don’t believe the power division and customer services are in communication. There is always something, deadlines not promised, phone calls not returned — there are countless problems that we personally encountered, and so I am pleading, quit talking and do something please. Our system is a mess, and people get frustrated. I shouldn’t have to spend hours trying to deal with these minor things.”
Benson said he has resided on island for so long that he no longer remembers what it’s like getting power connected on the U.S. mainland. “People there say, ‘I just called up a number and they switched the power on.’”
In comparison, Benson said, “we have these laborious processes, especially for new hookups.”
He said his son submitted a new application for a new meter, but three months have already passed. “Customer service drops the ball, they get confused, and there has been no return call. I have not seen much of a positive change [with] our power system here…. Yes, we have money issues, yeah, we have a lot of issues, but there are some core things that we can do. But I plead with you: get your processes evaluated, don’t patch it, rework it. Get a system going where there is communication immediately instead of everybody calling and waiting for somebody to get back and not knowing that there is a process that people go through so that your customer services are not left stranded. They are left stranded, they are frustrated. Just ask anyone of them when Del Benson comes in. I’m nice, but I also complain about the inefficiencies and they shake their heads and say they tried. It’s not fair to the customer, it’s not fair to your employees, and you guys have the power to do something. Please consider this.”
CUC board chair Miranda Manglona told Benson that the board will work with management to address the concerns that he raised.
The CUC board has scheduled a special meeting for June 16 at 10:30 a.m. Among the items listed on the agenda are “Disputed Accounts and Customer Service Workflow, CPA-CUC Lease Agreement, Power Plant, Cost of Service Study Updates.”
