Pennsylvania Power & Light Company agreed to pay $300,000 to
settle alleged violations of Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission customer service requirements, a spokesman for the utility said Thursday (3/16).

"Providing quality customer service is a priority at PP&L," said John R. Menichini, vice president-Customer Services. "We've had some shortcomings in the past in this area and we're placing greater emphasis on our customer service efforts in order to improve performance and exceed customer expectations for quality."

PP&L will pay the settlement as a corporate donation to "Operation HELP," which is a fuel fund that helps pay low-income customers' home energy bills. Operation HELP is funded by donations from PP&L, its customers and employees.

The settlement agreement, Menichini said, was the result of a PUC Bureau of Consumer Services informal investigation released in October 1994, as well as informal complaint violations from customers over a three-year period.

The bureau, which analyzes customer service performance among the state's utilities annually, identified violations of PUC regulations that govern the quality of service utilities provide to residential customers. The alleged violations included deficiencies in negotiating payment plans according to the guidelines, failing to inform customers in the termination process about medical certificate procedures and handling customer complaints, among others.

Menichini said PP&L has implemented corrective actions that include additional training for customer service representatives, assignment of a full-time compliance coordinator and selected activities to improve PP&L's compliance performance and customer complaint handling.

"As a result of these initiatives, we have seen improvement in our compliance performance and our ability to negotiate mutually agreeable payment arrangements with customers," Menichini said.

Based on PP&L's corrective measures and the company's overall responsiveness, the agreement does not call for the PUC to issue PP&L a civil penalty at this time. The PUC will assess PP&L a civil penalty in the future if the company's future customer service performance does not continue to improve.

"Our primary emphasis continues to be improving our service to customers," Menichini said. "We will continue the measures we've put into place as a means of focusing our attention on specific areas that need improvement."