Customer Bill Of Rights Renewal Extends Paperless Billing and Autopay Enrollment Bill Credits
LOS ANGELES (March 25, 2019) — The City of Los Angeles Board of Water and Power Commissioners has reauthorized the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) Customer Bill of Rights to ensure LADWP commercial and residential customers continue to receive guarantees of the same high level of customer service and incentives they have come to expect.
Originally implemented two years ago, the Customer Bill of Rights formalized service standards for LADWP’s interactions with customers as the Department delivered on its mission of providing safe, reliable water and power service. For example, LADWP is on track to keeping call wait times under three minutes, on average, and to dispatching a crew to investigate and assess water leaks no more than four hours from the time the incident is reported to the Department. The Department is also working toward processing all requests to start new residential accounts within one business day.
Reauthorizing the Customer Bill of Rights and the guarantees provided by the document is a way the Department continues to measure customer-oriented performance standards and keep itself accountable if it falls short of those standards.
Under the reauthorized Bill of Rights, listed below are a few of the accountability measures and customer incentives that have been extended:
- If a customer receives a bill that is three times their average historic billing period use due to an inaccurate meter reading, they will receive a $25 bill credit and the bill will be corrected.
- If a request to open a new residential account is not processed within one business day, LADWP will waive the connection fee.
- If LADWP takes longer than 10 days after the final inspection to process a new business service connection of 200 amps or less, that business will receive a $25 credit.
“LADWP is committed to putting our customers first and providing the highest quality water, power, and customer service,” says David H. Wright, LADWP General Manager. “The renewed Customer Bill of Rights continues to validate our commitment to moving the needle forward and is a testament to the Department’s dedication to meeting the needs of our customers.”
The paperless billing and autopay incentives currently offered to LADWP customers have also been extended as it was set to expire earlier this year. Through January 31, 2021, customers signing up for paperless billing for the first time will receive a one-time $10 credit, and will receive an additional one-time $15 credit if they also sign up for auto pay at that time. Customers who participated after the original December 31, 2018 deadline will also be extended a credit.
To date, approximately 269,000 customers have enrolled in paperless billing and approximately 242,000 enrolled in autopay. An estimated $952,000 in these incentives has been paid.
LADWP has also added new service level commitments to its Bill of Rights as a part of the renewal. The Department will work on completing 80% of water service installations within 100 or 140 days, depending on the service size. LADWP will also push to expedite the review and assignment process so that customers will be connected to the LADWP power system within six weeks of customer-completed work and LADWP authorization to construct.
The Board of Water and Power Commissioners voted to renew LADWP’s Customer Bill of Rights on February 26, 2019, which was set to expire January 31, 2019.
For more information, and to view the full text of the current version of LADWP’s Customer Bill of Rights, visit www.ladwp.com/CustomerBillofRights.
# # #
