I just wrote a big check to DTE for gas and electric and mailed it to Cincinnati, Ohio. Why can't they process their bills in Detroit? I'm sure there is space for a billing center and capable folks to be employed in our city.
I just wrote a big check to DTE for gas and electric and mailed it to Cincinnati, Ohio. Why can't they process their bills in Detroit? I'm sure there is space for a billing center and capable folks to be employed in our city.
Would you prefer that they spend more on their own processing center and cover the cost by increasing your rates?
And outsource even more jobs.
http://ir.53.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=727...9186&highlight
http://www.intelligentutility.com/ar...-organizations
Ooh, some press releases. Wow. You can Google too? That's amazing.And outsource even more jobs.
http://ir.53.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=727...9186&highlight
http://www.intelligentutility.com/ar...-organizations
MikeM, all I'm saying is that these important public utilities should be owned by the people, by America. Why do you hate America?
Why not nationalize all economic activity? That's the dream of petty dictators worldwide. Look at the stellar results. Nirvana, your name is North Korea.
Nationalization = inefficient kleptocracy. Sure, let's put Kwame and the DPS board in charge of the whole economy.
I'm not in favor of nationalizing utilities, but the TVA has been pretty successful by and large. And of course there are many successful muni power companies. The one I have personal experience with has the lowest rates in its state and also the best service. Of course that doesn't mean there aren't be bad ones too, just that it isn't inevitable. There are also bad public utilities.
One thing to keep in mind is that despite some deregulation, the delivery of electricity to your home is a monopoly. If the service is bad you can't switch to another transmission company, and that is a situation where some kind of public provision may make sense.
NATIONALIZE
can't do any better for travel than Amtrack
and as far as a sustainable business, the Postal Service is A#1
and when I retire I know social security will be there for me to cover most of my retirement needs
Agreed about TVW mwilbert.I'm not in favor of nationalizing utilities, but the TVA has been pretty successful by and large. And of course there are many successful muni power companies. The one I have personal experience with has the lowest rates in its state and also the best service. Of course that doesn't mean there aren't be bad ones too, just that it isn't inevitable. There are also bad public utilities.
One thing to keep in mind is that despite some deregulation, the delivery of electricity to your home is a monopoly. If the service is bad you can't switch to another transmission company, and that is a situation where some kind of public provision may make sense.
As for monopolies of electric/gas.... anyone else get those annoying phone calls about how much money you can save switching to another natural gas company?
I don't remember getting any calls about electric service... but aren't there both types [[gas/electric) of other companies that offer other energy sources... but use the gas/electric grid?
Isn't this part of a "supposed" deregulation of the energy utilities here in Michigan?? I don't recall the specifics...
We do have a public provision. Electric, telephone, [[and in some places) water utilities are regulated by the states. The companies present their cost figures to the regulatory commission who tacks on an allowable amount of profit and sets rates.
The federal government did give away the farm to CATV and SATV utilities making it difficult to control rates.
There's already a whole thread on this subject from just two months ago: DTE Energy billing
......not to mention the reliability of service.Or we could just nationalize the energy sector. That way we could take profit out of it....
There have been numerous studies regarding reliability of utilities. Guess what? the community-owned utilities come out on top. Same for customer satisfaction.
All is not rosy on the gummint front either. When I worked for the Army as a civil servant, our commanding general got more and more irritated as the errors and lack of service by our servicing finance office at Buzzard's Point [[just south of Ft McNair in DC). He finally came to the conclusion that they were terminally incompetent and that no action on his part was likely to cause them to change. When our status changed from an "activity" to a "command" he put out feelers to other finance offices in the US. An army finance center in St Louis gave him the best offer. We sent a daily overnight mail of paperwork to them and got a daily overnight mail back. Turnaround time on travel vouchers and reimbursement for travel dropped from a month to a week. Finance office in Buzzard's Point lost ten per cent of their positions and had to do a RIF. Finance office in St Louis gained spaces and hired new people.
And I started another thread on the same subject in 2009....There's already a whole thread on this subject from just two months ago: DTE Energy billing
They did do their billing out of detroit until, oh, the same time they shut all the service centers, which was a year after having RECORD PROFITS and then asking for, and getting, a big honking increase in the recovery charge from the useless rubber-stamp utilities commission
Old news.
Be happy they're not sending the bill processing to Pakistan.
Seems like it would be simple for the Clowncil to pass an ordinance requiring any company providing utility services inside the city to have customer service offices inside the city or face an annual penalty of say $1,000,000 for each year an office doesn't exist.
I don't care where they have their billing centers; I just wish they could keep my power on when it's sunny and warm out. I had three outages in two weeks last month and two of them were on clear days. And not just for a minute or two. Several hours once and a day the other time. The third time was storm related and we were out almost two days
About four years ago, we had the same problem. I wrote a letter to DTE and received a great response. They assigned an engineer to our neighborhood who checked for power events. He found we'd had a large amount of failures and he promised to check into the problems. He would send me an email every week or so with an update. By summer's end, the problem had been taken care of. I can't complain about the service, as they took care of our neighborhood's problems. Perhaps a letter would do same for you?I don't care where they have their billing centers; I just wish they could keep my power on when it's sunny and warm out. I had three outages in two weeks last month and two of them were on clear days. And not just for a minute or two. Several hours once and a day the other time. The third time was storm related and we were out almost two days
Guess what? You're comparing apples with oranges. Community-owned utilities do not have anywhere near the number of customers and size of service area as DTE. Nationalizing the utilities would take it even further in the wrong direction. But thanks for making my point!
Nationalize the utilities and Detroitnerd and everyone else would eventually be writing those letters to their congress-persons office - good luck with that!About four years ago, we had the same problem. I wrote a letter to DTE and received a great response......... I can't complain about the service, as they took care of our neighborhood's problems.
|
Bookmarks