Commission opens investigation into Ameritech service quality

Last week the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission opened a formal investigation into the service quality of Ameritech over the past year.\nThe investigation includes alleged violations of state code. \nIn the first three quarters of 2000, the state charges that Ameritech met the standard of restoring service within 24 hours only 66 percent of the time. According to regulatory commission findings, the mean time of response increased from just more than 24 hours in late November of last year, to more than 33 hours a month later. \nAmeritech also failed to satisfy requests for primary service within five working days, according to the regulatory commission.The code requires that at least 90 percent of requests be satisfied, and the state said Ameritech only met the standard 86 - 88.6 percent of the time.\nThe regulatory commission reports a number of consumer complaints, mostly during the summer.\n"What we saw this summer was disastrous," said Dave Menzer, a spokesman for the Citizens Action Coalition, a consumer group.\nThe final violation the commission cited was Ameritech's alleged failure to answer at least 80 percent of calls to the repair service within 20 seconds on average. Ameritech ranged from meeting this standard 32.3 percent - 55.5 percent,of the time, according to the state. The average number of seconds per call ranged from 62.5 seconds in January 2000 to almost four minutes in August.\nAmeritech spokesman Mike Marker said the company's service suffered because of a lack of staff. A retirement buyout package, he said, drew a higher response than expected.\nThe investigation, which could take as long as a year, was the result of the commission's failure to settle with Ameritech on the issues.\n"They had been trying to do it informally, but since they couldn't reach a settlement, they felt that they had to take it to the next step," said Mary Beth Fisher, a spokesperson for the regulatory commission.\n"We had a difference of opinion," Marker said.\nThe commission had called for an increased number of consumer credits after multiple complaints about Ameritech's service. \n"We'd already invested $2.5 million in consumer credits, and we felt that the best use of our resources was to improvements going forward," Marker said.\nMarker was referring to the $1 billion "Opportunity Indiana" plan, which is currently being negotiated in public hearings.\nThe commission holds that the Opportunity Indiana hearings and the past service quality violations were separate, Fisher said. But Ameritech did not agree.\n"The commission would like you to believe that they are separate, but in reality they are intertwined," Marker said.\nFisher said that Ameritech was now complying, that they were now receiving fewer calls and that the investigation is into Ameritech's past non-compliance.\nMarker stated that they now are in compliance with the code and would like to focus on going forward, as opposed to dwelling on their problems in the past. \n"In September we announced an extended customer care service program where we brought in over a hundred employees to work on repairs and service. Last fall we recognized we had challenges and took responsibility for them."\nA regulatory commission press release said that the investigation will require the company to convince the commission why enforcement action should not be taken against Ameritech.\nMarker said Ameritech would comply with the investigation fully.