"Your call is important to us." Please wait. And wait. For PGW callers, a long wait to 'hello'

By Robert Zausner and Cynthia Burton

INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS "Hello."

How some people long to hear that simple salutation. From a real, live, human being at the other end of the phone. At the Philadelphia Gas Works.

To the list of PGW's problems, which includes millions of dollars in unpaid bills, add this: Customers are having trouble getting through to customer service, including some who want to pay what they owe but have questions about their bills or haven't even gotten one in months.

"Nobody, from the person on the phone to the president, is going to defend the quality of service that exists," said Ben Hayllar - and he's the president of PGW.

Hayllar provided recent computer-generated statistics on customer-service response time - the average midafternoon wait was 10 minutes, with the longest at 27 minutes - and came up with this conclusion: "It's not good."

It's worse than that.

Try making a call after 5 p.m., when folks begin getting home from work, and the wait is excruciating. To be precise: 41 minutes. (By comparison, a Peco Energy representative picked up within 10 seconds.)

5:10 p.m. Wednesday: "Welcome to the PGW easy-access line. . . . If you wish to speak to a representative, press O. . . . Please stay on the line for the first available representative. . . ." (Soft tones of piano music, gentle percussion. . .)

The phone-answering problems seem even worse considering that the gas works has failed to collect $55 million in overdue bills over the last year. A number of customers say they were not deadbeats but just had bill inquiries and could not get through to PGW.

Shelly Shuster said she had a meter installed in July and has yet to get a bill.

Her husband called PGW in September. After waiting on the phone for 45 minutes, he hung up and went to the company's Bustleton Avenue district office, where he complained in person. The Shusters still haven't gotten a bill.

"Isn't this ridiculous?" said Shelly Shuster. "We don't want to let it go and go and get a bill for $1,000."

Theirs is a common complaint. A new computer system generated so many inaccurate bills that even PGW's bill-collection efforts were stopped over the summer, with its 28 bill collectors diverted to customer service.

"This is insane," said Tom Doyle, of Mayfair, who hasn't gotten a bill since June despite making numerous calls. "This is Jan. 18, and I haven't gotten a bill yet."

5:15 p.m.: "All of our customer representatives are speaking with other customers. Please wait. . . . Your call is important to us." (Soothing music . . .)

In recent days, the customer service lines have been particularly slow to pick up. There are a variety of reasons, Hayllar said.

For one, those 28 employees have been transferred back to bill collecting. An additional 15 cannot work due to illness - 10 out with the flu, and five with medical conditions, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, that prevent them from lifting a receiver. Some are taking days off to make up for working holiday shifts. In all, the regular staff of 65 is down to about 40 operators to take emergency, service and billing calls.

And a lot of calls are incoming at the moment, also for a number of reasons: PGW recently sent billing notices to low-income customers, and many customers adjust monthly estimated bills this time of year. The average number of daily calls has been exceeding 8,000.

5:18 p.m.: "Thank you for your patience. All of our representatives are still handling calls. If you wish to leave a message, press 1. Otherwise please continue to hold." (Jazzy guitar with male vocal: "People sitting back in easy chairs, folks smoking a big cigar without a care. . . . People make the world go round, Yeahhh.")

Actually, the average of 8,000 calls is hardly a record. Last summer, with computer-glitched bills, PGW was getting as many as 12,000 and 13,000 calls on some days. Problems with customer-service lines have existed for at least two years, said Hayllar, the former city finance director who became PGW president on Oct. 1.

"It has been a constant criticism of the gas works that is well-deserved," he said.

Robert Moore of Fishtown said he hadn't missed a payment in 30 years. Now he is getting bills showing double what he really owes. He's tried to fix things, but, he said, "I can't get PGW on the phone."

5:21 p.m.: "Thank you for your patience. . . . Please continue to wait."

Hayllar said PGW was aware of the problem and taking steps to correct it.

Starting today or Monday, the gas works will close two of its eight district offices and send the personnel to its main phone bank. One district office will be closed each day on a rotating basis - with PGW's "community vehicle" parked outside to provide limited services - and every day, PGW will close the district office at 800 Montgomery Ave. in North Philadelphia, where usual customers can go across the street to PGW main headquarters.

5:24 p.m.: "Thank you for your patience."

For the long term, Hayllar said, PGW will "rebuild" its phone center - not the technical aspects, which are up-to-date, but how it is managed.

Among things to be studied are supervision, worker and supervisory training, use of representatives' time, both on and off the phone.

For now, the message from PGW is clear. "We are very much aware of the problem," Hayllar said. "We are extremely concerned about it. We apologize for the inconvenience it causes people."

5:35 p.m.: "Thank you for your patience. . . ."

5:42 p.m.: "Thank you for your patience. . . ."

5:48 p.m.: "Thank you for your patience. . . ."

5:51 p.m.: "Hello

http://www.phillynews.com/inquirer/2000/Jan/21/front_page/PPGW21.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 22, 2000