The Missouri Public Service Commission staff hosted a town hall for Liberty Utilities to hear directly from its customers. Thursday's town hall was the result of an investigation filed in February by the staff of the state agency.
In attendance were Liberty representatives, including its Central District President, Tim Wilson, and representatives from the Missouri Public Service Commission and Office of Public Counsel.
Liberty Utilities provides various utilities services to most of the Missouri counties.
According to Chief Economist for the Missouri OPC, Dr. Geoff Mark – about 40% of all Liberty consumers reported issues with delayed and incorrect bills within the last fourteen months. Dr. Mark says he wanted consumers to know their voices matter.
"We're effectively trying to get a sense of the scale of the problem and resolve the issues," he said.
The issues with billing started when the company installed a new software system with changes to the billing system - according to an opening statement from Wilson.
"We know it's frustrating and certainly inconvenient, and it has taken us longer than we planned to complete the transition," he explained.
Wilson said the billing issues hit hardest in Bolivar, Branson, Aurora and Ozark.
Liberty's largest Empire District is the Southwest Missouri region.
Liberty Communications Director, Kelli Price, said the company wants to make things right for consumers.
"We don't want to stop until all our customers have a good experience with us. So, we'll take this and learn from it, get better, do better, and make sure that all our customers have a good experience," she explained.
The auditorium at Missouri Southern State University was filled with angry and confused customers. Residents complained of inconsistent billing and random 'blinking' of service. Long-time Joplin resident Sheba Lewis spoke about getting a delayed $3,000 electric bill right before Christmas last year. She's a mother of nine children and had to go back to work to pay off the bill because her husband's hours were cut.
"How many more jobs am I going to have to take, or my husband's going to have to take to be able to pay?" Lewis asked the Central District President.," Lewis asked.
Another Joplin resident, Jeremy Nelson, said he shouldn't question the quality of service he's getting.
"I think to sum it up, what everyone feels and what I feel is frustration and lack of trust," he adds.
Before and during the town hall meeting, there were Liberty customer service associates at tables in the auditorium library available to field questions.
This was the fourth of a series of town hall meetings in the Southwest Missouri area. Gossett said each town hall lasted about four hours and was near capacity with concerned residents.
Missouri Public Service Commission Communications Director Forrest Gossett said the point of these town halls is for Liberty Utilities to 'synthesize the information' consumers give them.
Once Liberty collects findings, testimonies and complaints, then they'll give the information to the staff of the Public Service Commission – which will put together their own report.
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