Cleveland Utilities

Is no customer service really customer service at all?



Yesterday at around 10 AM the power at our apartment went out. Being the good citizen that I am (and always looking for a new reason to kvetch) I called Cleveland Utilities to let them know. Unfortunately, they must have gotten wind of my kvetchiness (I think I just made up a new word) and took preventative action. Why do I think this? Well, the first time I called the phone just rang and rang and rang (you get the idea). So I hung up and tried again. 22 rings (yes that is right 22 - I know cause I counted 'em) later the system finally picks up. "1" is the option to report a power outage so I press it. Well, that was about effective as George Bush's foreign policy (as in it got me nowhere). In fact pressing "1" worked so well the message came on again instructing me to press "1" to report a power outage. I distinctly got the feeling that I could have stood there all year pressing "1" and still wouldn't have been able to report our outage.



I don't know about you but I would think that a utility company could afford a phone system that actually worked so that it's customers could report problems.



UPDATE: When I went on their website to tell them of my experience yesterday (yes thats right to COMPLAIN) even though I filled out all the little boxes on their form, the thing wouldn't go through. I kept getting a "connection error" ... man is this company in denial!