Meralco delivers explanation letters to 4.1 million customers

MANILA, Philippines, July 17 ------ Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has completed the delivery of personalized letters to its 4.1 million customers explaining their electricity bills, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said yesterday. The chief of the Department of Energy (DOE) also followed up on actions taken by Meralco to resolve consumer complaints previously discussed with the company’s executives, as the agency continues to receive a high volume of consumer complaints regarding their May/June electricity bills.

In a letter addressed to Cusi, Meralco president and CEO Ray Espinosa said the company is “on target to deliver the 4.1 million personalized letters to customers explaining their May 2020 bills (based on actual meter reading) made even more ‘laymanized’ than what we issued for the June bills.” The delivery of the letters commenced on July 10, and was supposed to have been completed yesterday.

“When I met with Meralco last May, I advised them to re-issue electricity bills based on actual meter readings and disregard previous bills that were made on estimated consumption. We met again in June to discuss their implementation plan, and at that time, I underscored the importance of properly and clearly communicating with their consumers,” Cusi said. “Meralco informed us then that they will be issuing advisories explaining the May and June billings through letters, social media posts, and print media notices,” he added. Espinosa also said Meralco has deployed “virtual agents” in select Bayad Center outlets within its franchise area so that the affected customers can talk to a Meralco employee via computer setup regarding their billing concerns.

The power distributor has also deployed additional manpower to handle complaints in various digital channels such as emails, Facebook and Twitter. To recall, customers were billed from March to May based on their average consumption from December to February, as actual meter readings were not conducted due to the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine or ECQ. Later, numerous complaints of bill shock bombarded the Senate, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and the DOE. Meanwhile, Espinosa said no convenience fees would be charged for Meralco online payments until the end of general community quarantine, as pushed by regulators and lawmakers.

Bills paid via the Meralco App Online Payment Facility go through a payment gateway operated and maintained by PayMaya, which is linked to the Visa and Mastercard networks. An affiliate of Meralco, Paymaya charges the Meralco customer a convenience fee of P47.00 per transaction. During the ECQ, Meralco shouldered the convenience fee charged by the payment gateway provider for payments made through the Meralco online app or website for payment transactions between March 15 and May 16, amounting to P12.6 million for approximately 268,000 transactions.

“We welcome Meralco’s assurance that they have been acting upon the various issues being raised by consumers. In this time of pandemic, our people are plagued with concerns about their health and safety, as well as their job and financial security. The government and private sector should work hand-in-hand to alleviate, and not add to their burdens,” Cusi said.

Source: philstar.com