Did I mention how much I hate the Huntsville Utility company? (Madison: credit, utilities)

[Keeper]

So has anyone called and complained? I find calling the CEO to be very effective. If it is on every statement I would call and complain

[CoreLysium]

About two years ago a new person took over the billing department. Their initials are A.P. but that's all the info I'll give you. This person believes that any change is progress and has messed up a great deal of things dealing with both residential customers and industry. If you are a long time resident using the yearly average billing, you might have had your average around 3x what it usually is last spring, but just for one month.

Calling HU on the phone is pointless now. Before the wait was pretty bad, but you could get someone who cared and wasn't bound to a script. If you need something to be resolved, the best idea is to drive down there.

Any time I hear what's going on over there, it's not positive. But, it's not like HU isn't a monopoly. It's just the situation we're in.

[lizinva]

This made me spit my water out laughing. When I got my first bill in October I panicked and thought we must have missed a payment somehow.

This is not good for customer relations, but you can't exactly get your services from another company.

I think they should reconsider this stupid idea but I guess they think it is a nice way to welcome the newcomers to Alabama and let their paying customers know how much they appreciate them!

[BirdieBelle]

Y'all need to contact this guy:

Driving You Crazy | WHNT.com — Huntsville News & Weather from WHNT Television News19 HD

It's exactly the way to deal with an insignificant yet universally despised problem like this "new" message on the bills.

Since it's a bad PR move and they won't answer the phone etc., the best way to deal with it is to draw a lot of publicity to it. When news cameras show up, they usually tell someone in the "community relations" dept. to go talk to them.

[Dogowner3]

Geez-where to start. The meter reader won't go in my backyard because I have dogs. In the past 9 months I've have 2 actual meter readings, the rest have been estimates. Can you imagine what that does to my budgeting each month? I was finally able to set up an online account, so I can check meter read dates and dog wrangle accordingly. This month he was in the neighborhood a day early. Did he actually come to my house? Not sure-never saw him. So I guess I'll lock my dogs up tomorrow morning too. Getting the online account set up that's another story. How I hate this company.

[zenjenn]

I think they put that on there because in some areas, there are lots of grace periods, etc. Here, there isn't. They will disconnect you pretty fast. When we first moved we got distracted with moving chaos and missed the payment date and ended up disconnected - but a phone call and payment got us back online fast. (Needless to say we never made that mistake again - in fact we put it on autopay!)

I'm very happy with Huntsville Utilities. Unlike Reactionary, even with the rates! Being on TVA blew our minds coming from electric in Southern California. Water prices, too, with its (arguably necessary) punitive fee structure in Cali. Back when we still had our house in Cali (took us a year to sell it) it was not uncommon for our water or electric of the *vacant house* to be more than our entire Alabama bill which included electric, water, trash, gas for a larger & occupied home. I guess it is all relative.

And after what happened during the April tornadoes last year, I know there are some real heroes there who will work nearly 24/7 when they are needed. I appreciate that.

[CoreLysium]

I agree the rates are good and the utility workers in the field are some of the best and most caring out there. And the man in charge of dealing with issues with industries is also johnny-on-the-spot and likes to resolve problems fast.

It's the residential billing and customer service that has people, myself included, feeling like they don't care about us. And they don't. I've been in meetings with the head of that department and mostly she just wants to have others think she is important. Sad.

[djmaxwell]

Originally Posted by Dogowner3

Geez-where to start. The meter reader won't go in my backyard because I have dogs.

What do you want them to do? Let your dogs out?

[Mawoods]

I am surprised that HU does not use satellite technology to read the meters. We now have AL Power down here in the boonies of S AL and that is how it is read. At least I know it gets read every month now. There is no grace period here either. When I get the bill I need to pay it immediately for it to get back in time.

Huntsville Utilities rates are pretty reasonable compared to other areas. Unfortunately custormer service isn't so hot but I agree with ZENJEN, I appreciated them a lot last year when we were in Huntsville during the tornadoes.

[jiffiner]

The original poster's point about it being a Mickey Mouse operation is true, despite the fact that there are probably good employees who work hard when things go wrong. But it's kind of a backward company. No free online bill pay, the automated phone system will have you in automated purgatory forever, the disconnect notice on the bills, no grace period, etc. I've never seen a business so out of touch with the customer, and I just came from another city where the utility company there also had a monopoly.