Huckleberries Online

Dogjerky: Power Bill Should Be A Priority

May 1, 2009 5:59 a.m. • 45 comments

Dogjerky (an Avista employee): If you all want change step up and do something about it. It starts with our politicians not with Avista. Laws need to be change before anything will ever get better. I also wonder how many people out there complain about there bills but they smoke or drink or eat out at resturants 5 days a week or buy that $5 coffee at the coffee stand. We all have priorities but life would really suck without electricity. I’ll give up drinking beer before I let my Kootenai Electric bill slip. Full post below.

Taryn Hecker: The Spirit Lake Starbucks is right next to that five-star restaurant where I eat out five days a week after smoking three packs of cigarettes and buying my daily case of beer, all the while lamenting my inability to cover my Avista bill.

Question: For the sake of argument, let’s say Dogjerky is right — that Avista really works hard for its customers and needs the rate hikes for infrastructure and future needs. What can the Company Formerly Known As Washington Water Power do to resurrect its public image?

I to work at Avista. The employees here work very hard at keeping everything going for our costomers and I work with some very nice, caring people that answer the phones for you and I. Prices are going up all over the country on electricity not just with Avista costomers. Avista has share holders to answer to and also needs access to credit to keep the business running smoothly. Some of the obsticles to overcome are because of the way big business in this country is run. We are all at fault for the way big business is run in this country because over the years we all stayed in our shells and let it develop into what it is today. If you all want change step up and do something about it. It starts with our politicians not with Avista. Laws need to be change before anything will ever get better. I also wonder how many people out there complain about there bills but they smoke or drink or eat out at resturants 5 days a week or buy that $5 coffee at the coffee stand. We all have prioritys but life would really suck without electricity. I’ll give up drinking beer before I let my Kootania Electric bill slip.

Thanks
Mike

45 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

moscow_minidoka on May 01 at 7:38 a.m.
Dogjerky is smoking crack. I don’t know anyhow who is complaining about their power bills while Living the High Life.

Maybe Dogjerky needs to think about Avista’s tactics before trying to pin the blame on the customers.

For example: If I *do* go out to dinner with my family and get a pizza that is regularly $17, do I just accept it when the waiter brings me a bill for $100 and says that’s the “estimate” because he couldn’t be bothered to write down what we actually ordered?

Avista is out of control. They won’t check meters in the winter, they won’t deal with customers in a kind way, and you can’t even walk into their office anymore in towns like Moscow because they closed all their offices. So you’re stuck spending an hour on the phone trying to find out why your bill jumped by 300% since last month when you haven’t touched the thermostat and the temperature hasn’t changed.

Dogjerky can go soak his or her head - I’m not buying his line of baloney. Avista is a monopoly, pure and simple, and takes full advantage of that power. His attitude is part of the problem: “We supply a vital need, so perhaps you should stop eating instead of paying your inflated power bill a week late because our lazy wussy meter readers didn’t want to walk in six inches of snow and thus didn’t bother reading your meter and overcharged you with their ‘estimate’.” Give me a break.

And don’t even get me started about their expensive full-page ads slapping themselves on the back.
Bent on May 01 at 7:42 a.m.
” What can the Company Formerly Known As Washington Water Power do to resurrect its public image”?

Fire Dog Jerky for calling customers, “Cost”omers, and insinuating that everyone in need is a hick who cannot manage money…
redman on May 01 at 7:50 a.m.
Moscow mini could not have said it any better, BRAVO to you. There was one thing left out: Avistas lame manegers got big bonuses this year. Maybe its for paying two workers to do one job. Their can do a whole lot more when it comes to productivity. I long for the days of Washington Water Power.
redman on May 01 at 7:53 a.m.
BTW, I am going over to Taryns with a space heater…..someone needs to help her drink that case of beer.
PatrickH on May 01 at 7:56 a.m.
I still just start to fume every time I read Mike’s comments. Not only is his attitude typical of Avista and KEC’s upper management , but he is also forgetting one key point. He comments that they have share holders to answer to, but before share holders Avista answers to the public. The public has given them public land to use for their commercial endeavor and with that comes a responsibility to treat the public in a ethical way. Accusing them of spending all their money on eating out, and smokes during economic hard times is anything but. If Avista wants to improve its image with the region maybe it should start to act responsibly and not accuse customers of trying to rip off the company.
JBelle on May 01 at 8:05 a.m.
That’d be a hell of an argument to accept those premises: that Avista needs rate hikes for infrastructure and future needs. Say, wouldn’t Cowles Publishing like to take a rate bump anytime, anyplace to make sure their infrastructure and future needs will be met? Under that argument, Taryn would still be working on NW Blvd!

I know for a fact that not too long ago Avista consulted outside marketing and PR experts to craft a campaign where the ratepayers would actually institute a rate hike. Experts politely pointed out that the heights of the Ampere Tower had actually gotten to them, that not on this lifetime would a ratepayer be moved to such spontaneity and then politely excused themselves.

I know when you’re the big guy, you’re pretty used to calling the shots. But if Avista is wanting Jane and John Doe to feel sorry for them as they weather the duress of the economy in the real new millenium, they really have become the Marie Antoinette of the Inland Empire, murmuring, Let them eat cake.
MikeK on May 01 at 8:20 a.m.
Maybe I’m missing something - has anyone else ever paid power bills in “Kootania”? Are the bills for the Kootanians higher or lower than ours?

Sounds like the country in the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup. Or “Elbonia”, where Dilbert’s company does outsourcing.
JeanieSpokane on May 01 at 8:32 a.m.
I worked at the WWP, now known as Avista, summers in college. Great place to work and their employees are treated extremely well. My mother-in-law had stock in WWP, now Avista, and watched it almost disappear in the Avista move. Saying that, though, I do not condone rate increases in times like these. I’m not going out to restaurants five days a week; I have never smoked; I only drink Bent’s beer. I am an average Jane Doe that works as a secretary, puts food on the table, pays the bills, including Avista, drives a small economy car, saves whatever she can in her really unstable 401(k), and I manage to maybe buy a latte a month. It angers me that colleges are raising their tuition as high as 28%; Avista has imaginary rate increases called “estimates”, postage is going up another penny on May 11, businesses everywhere including the S-R, KREM, schools, hospitals, you name it, are laying off as many as 30% of their employees. Avista is a power monger that can just get off its high horse.
Kibby on May 01 at 8:48 a.m.
Mike…obviously another well paid Avista employee who has no empathy for the rest of us non-Avistians. Try living on our side of the fence…a place where people are losing jobs and the jobs that people do have don’t pay well enough to keep pace with the rising cost of groceries, gas, food, and just about everything else. You’ve got a lot of nerve to assume that our complaints are due to the fact that none of us can manage our finances.
Arch_Druid on May 01 at 8:50 a.m.
I’m with the rest of you posters on this. Looks like an Avista PR campaign front paged on HBO. Blame the customers for why we need more money… Now that is a real hoot.
tarynahecker on May 01 at 9:31 a.m.
Redman, no need for a space heater. I borrowed money to get the highest efficiency natural gas furnace I could in the fall and thought I’d see some drastic reductions in my Avista bill as a result. Last winter baseboards were my sole source of heat and I thought those bills were outrageous. There are a lot of people who are in worse financial straits than I am and really, I’m fortunate that I at least had some credit left so I could pay my Avista bill with that and keep my electricity on. I’m trying to cut back on my Avista bill by leaving the heat off unless my kids are home and going to bed earlier so I don’t need to turn lights on. I don’t watch TV. On the colder days I spend as much time as possible at my studio where utilities are included in my lease. I know an 84-year-old woman here in Spirit Lake who spends her entire day wrapped in a sleeping bag because she worries about not being able to pay her heat bill. I don’t begrudge Avista collecting what’s due to them. I am just disheartened that the rates go up as more and more people struggle and that their ads say they’re going to work with people and, at least in my situation, they weren’t willing to work with me.
Dan_at_Avista on May 01 at 9:31 a.m.
I’d like to say, on behalf of the majority of employees at Avista, we don’t share the sentiments offered up by Dogjerky (I honestly don’t know who that is). Customers who are struggling to pay their Avista bills are likely to be struggling to pay other bills as well. We all make choices on what we spend, but if any bill is high for your budget, then it’s high, plain and simple. We don’t judge people based on their budget or what they choose to spend their money on. So please, don’t take Dogjerky’s comments as official Avista policy – it couldn’t be further from it.

Thanks,
Dan
Arch_Druid on May 01 at 9:39 a.m.
So, question for Dan…Avista, why is it high? In an age of increasingly fixed incomes, why is it high? The company you work for seems to think it can get blood out of a stone when as you acknowledge, people are struggling to pay this and many other bills. So, why is the bill so high?
Joker on May 01 at 10:05 a.m.
Avista is a hard-core business. To quote the Godfather, “It’s not personal. It’s just business.”

They will get their money. They don’t care if little old ladies are cold. They don’t care if people have to eat dog food. They don’t care if you lost your job. They just don’t care.

They have no problem raising rates because they can. It’s all about money. It’s not about you. Sorry guys, they really don’t give a rip about public perception or their image. They’re probably laughing at everybody on here as they light their cigars with $100 bills.
Dan_at_Avista on May 01 at 10:31 a.m.
Arch_Druid,
That’s a great question – and one that doesn’t come with an easy answer.

The cost to provide power (I’m just talking electricity right now) is constantly on the rise. This isn’t an Avista issue; it’s a national energy issue. As more and more of us add electric appliances to our homes the demand goes up. Power has to be generated somewhere and sent to your home. Yes, many people have cut back and are following guidelines from www.everylittlebit.com, but even so, Avista customers broke a 13-year record in December for the most electricity used in a single day - 1,821 megawatts (that’s a lot). See the news release here: http://avistacorp.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=877

In order to keep the lights on and provide the level of service that customers expect, we have to invest money in our infrastructure on a continual basis – and that’s some of the reason behind why you’ve seen rate requests filed with state utility commissions.

You asked specifically why bills are high – and the above info is really about electric costs in general – so I don’t want to skirt the question. Individual homes have very different usage patterns. Two identically-sized homes could have drastically different energy uses depending on people in the house, age of equipment, appliances and so on. Taking a home energy audit may offer some other tips. You can find one here: http://www.avistautilities.com/account/_layouts/Avista/Transactions/ReduceYourUse.aspx

We charge for the services we provide, but yes we know how much the cost of energy impacts customers every day – and we do care - that’s why we’re talking more right now about bill assistance options.
Dan
Joker on May 01 at 10:40 a.m.
Dan,

Avista could impose a profit cap on itself and provide rebates back to its customers anytime profits exceed 10 percent. It could also freeze rates until profits dipped to 5 percent.

Pay assistance options are just another way to shakedown customers who can’t afford to pay. You’re not attacking the real problem of greed and every soaring costs. You could be a part of the community instead of gouging it.

Quit telling the lie that Avista cares. It doesn’t. I accept they are business and they want to make as much money as possible.
JBelle on May 01 at 11:00 a.m.
Joker, the other thing Avista doesn’t talk about too much is that they are a union shop. One reason their management and admin people are paid well above what many in similar position in other industries here in EWA are is that they follow the union, in paid compensation and benefits. And if management exacts some of the compromises from the union that say, an organization such as Cowles Publishing has done, then the admin/management compensation scale would have to follow, similarly.

Much tidier to just go get another rate increase, although those pesky costumers can be so stingy!
LukeB on May 01 at 11:09 a.m.
Limit executive pay substantially.

Become publicly owned.
Dan_at_Avista on May 01 at 11:09 a.m.
Joker,
Our state utility commissions already set Avista’s allowed rate of return (or return on equity) at around 10.2 percent, so your point is already in practice. In 2008 Avista’s ROE was less than that, at 8 percent. Our rates are also among the lowest in the nation – want some third-party evidence? Check out: http://www.idahopower.com/AboutUs/RatesRegulatory/Rankings/default.cfm?tab=Small%20Commercial

Also, getting more time to pay what you owe on your bill is hardly a shakedown. It’s what any community-minded company should do. To your point that Avista doesn’t care: I work here and I care, and I’m not alone and I believe our practices prove it to be true.
trishgannon on May 01 at 1:52 p.m.
Dan, I have to question one of your statements, i.e. that people are adding more and more electric appliances to their homes.

I’m sure that’s probably true in the aggregate, but it’s not true for me and it’s not true for my mother. In fact, we’ve reduced electric appliances (for example, my dishwasher broke nine months ago and it’s way down the priority list for getting repaired). Yet we continue to see our bills go higher and higher, seemingly higher than inflation should account for. In a fit of “Avista irritation” (probably similar to road rage) I shut off my electric furnace several years ago and bought a wood stove, but Avista keeps eating more and more of my monthly budget.

My mother is like another person mentioned in these posts. She’s 87 this year, keeps her heat at 62 (THAT’S 62!! - I needed some all caps for that).

Aggregate income for individuals appears to be going down (considering unemployment). As a public utility, will Avista employees be seeing a decrease in THEIR paychecks?

By the way, both personally and from most people I’ve talked to, Avista customer service has always been both professional and compassionate. But they’ll still shut your power off, while telling you how sorry they are to do so. After all, Avista has to be constrained by LAW not to turn power off in the wintertime.

What proactive steps is Avista taking to help people besides an online energy audit that’s a pain in the butt to use (and that many don’t have access to anyway)?
Dan_at_Avista on May 01 at 4:26 p.m.
trishgannon,
I posted something similar to this yesterday in response to how we’re being proactive for our customers right now. This might answer your question: If you need some help, give us a call at 1-800-227-9187 or visit: http://www.avistautilities.com/account/assistance/Pages/default.aspx You can find all the various options and ways we’re helping on the site listed above. If someone doesn’t have Internet access, they can always call the 800 number.

We also support Project Share, Senior Energy Outreach and employ specialized customer service reps to help those with special needs. We also offer Low Income Rate Assistance Program (LIRAP) which provides energy assistance grants to qualifying customers.

We also offer Energy Efficiency Incentive Programs and Low Income Energy Efficiency Programs to help limited income customers implement energy efficiency measures in their homes and reduce their energy usage.

There are quite a few options available, but we can’t help unless we hear from you. Everyone’s situation is different, but I suspect we have something that can help most customers.
trishgannon on May 01 at 4:32 p.m.
actually, Dan, neither my mother nor I need help in paying our bills. We need help in understanding why they keep going up. We already have implemented energy efficiency options in our homes. From an examination of our bills, it appears the explanation is you’re simply charging more.
Escapee on May 01 at 8:16 p.m.
I always found it ironic, that while Avista keeps raising rates, it also includes a nifty little box on your bill that invites you to donate to “project share” so that those in need can stay warm. Heck, if you can pay yer power bill, you should want to donate, right?

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.