Us West Hangs Up On Telephone System Regulators Internal Memo Shows Company Had A Policy Of Thwarting Regulators’ Assistance
Utility regulators across the West have felt the heat from incensed telephone customers all year - consumers waiting months for lines, getting the runaround on repairs and ringing endlessly for operators.
Now, an internal company memo has surfaced that helps explain why regulators have had so much trouble getting US West Communications Co. to work with them on a solution: US West made a policy of thwarting regulators’ assistance.
Utility regulators in the 14 states where 2.5 million US West customers live long have suspected that US West was intentionally hindering their efforts to improve service.
The company’s stonewalling strategy is described in a US West memo that landed in the hands of the informal Regional Oversight Committee, a kind of support group for utility officials who regulate the company.
The Oct. 20 memo instructs US West public-policy officials to throw a monkey wrench into discussions at an informal meeting in Portland, where minimum-service guidelines were to be set three days later.
“They did not say very much that was helpful,” said Joan Smith, an Oregon public utility commissioner and then leader of the oversight committee.
US West officials seemed to take their clues from the memo, a copy of which inadvertently was left on a conference table after the meeting. Written by Laura D. Ford, US West’s public policy vice president, the memo coached company officials on strategy for dealing with the ROC:
“We do not want to give them the impression that they should be measuring our service quality …”
“They will start from whatever we offer in this type of forum and negotiate more stringent requirements from there …”
“In tune with the tenor of the political times, they should not be micro-managing our business.”
“Every time we give them additional data, we make more work for them which justifies their existence and results in more work and requests for information from us.”
US West spokesman Ed Mattix denied last week that the memo described the company’s attitude about the service problems and regulators’ efforts to reverse them.
“It in no way reflects the company policy towards the service quality measurement discussions we have been having with the regional committee,” he said. “It was a discussion document … it was not accepted.”
Mattix noted the company delivered its official response in a Nov. 15 memo to the ROC. That document, he insisted, reflects the company’s desire “to have open and honest dialogue and to come to an agreement freely about what we will have as service-quality standards.”
Smith and the other regulators at the ROC meeting walked away exasperated after their October session.
“We wanted to make it collegial,” she added. “But if they are not going to help, we are going to move forward anyway.”
In fact, the ROC adopted benchmark standards the next day. The guidelines urge the company to respond promptly to customer calls, repair requests and new service orders.
The ROC has no authority over US West. But its members could take the standards home and use them in negotiations with US West.
Smith noted that regulators, who faced pressure from thousands of consumers, have been eager for the company to reduce service complaints. In utility monopolies, like US West’s, regulators have the duty not only to make sure consumers get service, but to make sure it is good service, she noted.
Regulators in Oregon, Montana, Colorado, Arizona, Idaho and Washington, fed up with US West excuses, have been pushing the company to eliminate the backlog of customers who want phone service.
Meanwhile, Utah regulators have been wrangling with US West all year about lousy service. In August, US West had nearly 2,000 Utah customers who had been waiting for service more than a month - and some had waited for more than six months.
“We have gone out of the way to accommodate the issue,” Smith said, noting that the company has become more defensive and uncooperative with Oregon regulators in recent years. “I sense the company knows they are in deep doo-doo.”
xxxx STATIC ON THE LINE US West’s stonewalling strategy instructed the company’s public-policy officials to throw a monkey wrench into discussions at an informal meeting in Portland, where minimum-service guidelines were to be set.