A Message to Our Customers About Our Billing Problems

A message from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power: 

As you probably know, we are experiencing significant operational problems implementing our new customer billing system. We sincerely apologize to you and to our customers who have been directly affected by these problems.

We did not adequately prepare for the extent of the problems we experienced and we made matters worse by not making certain that when those affected had problems, we were able to take their calls and emails and respond in a timely manner. Many have waited on hold for an excessively long time, some even as long as two hours. This is completely unacceptable.

We have more to do to fix these problems. In the meantime, we are committed to keeping you and our affected customers better informed about the problems and what we are doing to fix them. In addressing these shortcomings we want to let you know what we are doing, the progress we are making and our commitment to keep you informed.

Status of Our Billing Problems

We replaced our 40-year old customer billing and related systems. It was a massive and complex task. While over 95% of our customers are currently experiencing no problems with their bills, too many have experienced problems: bad estimates, improperly drafted accounts and, in some cases, no bills at all. If you were one who experienced these problems we understand how frustrating it was. Water and electricity are essential to our lives and we have long made it a priority to provide you with reliable service.

We still have a lot more work to do. We are starting to make progress in reducing the billing problems, but there are still many problems, far too many. As of right now, about 60,000 customers are affected by continuing problems and we are dedicating more resources to fix them, including appointing a new senior manager to oversee our Customer Service Division and all aspects of our response.

Status of Our Customer Wait Times

It's bad enough to have problems with your bill, but when you cannot reach us to fix it or if it takes hours out of your busy day, it is simply unacceptable. We have taken these steps to reduce this problem:

• Implementing a personal call back option -- when you call us at 1-800-DIAL-DWP, you will be told how long the hold time is and offered an option to have us call you back. This has proven popular since it was implemented last November. It helps you avoid wasting your time sitting on hold.
• Adding additional customer service staff -- we have put emergency hiring procedures in place and are temporarily reassigning some of our staff to help answer your calls. It takes time to fully train a customer service representative so we ask for your continued patience.
• Encouraging use of online interaction -- the best way to reach us about any billing problems is by logging in to your account on ladwp.com. By using this, we have more of your account information right on hand and you can describe to us exactly the problem you are having without having to wait on hold or even get a call back.

We are committed to receiving all we are owed and only what we are owed

We owe it to all of our customers to make certain that the money that is due us for providing water and power is received. While we previously suspended collection activity because of the billing problems, as we make progress in fixing the problems we are beginning to collect what is owed.

Some who have not been billed properly for a month or more may suddenly find themselves facing a large bill. We want to minimize any financial strain our billing problems may cause and we are very willing to work with you on a payment plan that works for you.

But we are also committed to receiving only what is actually owed to us. Some of our estimates have been wrong. If you believe your bill does not properly reflect your use, please contact us -- preferably by using our online contact form at www.ladwp.com/ContactUs, or call 1-800-DIAL-DWP and if the hold time is extended, use our personal call back option.

We also commit to open, honest and ongoing communication about this problem

We have set up a new webpage to provide continuous information about our billing and customer service challenges. You can find it atwww.ladwp.com/BillingInfo. Check here see the latest reports on progress being made as well as information about the challenges we may continue to experience with our new system and our overall customer service operations. The site includes a “Mayor’s Dashboard”, a new weekly report that includes key performance metrics including total calls, call wait times, the number of accounts estimated and billed on-time, the amount of bills awaiting payment by customers, estimated revenue from delayed bills, the overall status, issues, recommendations and next steps.

Please register at this site if you would like to get regular updates through email. If you use social media, you can also follow us on Twitter@LADWP or visit our Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Facebook page.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and again we want to express our sincere apologies for all the problems our new system has caused. We’re working to fix it and to do better, we promise to keep you informed, and we appreciate the patience and understanding that has been shown by so many of our valued customers.