Last year, Andrew Nelson bought a house in South Philly. He contacted the Water Department to put the service bill in his name. But he was unable to reach anyone.
"I kept faxing them and calling them, and nothing ever changed," Nelson said. "You'd figure that with today's phone systems, you ought to be able to process calls."
Nelson estimates he called more than two dozen times and was never able to get any help. "The absolutely staggering thing was that I was calling the Water Department directly and getting nothing," he said. "I called for two weeks straight and couldn't get an answer."
Nelson was eventually able to reach someone after more than six months. But it wasn't an isolated problem.
According to posts on City Howl (www.thecityhowl.com), a site where citizens can review city services, it's the latter. Seven different reviewers wrote that they tried to contact the Water Department and only got busy signals.
[snip]
To follow up on the City Howl reviews, we called the Water Department 16 times during a 24-hour period. The phone lines were busy seven times, or 45 percent of the time. This obviously wasn't a scientific study, but the results do violate the standards set by the Water Department for itself. The agency's stated goal is to answer 80 percent of calls within 30 seconds. This mirrors the industry standard for public utilities, which is to answer 70 to 80 percent of calls within 30 seconds.
More frustrating, in the age of voicemail, the department doesn't even have an answering system.
So why do people have so much trouble reaching the city? Laura Copeland, a spokeswoman for the Water Department, says that the call center is sometimes unable to deal with the call volume.
"With 15 call center reps, there are 15 lines coming into the system. If all reps are handling a call, the 16th customer will get a busy," she said in an e-mail. "If a lesser number of reps are on the phones, calls will be sent to the unused lines where customers will receive the automated message."
What do you think? Does this sound reasonable or should the Water Department figure out how to process calls in a better way? Remember, we would have never known about this problem if people hadn't gone on City Howl and posted reviews.
Follow us on Twitter and review city services on our sister site, City Howl.
so a utility company for a city the size of philly doesnt have an answering service? its unspeakably irresponsible and frankly idiotic for them not to have a way of handling more than 15 calls or at least have a way to have people wait on hold until a line frees up. i tell ya what...they can use my answering machine for a couple weeks until they get their own. ridiculous!— IcanTakeit- Somehow, I missed a bill getting a bill late last year. Didn't realize it until I got one for two months. When I called on 11/24/09 to see what the problem was, I got the standard city busy signal. Then, after waiting forever, I got a message that said: "Your wait time has expired. Please hang up and call again." That was an absolute first. I tied their lines up too long, so I had to call back. Finally I just paid it. What great service! Jim Murphy— zorro1
- I was divorced more than 4 years ago and we each took one house that we owned. The water bill for both was in our joint names. I have been trying for over 3 years to have my exes name removed from the water bill. I reach the water dept, but they keep telling me to fax them the quitclaim deed; I do, and nothing happens. F, inally two weeks ago, I had the bright idea to ask the supervisor to look on the BRT website (while I held on the phone) to see how the property tax bill was assessed. They finally said "aha' we see the house is now in your name and we can change the water bill. I'm still waiting to see if they have. The most antiquated public utility I've ever dealt with in many cities here and abroad. According to some sources, they have been trying to install a new software system for 2-3 years, have spent millions, to no avail. Who is in charge and why are they not being held responsible in the Nutter administration??— drpdalton
- Three words people ... WATER REVENUE BUREAU. That is, separate department from the Water Department. PLEASE whomever runs this Howling thing, can you at least educate the public about whom to be angry with, rather than having them blast the wrong people????— citylumberjack
- They are the worst! They never answer. 15 ppl. for over a million customers? Are you kidding me?— IWONTSHUTUP!
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