Consumers Energy in Denial

A customer satisfaction survey finds Consumers went from 8th place to 22nd among 26 utilities in the Midwest. "It's likely Michigan's tough economy was a factor." Really?

#1-J.D. Power added a question this year asking customers about their financial situation. Give us a break--they change the survey by adding a question and don't expect to find evidence skewing the results? Their spokesman said "Michigan utilities faced a particularly challenging year keeping customers satisfied."

Then a Consumers spokesman said the utility may need to do more to let customers know about the good things the utility does. He then said we were paying less for natural gas and delivery compared to the national average. And what does that have to do with anything?

#2-Don't they give their customers credit for an ounce of brains? They ought to do a survey to find out how many can read the back "explanation" of our bills. I defy just about anyone to make sense of the gibberish. I have talked to many engineering type friends who can't explain it.

However, let's just cut to the chase. The reason most of us are less satisfied is not that we don't have enough information. We may even have too much. I'm sure they thought it was a good idea to inform the Consumers world that they were being taxed for green power sources and freebies to people who don't need it by taking from those who can't afford to buy new appliances and giving it to those who do make such a purchase by paying them to haul away their old appliances. That front page story about the woman who was going to pay someone $60 to take away an old freezer but found that Consumers would pay her $30 for the privilege of carting it away for her is plenty of education, thank you.

Then we found out about the gas and electric tax we each pay so that they can educate us about how they are spending the $265,000,000+ generated by that tax. That's sorta like rubbing salt in the wound. Five years of watching whatever they do with that money will be like picking at a scab and wondering what will come next. We can only hope they won't be working on their next plan to tax us for some "project" which will benefit everyone but us.

I know some folks who work at Consumers who do a fine job and am certainly not blaming them. But the corporate world of Consumers who play games with an on again off again coal powered plant when they should be educating the public and either starting a new nuclear facility or re-activating the Midland plan would be a great way to use that tax we're paying. Oh, and by the way, did they get rid of all the resort property they invested in a few years ago? How about some of that international stuff they were investing in while Michigan sat in the Dark Ages? Let's hear about that.

Visualize this-everyone shaking their heads back and forth in disbelief--
God bless...........