Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel

Consumer Hotline 1-877-PICKOCC

In 2007, the Ohio Office of Consumers’ Counsel (OCC) announced the return of the agency’s ability to handle complaints from Ohio’s residential utility consumers. A two-year restriction imposed during the budget process of 2005, removed OCC’s ability to mediate utility complaints and limited the assistance OCC could provide to disconnects, reconnects and consumer inquiries. With the support of Governor Ted Strickland and the legislature, OCC’s full complaint-handling authority was restored effective October 1, 2007.

More than 69,000 calls were made to the agency hotline (1-877-PICKOCC) this year. This represented a 7% increase in total call volume from 2006. More than 36,000 customers spoke directly with consumer services specialists about questions or concerns they experienced with utilities. Of these calls, more than 9,600 required follow-up contacts, sending information, and/or researching specific concerns.

Of the contacts to OCC, 38% involved the electric industry; 37% involved the natural gas industry; and 22% of the contacts involved the telecommunications industry. The remaining 3% of the complaints involved water and other issues. Due to the overall decline in the state economy and the struggle many customers are experiencing with paying utility bills, more than one-third of the public contacts involved customers who were either disconnected from essential utility services or were threatened with disconnection for non-payment of their bills. OCC assisted many of these clients by arranging special payment plans, negotiating payment extensions, and by referring customers to organizations and agencies that provide financial assistance. Approximately one-fourth of the contacts involved customers with questions or concerns about charges on their utility bills involving estimated meter reads, high bills, charges that were not authorized, questions about supplier charges, or final bills. Additional issues included service issues where customers voiced concern with establishing service or outages, reliability matters, competitive choices and information about suppliers.

OCC Supports the State of Ohio ID Protection Hotline

In June 2007, Governor Ted Strickland selected OCC to host, house and staff a special hotline developed to respond to the theft of a media storage device that included personal and private information on all state of Ohio employees. In conjunction with the Governor’s Office and Department of Administrative Services, the OCC Consumer Services Division managed the initiation of the hotline, reconfiguration of the automated call distribution system, and the growth in capacity to meet the needs. OCC hosted the ID Protection Hotline for almost three months and provided direct assistance to thousands of state employees and the public in explaining options to protect against identity theft.

OCC Hosts Ghana Consumer Services Director

OCC hosted the Consumer Services Director for the Ghana Public Utilities in October 2007. Mrs. Mami Ofori spent a day at OCC learning about the type of support that OCC provides the public. This provided an excellent opportunity for discussion about customer service issues, advances in customer support technologies, and ways to further advance consumer advocacy.

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