Ontario Ombudsman outraged over Hydro One overcharging

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(Updated) In a scathing report released today, Ontario’s ombudsman says Hydro One “lost sight of its public interest purpose”.

Andre Marin says his office was flooded with over 10,000 complaints from Hydro One customers about over-billing or estimated bills. He calls it “outrageously bad customer service” as they scrambled to fix technical glitches with the new system.

Marin says in one case Hydro One took $10,000 from a man’s bank account, and months later his bill was reduced to $800. The ombudsman says the company “lost sight of its duty to the public” when they reacted to customers who presented issues with their billing.

“Hydro One reacted in the worst possible way with deflection and deception. It minimized the issues. “It misled overseers including the energy board, the minister of energy, its board of directors.”

“They put their customers last.”

Following the release of the ombudsman’s report, Hydro One issued a statement noting that they agree with Marin’s recommendations and have either completed or taken action on 65 out of 66 of them. CEO Carmine Marcello publicly apologized to customers today, and responded to Marin’s allegations.

“We provided 190 hours of executive interviews with the ombudsman, 22,000 pages of emails; everything he asked for we provided. We worked with him throughout the process along with his staff.”

“I think it is clear that the the issues were bigger than anyone had anticipated. At any point in time it is conceivable that someone thought this was a bigger deal or someone thought this was a smaller deal. In hindsight it was a big deal.”

Marin used the damning report to emphasize that the Wynne government should preserve independent oversight of Hydro One once it’s partially privatized. The Liberal government is planning to sell off 60 per cent of the provincially-owned utility.