During the first quarter of 2022, the Superintendence of Electricity (SIE) ordered the distribution companies to credit RD$11,032,699 for appropriate claims made by service users in their concession areas.
According to the quarterly claim report published by the Consumer Protection Office (Protecom), through the SIE portal, Edeeste is the electricity distribution company that has had to credit its customers with the most money. Of the RD$11,032,699, Edeeste had to credit RD$9,228,007, for 80.44% of the total returned.
Likewise, Edesur had to credit its clients with RD$1,064,539, for 9.64% of the total. In the case of Edenorte, this distributor will have to credit RD$740,154, for 6.70%.
To explain why Edenorte has fewer complaints, Andrés Cueto, executive vice president of that distribution company, said yesterday: “Edenorte, of the 1,375,465 users (that it has)?, 40 percent is remote metering and there is a five percent that is prepaid. So, there you have no uncertainties, that’s correct, because it reads it to you (meter or counter) digitally. The rest is done manually, but our readers are in constant training and go directly”.
On his side, the director of operations of Edenorte Alfonso Morel, told Diario Libre that the claims are minimal due to the “prompt responses” that Edenorte gives to breakdowns and “the reliability of the service” that users have.
He indicated that they are also given “a lot of follow-up to breakdowns and, in addition, Edenorte is providing energy 24 hours a day.”
Both officials offered their statements after signing an agreement with the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) for the contribution, collaboration and technical assistance in the execution of lighting projects and electrical repairs in the educational facilities of the UASD scattered within the zone. Edenorte concession.
“We have invested in the UASD about two million pesos in exchange for transformers and lighting that we carry out in Bonao and verification in other educational centers,” Morel said.
of claims
The Protecom report indicates that, between January and March 2022, the clients of the distribution companies made 7,489 claims, of which 4,505 were valid and 3,461 inappropriate.
Protecom, whose function is to attend and settle consumer claims, made 7,966 decisions on claims made by users during the first three months of the year.
According to Protecom, there are 37 reasons for claims and a description of each one, to guarantee the homogeneous operation of the instances in charge of responding to claims. These are headed by high billing, claim for acts of unintentional irregularity, low billing, rate change request, billing with unilateral rate change, billing with improper charges for reconnection, claim for improper cut and invoice with unacknowledged debt. by the user, among others.
