20070124_1810.pdf

DECISION MEMORANDUM
TO:COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER
COMMISSIONER SMITH
COMMISSIONER HANSEN
LEGAL
WORKING FILE
FROM:DANIEL KLEIN
DATE:JANUARY 22, 2007
RE:FORMAL COMPLAINT OF BILL UHL AND DORIS HELGE.
On January 12 2007, the Commission received a formal complaint from Bill UbI and
Doris Helge against Rural Telephone Company. Among other issues, the formal complaint
alleged that Rural reclassified their residential account to a business account due to complaints
about poor service.
BACKGROUND
The complaint recounts the outage events that took place last winter and have been
investigated and addressed in the Commission s Case No. RUR-06-1. A Final Order (Order
No. 30140) was issued in that case on October 5 , 2006. The Complainants also are requesting
that Rural be required to provide avalanche certification and snowmobile certification classes to
their employees due to the special needs of employees on back country assignments. In Case
No. RUR-06-, the Commission found that the efforts taken by Rural to restore service were
reasonable, and that the Company has taken reasonable steps to reduce the possibility of similar
outages in the future.
The Complainants allege the reclassification of their telephone service from residential to
business is retaliation for their complaints about poor service during the outages last winter.
They believe the reclassification is unjustified and are requesting the Commission order Rural to
reinstate residential service to their phone line and stop billing the business rate. The Company
DECISION MEMORANDUM JANUARY 22, 2007
indicates it believes the Complainants are using the service primarily for business purposes and
feels the reclassification is justified. The reclassification did take place shortly after the outages.
The Complainants request the Commission set up a "step-by-step" method to determine if
a telephone account is residential or business, or eliminate the need for different types of
classifications. In Order No. 30140, the Commission instructed Rural to update its tariff to be
consistent with the Commission s Telephone Customer Relations Rules and the Company has
done so. If a customer who is reclassified disagrees with the Company s determination, the
customer may file a complaint with the Commission.
The Complainants allege that Rural threatened to disconnect their telephone service for
non-payment of the business rate while an informal complaint was pending with the Commission
and that Rural's disconnect notice did not comply with Commission rules. Staff agrees that an
informal complaint was pending at the time Rural issued a disconnect notice to the
Complainants, a violation of Rule 3l1.04. Staff also agrees that Rural's Notice of Denial of
Service does not include the required information specified by Rule 301. Staff believes that the
necessary revisions to Rural's Notice can be made outside of a formal complaint proceeding.
Uhl and Helge also request that the Commission audit all of Rural's procedures and
forms. As part of Case No. RUR-06-, Staff audited the Company s procedures and forms.
In their request for a formal complaint, UbI and Helge ask repeatedly for the Commission
to award "punitive, compensatory, exemplary, general, vindictive, and special damages" on their
behalf. The Commission does not have statutory authority to award damages.
STAFF RECOMMENDATION
Ms. Helge and Mr. UbI were not satisfied with the outcome of the informal complaint.
Consequently, they filed a formal complaint. See Rules 23 , 25 , and 54, IDAPA 31.01.01.023
024 and .054. Staff recommends that the Commission issue a summons to Rural and direct the
Company to file a response to the complaint.
COMMISSION DECISION
Does the Commission wish to accept the Complainants' request for a formal complaint
regarding classification of service? Does the Commission wish to address the issue of
DECISION MEMORANDUM JANUARY 22, 2007
threatening to disconnect the customer s service while an informal complaint was pending and/or
the content of the Notice of Denial of Service? Does the Commission wish to issue a summons
to Rural Telephone?
Daniel Klein
i:udmemos/uhl & helge.doc
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DECISION MEMORANDUM JANUARY 22, 2007