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Come On, Feel the Love: LADWP Among 19 Most Hated Companies in America

LADWP-mosthated.jpg
Photo by kpe II via the LAist Featured Photos pool

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Wait, the love isn't flowing for the Los Angeles Department Water and Power, with their excellent and responsive customer service, their easy-to-read bills, and their ever-increasing rates? Yep. Not so much. The LADWP has been ranked by Business Insider as #13 out of the #19 most-hated companies in the nation. Ouch.

Here's the BI blurb on the LADWP:

Consumers claim the LADWP is intentionally issuing bills late in order to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in late fees. The LADWP is also seeking to raise electric and water rates for their consumers in order to afford the new renewable energy commitment set forth by the city of Los Angeles. If approved - it will be up to the Los Angeles City Council - increases in charges for consumers would hike to more than 15 percent for water and 16 percent for power over the next three years.

Recently they debuted their pretty, new "easier-to-read" bill, and they've made a stab at
using social media to interact with their (mostly irate) customers. When it comes to the latter, they should maybe step it up; a few months back a Tweet to them about an outage and a perpetual busy signal on the phone to them resulted in a reply 24 hours later urging we, you know, call in about the problem.

Other companies on the BI list you might do business with, and hate: Bank of America (19), Dish Network (18), Pacific Gas and Electric (16), AT&T Mobility (14), Facebook (10), MySpace (9), American Airlines (8), United Airlines (7), US Airways (6), Time Warner Cable (3), and Delta (2).

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