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Power trip? Dial 1912 and relax
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The EPDCL call centre is a one-stop-shop for all electricity-related work
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PHOTO: K.R. DEEPAK
RELAXED AMBIENCE A staff member helping consumers in filling a form
Most of us have gone through the trauma of getting awakened by mosquitos in the dead of night, when power goes off. It is all the more irritating when kids keep crying non-stop and have to be taken out on to the terrace or balcony for fresh air.
The immediate move is to reach out for the telephone and ring up the sub-station. More often than not the number is constantly engaged adding to the woes of the consumer. When one is lucky enough to get the line, the field staff fail to turn up despite assurances to the contrary.
That's a thing of the past. Consumers in the metro need no longer worry about making repeated calls to the sub-station to register their complaints or to know the fate of the complaints already registered.
They can dial the toll-free number 1912, which functions round the clock, and register their complaint.
The polite staff of the Eastern Power Distribution Company of AP Limited (EPDCL) call centre not only register the complaints but also pursue the matter with the authorities concerned till the problem is rectified.
That's not all! On completion of the work the call centre staff get back to the complainants and confirm the position from them!
Three wings
The centre has three wings: electricity call centre, customer service centre and bill collection centre.
The electricity call centre receives supply-related complaints like fuse-off calls, enquiries related to power supply and all general enquiries.
It works round the clock, 365 days a year without any holiday. Perhaps, the only time during the last three years when one couldn't get through 1912 easily was during the disruption of power supply lines and damage of transformers in the district due to heavy rains as a result of a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal during October.
The customer service centre works from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on all days of the year.
Registration of applications for new connections, name transfers, category changes, billing and meter complaints and pole shifting complaints would be taken up by it.
Those applying for new power supply connection should invariably have the ownership document of house.
Bill collection centre also functions from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on all days of the year. Customers living in the city and Gajuwaka can pay their bills either in cash, through cheque or demand draft.
"Time schedule for different works is fixed and if our staff commit delays, we can impose penalties on them," says Assistant Divisional Engineer P. Krishna, who is in charge of the EPDCL Call Centre, located at Siripuram.
"Customers using our services are given feedback forms. They are asked to fill them and consign them into the drop boxes kept at the centre.
Apart from this, the EPDCL management is also conducting independent surveys from time to time to evaluate the performance of the staff," he says.
All complaints would be registered and a number assigned to the complainant.
The time schedule for attending to the problem would also be given to him.
In case the complaint cannot be attended to for any reason, the customer is informed of the same. Complaints can be lodged on the website also.
Individual complaints like disruption of power supply in one household are not generally attended after 6 p.m. except in the case of emergency services like hospitals.
The idea is that other consumers in the neighbourhood should not be affected due to stoppage of supply to attend to the individual complaint.
Integrated centre
"This is the first integrated electricity call centre in Andhra Pradesh," says Mr. Krishna, who has been associated with it since its inception 39 months ago.Now SMS messages are being sent to customers, who possess mobile phones, about the status of their complaints and the likely date and time of completion of work.
Though our customer service and bill collection wings function from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., a vast majority of consumers turn up only between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m.
Our staff take about two minutes to complete the work of each customer and when about 20 persons turn up at the same time, the last one has to wait for 40 minutes for his turn. Mr. Krishna feels that customers could use the extended hours to pay bills at their convenience.
The good work being done by EPDCL call centre seems to have spread far and wide.
High-level delegations from Electricity Boards in other States, teams from Reliance (Mumbai) and from ISRO (Bangalore) and a team from Nepal have visited the centre during the past two months to study its functioning.
New premises
The fully air-conditioned centre is equipped with a music system.
It would be shifted to a new premises above FoodEx at Udyog Bhavan complex in Siripuram in February 2006.
Television sets would be installed in the new premises for the benefit of consumers.
Why run after manual revenue counters, when you can have your cake and eat it too at the EPDCL call centre?
Time-bound services
Some of the complaints and the time schedule for their completion is as follows:
Fuse off - 4 hours
Line problems - 6 hours
Replacement of damaged transformers - 24 hours
Allotment of new connection - 2 days
Billing complaints - 7 days
Replacement of burnt meter - 7 days
Change of category - 7 days
Change of improper meters - 22 days
B. MADHU GOPAL
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Mangalore
Pondicherry
Tiruchirapalli
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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