Removal of the Alabama Public Services Commission’s...

Removal of the Alabama Public Services Commission’s authority to investigate customer complaints against phone companies (CD March 13 p14) “was not as big a deal as it seems,” said the author of the measure that removed the power, State Rep. Mike Hill, a Republican (http://bit.ly/PucWgY). The APSC had no regulatory authority over the companies, Hill wrote in an email Saturday in response to our inquiry the previous week. “The only thing the PSC was doing was acting as an answering service. They received the complaint, sent it to the phone company, and reported back to the resident when the phone company replied to them.” Customers who aren’t able to get satisfaction with their company can go to another provider, he said. The APSC was neutral on the bill. A spokeswoman said in an email that the agency handled 750 complaints last year. In most cases, customers complained to the APSC after being unable to resolve problems with their provider, the spokeswoman said.