By Ryan Randazzo | Arizona Republic
Utility regulator Justin Olson on Tuesday suggested Arizona Public Service Co. face an independent investigation over the bad advice its website offered customers.
The state’s biggest electric company earlier this month said that its online tool for comparing rate-plan prices was not working properly, and in some cases advising customers to switch to rate plans that would cost them hundreds of dollars more per year.
APS could not determine how many customers received or acted on the bad advice before the company took the tool offline, but said the problems had persisted since February. In that time, 12,000 customers had switched rate plans but not to their cheapest option, APS officials said.
“In my view, to issue an appropriate remedy for customers, we need an independent determination of the facts,” Olson wrote to his four fellow commissioners Tuesday.
