ConEd's Customer Service: Designed to Exhaust, Not Resolve
A regulated monopoly has a duty to provide meaningful customer service and dispute resolution. Con Edison's customer service apparatus does the opposite: a circular system of hold times, uninformed representatives, undocumented interactions, empty promises, and zero accountability. The pattern documented below is not dysfunction — it is architecture.
A Typical Interaction
After navigating a circular automated menu system and waiting on hold for tens of minutes, a customer service representative will take several minutes to locate the case number and pull up the status — there are never any updates or additional notes. Some typical confusion about the existence of a smart meter and/or the existence of a second unit will ensue, upon which the customer must re-explain all previous interactions (for which no documentation is available to the representative).
At the conclusion of the call, the representative will insist that either the customer should send an email with a picture of the smart meter and current reading, or that a ConEd technician service visit is required. When informed that previous photos received no response, or that all previously scheduled service visits resulted in no-shows, the customer is assured that “this time will be different.” No escalation path is provided. No callback numbers are given (“sorry, we don't have individual numbers”).
Detailed Records
9 Unanswered Emails
Every email sent with photo proof of the smart meter and meter readings. Not a single response was ever received.
14 Phone Calls, 4h 53m
An incomplete log of calls to ConEd customer service. The longest single call: 54 minutes. Total resolution achieved: zero.
4+ No-Show Appointments
Schedule cleared from 8 AM to 3 PM on four separate occasions. Nobody arrived. Nobody called. Nobody emailed.