The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram published an in-depth review (via centralmaine.com) of the trouble-plagued rollout of a new billing/CIS system by Central Maine Power (CMP)

Notably, the article contrasts CMP officials, who the article's authors describe as, "continu[ing] to deny that they mishandled their project," with the response of ScottishPower to a similarly massive fiasco in a new billing system launch

Both CMP and ScottishPower are units of Iberdrola

The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram describe ScottishPower executives as, "admitting blame and were effusive with their apologies to customers," excerpting a then-contemporary response from ScottishPower's CEO message to customers

ScottishPower's CEO told customers that, "no customer will be left out of pocket from our mistakes."

In contrast, the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram state, "In April 2018, CMP finally apologized for the way it responded to customer complaints, but it didn’t take responsibility for the underlying causes of the problem."

While the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram do not further dwell on this difference in the handling of the billing fiascos between subsidiaries of the same parent, we highlight one important distinction. ScottishPower is a competitive supplier, whose customers can choose to leave the firm for any of a dozen rivals if they are unsatisfied. That forced ScottishPower to be forthright and frank with customers, and to take ownership of the problems, to minimize any churn as a result

In contrast, the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram recount various customer interactions with CMP in which CMP sought to blame the customer for unusually high bills, with the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram describing the explanations as increasingly more creative as customers expressed skepticism, "ranging from electrical theft to excessive showering to teens addicted to video games."

Of course, with a monopoly on distribution service, CMP didn't have to fear customer churn from any billing problems, and while customer backlash did reach a critical mass to draw attention from regulators and lawmakers, the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram still fault CMP's responsiveness to customers even after audits and investigations

With two companies having such divergent responses to similar large-scale billing problems, we see a tangible example of the benefits that customer choice brings to customer service.

See the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram story here (via centralmaine.com)