WAC 480-30-461. Service or rate complaints

(1) Company responsibility. (a) Complaints from customer. When a company receives a service or rate complaint from a customer it must: (i) Acknowledge the complaint within twenty-four hours; (ii) Investigate promptly; (iii) Report the results of the investigation to the complainant; (iv) Take corrective action, if warranted, as soon as appropriate under the circumstances; (v) Inform the complainant that the decision may be appealed to a higher level representative of the company, if any; (vi) Advise that if the complainant is still dissatisfied after speaking with the higher level representative, the commission is available to review the complaint; and (vii) Provide the complainant with the commission's address and toll-free telephone number. (b) Complaint referred by commission. When commission staff refers an informal complaint to the company, the company must: (i) Investigate and report the results to commission staff within two business days (commission staff may grant an extension of time for responding to the complaint if requested and warranted); (ii) Keep commission staff informed of progress toward the resolution on a weekly basis; and (iii) Inform the commission staff of the final result. (c) Complaint record. A company must keep a record of all complaints for at least three years. The record of complaints must be readily available for commission review. The record must contain: (i) The complainant's name and address; (ii) Date and nature of the complaint; (iii) Action taken; (iv) The final result; and (v) All official documents regarding the complaint. (2) Complaints to commission. Customers may file with the commission either: (a) An informal complaint against the company under the provisions of WAC 480-07-910 ; or (b) A formal complaint against the company under the provisions of WAC 480-07-370 .