Soon you may notice a change to our database... the Utilities category will soon be removed... but the information will still be available to you.
Why? This is a category that we (and our users) have struggled with for some time. As you may be aware, we limit the databse to mass-market, national companies (those with millions of consumers, serving most of the country), which keeps the list managable, while helping the greatest number of consumers. Paul likes to call them "companies your Mom would know about."
The challenge with utility companies is that, although there is a true need for the information, they don't meet these criteria, as they generally serve one geographic area. We've left them in the database up until now because we didn't really have a better solution and we know how important the data is to our community. But now, we've got a better solution: Our
discussion board.
We transferred the company information that was in the database into the "Utility Companies" forum. This will allow our users to access this information and share information about many more utility companies.
Please feel free to request and share information about your utility company. Please DO NOT list tricks that involve pretending that you have an emergency in order to get to a human. This would be irresponsible and could result in delayed service to someone with a true emergency.
As always, we appreciate your interest and participation. We'll use this blog to keep you posted on other improvements to the site as it evolves.
Posted by gethuman on Sun, 9 Jul 2006 3:41pm
