AEP (OH) Outage Reporting Center

This line is a customer service number for AEP Ohio, a utility company that provides electric power to more than 1.5 million residents of the state of Ohio. Both residential and business customers can call this number for assistance with their electric bills, service requests, and to report power outages or other safety issues. Because AEP Ohio’s customer service department is equipped to handle emergency issues, this line is staffed by representatives 24/7.

I called this line to inquire about starting new electrical service at a residence in Columbus, Ohio. I was immediately greeted by a recorded promotional offer for a medical alert device. The recording took nearly one minute and there was no way to skip past it. Had I been calling for an emergency issue — which this line is set up to handle — I would have been quite frustrated by having to sit through this message. 

Fortunately, my call was not an emergency, and at the conclusion of the promotional message I was directly connected with a customer service representative. The rep I spoke with had a business-like demeanor and immediately inquired about the reason for my call. When I indicated that the reason for my call was to sign up for new service, she asked me whether I was looking to initiate service at a business or a residence. Following my answer, she told me to wait on the line for additional assistance.

I was surprised that this line didn’t have an automated menu to separate callers based on the reason for their call. My assumption is that callers who are reporting a power outage or other emergency situation would take priority over other customer calls. Still, using a live representative to triage these calls is unexpected in this day and age.

After waiting on hold for less than five minutes, I was connected to another representative who had already been briefed that I was looking to sign up for electric service. He confirmed that I was signing up for a residential account, and then went through a series of questions to gather information about my service address, the date I wanted service to begin, and my personal and billing information. Because I’d never had a previous service account with AEP Ohio, he also informed me that I’d be required to put down a security deposit.

The entire process of setting up my account took between 10 and 15 minutes. The rep was efficient in gathering my information, and he was able to confidently answer my questions about setting up automatic monthly payments. By the conclusion of the call, I had successfully accomplished my goal of opening a new account with AEP Ohio.

If I had any additional customer issues with AEP Ohio, I’d be confident in calling this number to receive assistance (though I wouldn’t be looking forward to sitting through another recorded promotional message). The reps I spoke with handled my requests relatively smoothly. In addition to this line, AEP also offers the ability to manage your account and deal with customer issues through its website, although the site does not have one centralized customer assistance page.