Wash. AG Seeks Max Penalties Against Lumen for Excessive Hold Times

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission should assess maximum penalties ($243,000) against Lumen’s CenturyLink for keeping customers on hold for too long and not quickly responding to the government’s information requests (see 2403180034), the state’s Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D) said Monday. However, Lumen urged “no or minimum penalties.” CenturyLink committed nine violations of a rule requiring telecom companies’ customer service reps to answer customers' calls in 60 seconds or less, on an average monthly basis, Ferguson said, representing Washington UTC staff in a brief in docket UT-240078. The company should pay the maximum $1,000 fine for each of the nine months when it failed to meet that metric in 2022, Ferguson added. Also, the AG said it’s not disputed that Lumen violated commission rules when it failed to provide timely and complete response to staff's requests for information. Staff believes Lumen should pay the maximum $1,000 for each of 234 days it was in violation. "Staff provided the Company ample warning and opportunities to cooperate and come into compliance before assessing penalties in this case,” said the AG. “The Company instead chose to ignore these warnings and Staff’s requests for information and therefore the maximum amount of penalties is warranted.” In another brief Monday, Lumen conceded it didn't meet the average hold time metric from January through November 2022. Also, it acknowledged “inadvertent delays in its responses to Staff data requests due to strains on company resources, including the unexpected departure of one employee tasked with responding, as well as a communications gap between CenturyLink and Staff.” However, in determining penalties, the UTC should consider how the company has performed since, Lumen said. “While CenturyLink regrets that there were any violations, it has been consistently compliant ... since December 2022, and it has taken effective remedial actions to prevent delinquency in responding to Staff data requests.”