Saskatchewan residents phoning SaskPower have had to deal with some tedious wait times lately, some for as long as an hour.
 
Customer service reps have been overwhelmed with calls related to the Canada Post strike and then power outages.

On top of that the Crown Corporation has just brought in a new billing system. Robert Watson, president of SaskPower says the new billing system is necessary. But it is causing frustration for employees and customers.

“Our old billing system was over twenty-five years old, the capacity was running out and it was an internal developed system,” explained Watson on the John Gormley Show Thursday morning. “In fact, I think there’s only one person left on earth who could actually figure the source code out of the old system.”

The average wait time when calling the Crown is 24 minutes.

“We’re not happy with the call-in times right now, I’m not suggesting that they’re remotely acceptable,” said Watson.

He says they are bringing in extra staff to deal with the 2,000 – 4,000 calls SaskPower gets every day.

Edited by News Talk Radio's Sabeen Ahmad.