Earlier this year, when customers began receiving multi-month bills from PPL asking for payments of hundreds of dollars more than they were accustomed to, many customers were stunned and wondered what happened.

In the intervening four months, PPL officials are still trying to pick up the pieces from the embarrassing fallout, and everything is still not back to normal, but they promised it should be by about now.

It was a perfect storm of factors that caught many customers unaware of what was going on, and it took PPL way too long to explain the massive problem. When it did, PPL said it came down to a screw-up in estimated bills and much higher electricity charges.

Adding to the frustration was the inability of customers to get through to PPL customer service representatives in a timely manner to find out what the problem was. Some were told their wait times could be more than an hour. Some were promised callbacks which never came.

The issue caught the attention of the state Public Utility Commission, which said its independent Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement began an inquiry into the circumstances of the problem, including the accuracy and integrity of PPL’s billing practices.

The PUC said PPL customers who feel the company has not addressed their issue adequately or has not responded appropriately should contact the commission’s Bureau of Consumer Services at 1-800-692-7380.

PPL serves 1.4 million customers in 29 counties in Pennsylvania, including the five in the Times News area - Carbon, Schuylkill, Monroe, Northampton and Lehigh.

It took weeks for PPL President Steph Raymond to issue an explanation and apology. Since then, the company has been more transparent on what it has been doing to correct the problem.

Raymond also devoted the latest issue of the company newsletter - Connect - to giving further details on what went wrong and acknowledging that the time to fix the problem is taking longer than expected.

“Many of the solutions require complex, multistep procedures, and we are working diligently to complete them,’’ she wrote.

For those who were bombarded by big bills, the company is requiring payment but also has offered payment plans without interest. Certainly this is the least the company can do in light of the fact that it’s the company that messed up.

In acknowledging that PPL has fallen short of its customers’ expectations and its own standards, Raymond said. “We have already made necessary changes to help prevent this from happening again and to regain your trust.’’

In the same issue, Alana Roberts, manager of community relations, is featured in several videos to expand on Raymond’s comments and explanations. She said the complex billing systems issues that surfaced last December were more complex and have taken more time than expected to correct, but, as Raymond did, she assured that everyone who received bills with issues would have these issues resolved hopefully by the beginning of May.

Roberts also address why some customers have been waiting weeks for a customer service agent to return their calls. She said that the number of calls nearly doubled during this troubled period. At one point, she said, the company had 15,000 customers on its callback list while still handling new day-to-day calls, or, in other words, three times normal volumes.

To address this issue, Roberts said the company doubled the number of support personnel to deal with the glut of calls. As such, wait times to get through “decreased significantly.’’ She also said that all customers who requested a callback have now received one, and she pledged that those who request one in the future can expect timely service. “We appreciate your patience and apologize for any delays,’’ she added.

By BRUCE FRASSINELLI | TNEDITOR@TNONLINE.COM

(Editor’s note: Frassinelli is a PPL investor and customer.)

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.