Eric Reimer: MID billing wasn’t broken, so why was it ‘fixed’?

We are advised, correctly, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” To my view, there was nothing broken about the bill I have received monthly from MID. On one page it provided all of the information that is now to occupy two pages on the new bill. And the old bill provided information that apparently has been deleted from the new format: the “Prior Meter Read” and the “Current Meter Read.” Now only the usage is shown.

The MID has been given to secretive behavior in the past; to hide the meter readings is, for me, just more bad faith. It would appear that, for the most part, the changes that are being made are for the benefit (?) of MID’s internal operations, so why cause such disruptions for customers? A change from an 11-digit account number to a 10-digit number simply decreases system capacity. I’m quite sure that if there is a real need to use 10 digits internally, that a number pairing sub-routine could be written that would leave the external, 11-digit number intact. IT zealousness seems to have damaged that which was previously undamaged and working well.

This story was originally published September 1, 2017 at 5:32 PM with the headline "Eric Reimer: MID billing wasn’t broken, so why was it ‘fixed’?."