Section 280.APPENDIX B   Customer Rights

(Appearing on the reverse side of disconnection notices sent to residential customers)

Your rights and responsibilities regarding this notice:

Payment methods: (utility shall list available means or provide way to obtain available options).

Deferred Payment Arrangement (DPA): You may be eligible for a payment plan known as a DPA in order to prevent disconnection unless you failed to complete a previous DPA in the past 12 months. Please contact us at (contact info) to ask about payment options to avoid disconnection.

Reinstatement: You can reinstate a previous DPA that defaulted by catching up with all the payments that were due up to now. We may charge you a reinstatement fee unless this is your first time reinstating the DPA.

Renegotiation: If lose or change income, you may be able to renegotiate your DPA.

Financial Aid: Help with utility bills may be found in the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). Along with the aid, LIHEAP qualification gives you extra rights. Contact LIHEAP at (current LIHEAP contact info). We may know of other aid available. To find out, contact us at (utility contact info).

Medical Certification: If you haven't used a medical certificate in the past 12 months or you paid off a previous medical certificate, a medical certificate from a doctor or local board of health can stop disconnection for 60 days or have service restored as long as they contact us within 14 days after shut off. The medical certificate must contain:

1)         Name and contact information for the doctor or board of health;

2)         Your service address and the name of the patient;

3)         A statement that the patient lives at the address; and

4)         A statement that disconnection of utility service will aggravate an existing medical emergency or create a medical emergency for the patient.

The doctor or local board of health can call us to certify, but they must provide a written medical certificate with the above information within 5 days after calling. The medical certificate also puts you on a medical payment arrangement to pay off the bill over time. The term of the payment plan will be better if we receive the certificate before your service is disconnected.

Active Duty Military: If someone living with you is on active U.S. military duty, State law offers certain protections for your electricity and natural gas service. Please contact us if someone in your household is on active duty.

Deposits: We can demand a deposit from you if we shut you off or if you pay late 4 times and carry a past due balance older than 30 days at any time in a 12 month period. The deposit will be about twice the size of your average bill, and you can pay it in 3 installments. You can be disconnected for not paying a deposit.

Reconnection: If we shut you off, your service will be restored when you pay in full or take care of the problem if we shut you off for something other than a bill or deposit. You may be required to pay a reconnection fee.

Complaints: If you have a complaint or problem with us, do not wait until after we shut you off to try to take care of it! If you contact us to try to take care of a problem, we must try to work with you to resolve or explain the problem. If we can't help you, you can contact the Illinois Commerce Commission's Consumer Services Division at: 1-800-524-0795 (TTY 1-800-858-9277). Before calling the ICC, you must try to work things out with us first. Please call us at (utility contact info).

Regulations: You can review the main set of rules that affect you at http://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/083/08300280sections.html.