WE Energies calls today. They demand one of the staff gives them a tenant’s Social Security number or they are going to bill us. There are two problems with this. First a public utility cannot bill an owner if the owner gives them the name of the responsible party and more importantly third party disclosure of another person’s personal identifying information is illegal and just plain wrong in this day and age of ID theft.
Our frontline clerk says sorry, we’re not allowed ot give out tenants’ Social Security numbers. The WE “Customer Service” person says if they do not get the soc they are putting the bill in our name in that case. Our staffer hands the call off to her supervisor. The supervisor has an identical conversation and says “Here, Tim take care of this.”
So I pick up the phone and the first thing I do is ask the WE rep “What is your name and Social Security Number?” Her response is as expected “I’m not going to give you my Social Security number!” Okay so your Soc should not be shared, but our tenants’ should…hmm.
