Veco texts customers power bills

By Rebelander S. Basilan

Thursday, July 28, 2011


CUSTOMERS of the Visayan Electric Company (Veco) can now get their monthly bills through text.

The power utility firm has launched a mobile phone texting service that will enable its clients to immediately access their bills anytime and anywhere.

The service aims to “provide convenience to our clients,” said Veco corporate communications manager Ethel Natera in a press conference Tuesday. “We don’t expect to earn from this.”

Natera said the texting service will not replace physical bills as it only provides an “added service.”

Clients can access their bills by typing ASKVECO BILL Account ID and sending it to 2327 for Globe and Touch Mobile users, 391-8326 for Smart, Talk n’ Text and Red Mobile users, and 0922-999-8326 for Sun Cellular users. Each message costs P1.

“We encourage everybody to use it,” said Jaime Jose Aboitiz, Veco executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Over 1,000 clients have already availed themselves of the service, which Veco started offering last week.

The texting service is a new addition to Veco’s communication tools that include newspaper and radio advertisements, updated website information and flyers.

The firm also uses social networking site Facebook and microblogging service Twitter to relay information to its customers.

“This is a manifestation of Veco’s strong commitment to innovate and improve its services to its clients,” said Robert Timogtimog, Veco’s customer retail services department manager.

Veco has been tapping mobile phone service to reach out to its more than 300,000 customers in the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, Talisay and Naga and in the towns of Liloan, Minglanilla and San Fernando.

In 2009, Veco launched “Txt Broadcast” to enable its customers to get the latest information on unscheduled outages and emergency power service interruptions.

By sending ASKVECO OUTAGE to the numbers above, clients can get information from Veco within a minute. Customers can also learn energy conservation tips by typing ASKVECO ENERCON.

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on July 28, 2011.