Every month, sometimes two or three times a month, Michelle Hill strolls over to Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s headquarters on Lexington Street and hands a window teller $5 or $10 and asks that it be credited to her utility bill.
Every little bit helps, said Hill, who for years has been going there to pay her bill, as did her parents and grandparents.
"After I pay my bill, I usually buy some peanuts at the Peanut Shoppe and go shopping across the street," said Hill, a 24-year-old sales associate. "If you come here during the first two weeks of the month, you can see how many other people come here to do the same thing. It's practically a ritual."
On July 1, that ritual will end when BGE closes its last two bill-payment centers - the Lexington site and one at Eastpoint Mall- and contracts the business out to a check-cashing company. Some consumer advocates, customers and business leaders have criticized the utility's decision
Critics also object to a $1 that ACE Cash Express Inc. will charge BGE's customers at all but two of its 18 outlets to process each transaction, calling the fee a hardship for low- and fixed-income customers.
The People's Counsel, the state advocate for residential customers in utility issues, has urged the Maryland Public Service Commission to block the closings. A community group held a protest rally in front of the BGE building two weekends ago. And state Del. Maggie L. McIntosh, a Baltimore City and Baltimore County Democrat, denounced the decision.
PSC Executive Director Gregory V. Carmean said the commission is reviewing the case and is scheduled to take it up at a meeting tomorrow. The PSC could issue a decision by Thursday.
West-side business leaders and Lexington Market have asked the PSC to forbid the closings, saying they would harm local businesses.
"People of all colors and all backgrounds use the payment center downtown," said Alvin J. Levi, owner of Howard Street Jewelers and president of the 400-member Market Center Merchants Association.
"People use mass transit into town to get there. Senior citizens use the payment center. People who work around here use it. People running errands here use it. It's easy and convenient. They close that center and the foot traffic around here decreases. We retailers know we're going to feel it in our cash registers."
Nobody's stranded
BGE "categorically denies that" it is leaving its customers stranded, spokesman Charles B. Welsh said.
The ACE check-cashing company, with headquarters in Irving, Texas, has 18 outlets in the Baltimore area, including two near the BGE centers that are closing. The two ACE sites, on Baltimore Street and Eastern Boulevard, will waive the $1 fee for BGE customers, Welsh said.
In a letter to the PSC, the utility said it has improved services at ACE so that customer payments are processed promptly. In case of service termination or shutoff notices, customers can also get their service restored that same day by making their payment at any ACE location before 3 p.m.
"We want to get out of the cash-handling business," Welsh said. "That's the main driver behind this. Our primary purpose is delivering gas and electricity. Cash-handling is not part of our core competency.
"We certainly don't think it's a reduction in service to our customers," he said. "We think the arrangement with ACE will result in more hours and greater opportunities to make payments."
Most of BGE's 1.8 million customers mail their payments, but the company estimates that about 4 percent, or 50,000 customers, visit the two bill payment centers monthly.
It's unclear how long customers have been paying their bills at the BGE building, but several elderly customers said they used to accompany their parents to the teller windows when they were children.
"I'm 66. All my life, I've been coming here," said Rebecca Tarpley of Catonsville, who still goes downtown to pay her utility bills. "My parents came down here."
BGE has been systematically closing its teller windows since 1994, including 11 in the past eight years. The last one to close was at Mondawmin Mall in 2000.
Although BGE said in its letter to the PSC that the decision is based on "cost-effective improvements" that would keep rates low, Welsh did not have figures on how much the company will save. He acknowledged that the savings from closing the last two centers are "not substantial."
"What the [Office of People's Counsel] is questioning is whether the closings are in reality improvements in customer service," said Deputy People's Counsel Sandra M. Guthorn.
"Four percent doesn't get across 50,000 people who will be affected by this. A lot of the customers who use the centers are older. Changing their routine is very burdensome and inconvenient to them. This is really going to have an effect on these people and their way of life. BGE is supposed to be a public-service company."
Many low-income customers also can't afford the $1 fee, said Tarpley. "One dollar might not mean a lot to you or me, but for someone on a fixed income, it means a lot. It's terrible, " she said.
Levi's assessment is harsher.
"I find it difficult for BGE in one breath to ask for voluntary contributions to 'help us help people who cannot pay their bills,' while in the same breath want to inconvenience people who are having trouble paying their bills," he said.
Closing the downtown center could hurt the west-side revitalization project's efforts to draw more residents and businesses downtown, Levi said.
"I think BGE is stepping away from something that is part of the company's previous corporate responsibility. It's crazy and it is wrong," Levi said.
The Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition said many low-income customers with bill problems need face-to-face access to the company.
Not 'customer friendly'
"Having dealt with low-income consumers for a long time, we know it's important for them to have face-to-face contact with BGE when they have concerns," said Cheryl Hystad, executive director of the coalition. "Many don't have telephones, so they can't call when they have a problem. BGE is not being customer friendly."
Welsh said BGE tellers can accept only cash or checks from customers. They cannot resolve billing disputes, make alternative payment arrangements or provide state funding assistance to help customers pay bills. ACE tellers will serve the same role for customers.
"I've had trouble with check-cashing centers before," said Darryl Dorsey, 42, a Charles Village resident who was dismayed to learn about the planned closings when he showed up to pay his May utility bill.
"Sometimes, it's taken five to seven working days for the payment to go through. I like to come here because I know my money is going directly in there."
ACE could become overwhelmed with BGE customers, said 54-year-old Shandara Epps of Park Heights, because the check-cashing company also processes wire transfers and money orders, and provides telecommunications services. "The line is out the door the first of the month."
Bonnie Scible, owner of the Peanut Shoppe across the street from the BGE building, said she's preparing for the worst.
"A third of my customers come into this store on their way to pay their bill or as they're leaving," said Scible, whose store has been in the area for 70 years.
"Generations of people from the same family have been coming here from there. ... I'm going to get hit really hard with the closing."