Georgia Power Closing Several Area Payment Centers

Georgia Power announced last week their intentions to close several area payment centers, including Pelham, Bainbridge, Tifton, Moultrie, Dawson and Thomasville.  While the operations portion of the Georgia Power locations will remain open, the procedure for paying your bill or connecting or disconnecting your power will change.

According to Joe Truhett, area manager for Georgia Power, more than half of their customers currently utilize the online payment option and by closing the brick and mortar payment structures, it allows Georgia Power to better manage the budget.  “For most of our customers, there won’t be any change and it allows us to use budget dollars to better meet the needs of our customers”.

In order to provide for those customers that are accustomed to paying in person, the number of authorized payment facilities will be expanding throughout the state.  These are business that accept Georgia Power payments on behalf of the power company.  Currently, there are 9 locations to pay your Georgia Power bill in Bainbridge, and that number is expected to grow.  Statewide, the number of payment locations will grow from 2700 to 5300.  For those circumstances that require person to person interaction with a Georgia Power employee, the payment locations in Valdosta, Albany and Waycross will remain open.

Mr. Truhett also believes that this new payment protocol will actually help those customers in rural locations.  “For example, our customers in areas like Pavo, or Morven, or Barwick may now have a payment location that is actually closer than driving all the way to Thomasville to pay”.

For new customers that are looking to establish or disconnect service, that can be done online or over the phone.  If there is documentation needed, that can now be provided electronically (fax, email, etc).

According to Truhett, when surveyed, Georgia Power customers rank reliability of service (keeping the lights on) and value of service (the cost of keeping the lights on) as their top two priorities.  “We are making sure we evolve to better meet the needs of our customers”.

For more information about paying your utility bill (including authorized payment locations) or establishing or disconnecting service, you can visit Georgia Power’s website.