To the Editor:

I’m getting paranoid. Is NSTAR really singling me out, or do all the online bill payers get the same treatment? I have more than 100 username/password accounts, many financially related, most not, and NSTAR is head and shoulders above all in incompetence. Their security, protecting my top-secret account number, not to mention my top-secret name and address, is laughable. I can’t recall a single instance of anyone hacking my accounts to pay my bill surreptitiously. Could this be a felony of which I am unaware? If there is anyone out there who has had this experience, and has a procedure for successfully resolving it, please publish it in The MV Times.

A copy of the letter I sent to the Department of Public Utilities regarding my continuing confrontations with NSTAR follows:

Although NSTAR is prohibited from shutting my service off due to my age (89 and I live alone, a bit isolated), they consistently block my online payments. In the past few years, I have been forced to call them by phone (which is difficult for me — I’m somewhat deaf) a number of times to get them to allow me access to my account to change the password. No matter what I do online, it is not sufficient to get a new password. The latest botch is they not only refused the password I used successfully last time, but when I answered the 3 questions — who was my mother, which hospital for my birth, what was my son’s nickname — they stonewalled me there. My son had two nicknames, neither of which worked. No clue as to what they thought was wrong, no clue as to further recourse.

I suspect they would like to get permission to shut my power off for a while rather than try to correct their system. I don’t suppose the D of PU has any control over these whatever! they are. Perhaps a letter from you to them stipulating that they will not be allowed to shut me down without a hearing where I have a chance to confront them and their devious practice (could be just stupidity or incompetence or who cares) might get them to stop manipulating my consumer account information. This is very worrisome, especially in these blizzard conditions. Their competence is suspect enough without being concerned with their possible retaliation.

Robert Pacl

Vineyard Haven