How can you fight with the electric company?

[curiouser]

Here's my situation: About four weeks ago (late Feb) my SO and I are sitting in our apartment watching TV. We hear a loud boom and the power goes out. This was about 10:50pm. Our building was out (the buildings have 12 apartments in each) the one next to us, in front of us, and behind us was out. The rest of the complex had full power. Maintenence wasn't sure what happened, but we saw the power company show up about an hour later across the street. The power returned around 5:30am Monday morning.

Last Tuesday we've got dinner in the oven, and suddenly the power goes out again. It was a little after 6pm and it returned about 9:30. The same buildings were effected.

Last night (Wednesday) we out to dinner and returned home to notice the usual suspects had no power again. We got home at about 7:30 and the power was off, and it resumed again a little after 9:30.

We called the electric company last night to see what was going on and to complain. What am I paying for if the power is going to go out for extented periods of time and disrupt my life?! They informed us the power was back on (we were at SO's parents since we had no power, and when the power goes out we have no heat, either) and the girl got VERY VERY rude in telling us they could do nothing for us and couldn't tell us why exactly it was happening and what they were doing so it wouldn't happen. We tried asking for a supervisor, but they claimed none worked the late shift and promptly hung up on us in mid sentence.

We're going to call back again today, but I'm a bit of a loss. They are the only electric company in the area, so its not as though we could threaten to switch. Should I try complaining to my apartment complex? The city? Living like this with the power going out for hours once a week is getting ridiculous!!

Thank you for listening!

 

[GeorgeG]

I worked for an electric utility for 37 years. There should be someone you can talk to or at least willl call you back to explain whatever problem they're having.

From the frequency of your outages, I would guess that there is a problem that they are having trouble identifying. The loud bang you hear is a line fuse blowing, which can often sound like a high-powered rifle going off. Something is causing that to blow and they need to investigate further to determine the cause.

The first thing they might do is simply try replacing the fuse and if it holds, fine. If it blows again, they need to look further and fix whatever is wrong before re-fusing. Not being there, it's difficult to troubleshoot the problem, but by now the company should at least be taking a much closer look.

Call during the regular work day and ask to speak to supervisor or manager. If they don't have the answer handy, they can refer you to someone who can help you or have them get back to you, possibly even come out to see you. If you still don't get results, most states, if not all, have commisions that regulate the utilities. I know New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania (the states I dealt with) do. They can act as your consumer advocate and at least get some answers for you.

I see you're from Ohio and might be dealing with First Energy. If so, they should have cleaned up their act after causing the blackout.

 

[curiouser]

I see you're from Ohio and might be dealing with First Energy. If so, they should have cleaned up their act after causing the blackout.

Thanks for the info! Yes, I am working with First Energy, and all I can say about them cleaning up their act is that their attitude still has a long way to go.

I noticed driving to work this morning there are several holes in the ground now where I'm guessing the main lines are. It's great that they're working on it, it just seems unreasonable that it keeps happening and they won't even bother to say "This is what's going on, and this what we're doing to fix it" as opposed to "Your electricity is on, shut up and be happy".

Thanks again!