Monday, August 20, 2007
Neighbor Response
Thank you for your letter. We certainly support your efforts to improve the power situation in our area. We had similar brown-out and black-out experiences on the days youmentioned but our power seems to have beenrestored without the use of generators --- for now at least. We are not laying bets on the future. Your horrendous experience should have been met with better courtesy and compensationthan you have received. We'll be reading the blogs. Herb and Irma Remstein
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
"Should Utility Companies be Held Accountable?"
This article was written by a Rancho Palos Verdes resident who is suffereing from the power problems in the Pt. Vicente area. It was published in the Daily Breeze Tuesday August 14th, 2007.
We all seem eager to voice our contempt of airline companies lately! Whether for late flights, crying babies, baggage losses, or cramped seats, we take the opportunity to give the airlines a "piece of our mind" at the least glimpse of a problem. We expect them to be perfect in matters of our travel, and many actually think its our right to have it so. The airlines are viewed as a utility company would be, always expected to be on the top of their service game, with no slip ups, no delays, no crew or passenger routing mistakes.
If they do encounter these problems, interrupted passengers become very vocal about compensation, and other perks that go with our inconvenience. We expect telephone notification for delays, free meals and hotels for our troubled trips, free tickets for flight interruptions. Then why is it when our electrical utility goes out, the phone company lines go down, or the water main breaks, you get no warning, no update, no apologies and no compensation?
My area had trouble with electrical service recently. The electrical provider scheduled a planned maintenance that would take the power out for approximately 20 hours, (told this over the phone when I called in to check the status of the outage). There was no notice that work was scheduled, no communication when it continued beyond the maintenance stage, and indeed, no word at all unless the customers called to inquire what the problem was. Then we received only estimated times for information updates. We understand that there are going to be circumstances beyond human control, like broken water mains or snapped phone lines, but why do we accept these so readily without wrath?
Why are airlines expected to compensate passengers for their mistakes, some, like weather, air traffic control problems, and connecting flight interruptions or flight safety issues, which are totally out of their control? We expect them to issue vouchers for meals, hotels, free tickets, and the like, but have nothing to say when our home food supply is ruined, though we may have been able to salvage it with a little fore warning.
No, our utility companies are NOT the same. I just experienced a two-day electrical interruption. No warning, no compensation, little communication and $200 worth of food that had to be tossed out due to spoilage. The only comment? "We're sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you!" And a recorded message at that, received in the early morning as the power went back on, and every alarm on every appliance and system in the house was sounding.
I'm wondering if we'd put up with that from the airlines?
www.gemcorptraining.blogspot.com
is a blog on various thoughts on good customer service, the benefits, the techniques, and where its offered.
We all seem eager to voice our contempt of airline companies lately! Whether for late flights, crying babies, baggage losses, or cramped seats, we take the opportunity to give the airlines a "piece of our mind" at the least glimpse of a problem. We expect them to be perfect in matters of our travel, and many actually think its our right to have it so. The airlines are viewed as a utility company would be, always expected to be on the top of their service game, with no slip ups, no delays, no crew or passenger routing mistakes.
If they do encounter these problems, interrupted passengers become very vocal about compensation, and other perks that go with our inconvenience. We expect telephone notification for delays, free meals and hotels for our troubled trips, free tickets for flight interruptions. Then why is it when our electrical utility goes out, the phone company lines go down, or the water main breaks, you get no warning, no update, no apologies and no compensation?
My area had trouble with electrical service recently. The electrical provider scheduled a planned maintenance that would take the power out for approximately 20 hours, (told this over the phone when I called in to check the status of the outage). There was no notice that work was scheduled, no communication when it continued beyond the maintenance stage, and indeed, no word at all unless the customers called to inquire what the problem was. Then we received only estimated times for information updates. We understand that there are going to be circumstances beyond human control, like broken water mains or snapped phone lines, but why do we accept these so readily without wrath?
Why are airlines expected to compensate passengers for their mistakes, some, like weather, air traffic control problems, and connecting flight interruptions or flight safety issues, which are totally out of their control? We expect them to issue vouchers for meals, hotels, free tickets, and the like, but have nothing to say when our home food supply is ruined, though we may have been able to salvage it with a little fore warning.
No, our utility companies are NOT the same. I just experienced a two-day electrical interruption. No warning, no compensation, little communication and $200 worth of food that had to be tossed out due to spoilage. The only comment? "We're sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you!" And a recorded message at that, received in the early morning as the power went back on, and every alarm on every appliance and system in the house was sounding.
I'm wondering if we'd put up with that from the airlines?
www.gemcorptraining.blogspot.com
is a blog on various thoughts on good customer service, the benefits, the techniques, and where its offered.
Power Again
Buy a Generator #2
I did get a comment or two from people who didn’t think the investment for a generator was valid. Well, if you go without power for more than 24 hours I bet you will change your mind. Walking through the house by candlelight was cool, different, and mellow, and a welcomed change. However, finding my fish and other frozen goods thawed and ruined was a big bummer. And not being able to work from home, charge my phone, go in the spa, play my guitar, and keep the beer cold was the last straw.
Our situation began on Tuesday August 7th, 2007 when Via Lorado started experiencing a brown out – this means that there was about half power and some lights would work. Other appliances that required more power wouldn’t, for example, some TV’s, microwave, spa equipment, router and computer. Tuesday night our block went to black out – no power!
Our block Via Lorado and Via Marie Celeste had no power all day Wednesday and I am not sure if other blocks were affected too. On Thursday August 9th a total of 7 generators were delivered to our neighborhood. I was told that each generator can power about 10 homes. Surrounding streets Via Victoria and parts of Via Rivera were affected too. The generator can successfully distribute power to the block and all appliances and equipment can run normally. However, they are pretty loud, you can smell the diesel fumes, and it gives me an uneasy feeling that our block is running off a generator, furthermore, I expect another outage. And sure enough, Saturday morning, August 11th our power was off again. This time it was only about 10 homes as our local generator oil pump failed and the unit needed to be replaced. It was a bummer that the replacement was about twice as loud as the last one, I can hear it all night, but we do have power :)
I did get a comment or two from people who didn’t think the investment for a generator was valid. Well, if you go without power for more than 24 hours I bet you will change your mind. Walking through the house by candlelight was cool, different, and mellow, and a welcomed change. However, finding my fish and other frozen goods thawed and ruined was a big bummer. And not being able to work from home, charge my phone, go in the spa, play my guitar, and keep the beer cold was the last straw.
Our situation began on Tuesday August 7th, 2007 when Via Lorado started experiencing a brown out – this means that there was about half power and some lights would work. Other appliances that required more power wouldn’t, for example, some TV’s, microwave, spa equipment, router and computer. Tuesday night our block went to black out – no power!
Our block Via Lorado and Via Marie Celeste had no power all day Wednesday and I am not sure if other blocks were affected too. On Thursday August 9th a total of 7 generators were delivered to our neighborhood. I was told that each generator can power about 10 homes. Surrounding streets Via Victoria and parts of Via Rivera were affected too. The generator can successfully distribute power to the block and all appliances and equipment can run normally. However, they are pretty loud, you can smell the diesel fumes, and it gives me an uneasy feeling that our block is running off a generator, furthermore, I expect another outage. And sure enough, Saturday morning, August 11th our power was off again. This time it was only about 10 homes as our local generator oil pump failed and the unit needed to be replaced. It was a bummer that the replacement was about twice as loud as the last one, I can hear it all night, but we do have power :)
I did go to home depot and buy a 5000 watt generator for $599. It runs on gas and can supply power for almost 11 hours if running at 50%. A standard refrigerator runs on about 500 watts, so I can run several appliances and still be under 50%. I told my neighbor who had lost a bunch of food in the last outage that I have an extension cord that would reach their house to at least save the frozen items.
What bothers me is the lack of attention from our local power company. Why haven’t they told us the problem or when it will be fixed. With today’s technology you would think they would set up some sort of information system to help the neighborhood understand what is going on. Well, I did..
http://palosverdeslife.blogspot.com/
or go to http://www.thepvlife.com/
I hope that my neighbors can come to this site to gather current information, share information, and also grieve or advocate their feelings on this issue. I have heard that these generators will be our power source for the next four weeks – and that the power company does not know what the problem is. Maybe we can gain enough attention to be properly notified.
Pt Vicente Power Problems
We should all buy generators.
This week our local block suffered a brown out for two days – I guess it was Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday we lost power completely. After 24 powerless hours many neighbors were scurrying to buy ice and preserve what they could out of the leaky freezer. I am a fisherman and my freezer is stocked with fish. I should of went to Home Depot last nite and bought a generator. I probably will tomorrow. Then at least I could have saved some food. And what if I did have a live fish tank – all the filters and pumps would have stopped and my aquarium would have died. The source of the problem is still unknown and our entire block is being powered by a diesel generator down the street.
It really sucks that Edison didn’t bring out this generator earlier – I don’t like the idea of being powered by a diesel generator anyways – I should probably get a battery backup for my computer too. Our block had a similar situation a month or so ago and then a few months before that as well. There was no notice or support announcement to the status of this problem and when it will be resolved. I was thinking about having the neighbors get together in some form to call attention to this lack of communication.
To top it off the Water and Power Company was here most of the afternoon checking the sewer for several residents had blockage – must be a coincidence.
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