Consumer's Energy, making enemies and ignoring customers.... (houses, to buy)

idw2s · 07-29-2011, 07:39 AM

I reported an outage 4 hours ago, and they still haven't had anyone to look at it yet, not ETA for getting our power back.

I'm wondering if I need to buy bagged ice for the fridge and freezer? I haven't experienced a power outage in 15 years...

The lady was so snippy on the phone. Grrrrrr... I have heard lots of not nice things about them.

Storms have been evil lately, everyone okay?

Bydand · 07-29-2011, 08:11 AM

It all depends on how busy they are and what the main issues are. Sometimes a power outage is the least of their worries at that particular moment and they are dealing with some big issues that caused the outage in the first place. I had a friend call me last week with his power acting funny (1/2 the house was out, the other 1/2 was fine). When I got there and checked, the main line to the house had lost one of the legs coming in from their pole. He called Consumers and they had a crew there in about 15 minutes and had replaced the service drop and were gone in less than 30 minutes.

They may be dealing with a lot of downed lines and trying to get it so it is even possible to restore power to those out right now.

PS, I've been an Electrician for almost 30 years and have found that the providers here are pretty decent to work with and really are concerned with maintaining power to their customers. The ones in the office tend to leave something to be desired.

Retroit · 07-29-2011, 09:36 AM

4 hours is nothing. It took them about 20 to get ours working. We had a "Half-Power" situation as described by Bydand, only in our case they had to replace the transformer.

I would make sure all your neighbors are calling in to report the problem as well. The power companies try to deal with the biggest outages (most customers) first. If 100 people are without power, but only 1 calls in, they are not going to get service as quick as another area where 100 people are without power and 100 call in.

belleislerunner · 07-29-2011, 12:57 PM

Did you think the service & maintentance repair people just sat around waiting for you to call? Give them at least 24 hrs to get back to you. Complaining you haven't heard anything in four hours is unreasonable.

danielj72 · 07-29-2011, 08:45 PM

We loose our power everytime the sky lights up a little bit. Sorry to say Idw2s but this kind of thing happens alot in Michigan. Its just one of those annoying things we deal with here.

Bydand · 07-30-2011, 08:22 AM

I guess it is what area you are in. In the last 3 years at this house we have lost power once for about 30 seconds.

idw2s · 07-31-2011, 10:26 PM

Wasn't expecting the power up that soon, just a status update as to when we might expect it so I would know what action to take.

To top it off, my power spontaneously came back on, and they said we had no power outage, it must have been on our end. Which is why the houses in my area that have barn lights were all dark and some of my neighbors started up their generators. Because MY house had no power. Maybe they had too much money and wanted to burn up a little extra propane?

We live in the sticks, I fully expect we'll be low on the totem pole, but the whole don't call us we'll call you leaves a lot to be desired. Technology gives them the power to give slightly better answers than that....

Okay, so I got spoiled living in the city.

But sheesh, even in the back woods an hour outside of Dallas once you had a ticket you got an ETA each step of the way. They would have teams do triage and then work their way through... Guess Consumer's has a different process. I just need the automatic on generator... It's so on my Christmas wish list.

Retroit · 08-01-2011, 06:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by idw2s

...they said we had no power outage, it must have been on our end. Which is why the houses in my area that have barn lights were all dark and some of my neighbors started up their generators. Because MY house had no power. Maybe they had too much money and wanted to burn up a little extra propane?...

Did your neighbors call in to tell Consumers Energy that their power was out? If they didn't, it would be logical for CE to conclude that you were an isolated case and thus put lower in priority.

Bydand · 08-01-2011, 07:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Retroit

Did your neighbors call in to tell Consumers Energy that their power was out? If they didn't, it would be logical for CE to conclude that you were an isolated case and thus put lower in priority.

^This is the answer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by idw2s

Wasn't expecting the power up that soon, just a status update as to when we might expect it so I would know what action to take.

Without knowing what is causing the outage there is no way a company can tell you how long it will be before power is restored. If they are still out looking for the problem, any information the person on the phone gave would just be a wild guess and not accurate at all.

After living outside of the Dallas area, and here as well; there are major differences in what can go wrong with the power in each area and differences in how each company deals with an outage. Consumers will send trucks out to visually inspect the lines in an area having an outage to see if it is trees on the lines, downed lines, broken poles, blown transformers, etc.... There is NOT technology that will help any company find what is wrong. It can tell them the general area (many, many square miles) a problem is, but not what houses have power and what houses don't have power.

idw2s · 08-01-2011, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Retroit

Did your neighbors call in to tell Consumers Energy that their power was out? If they didn't, it would be logical for CE to conclude that you were an isolated case and thus put lower in priority.

Three of them did, yes. Can't speak to the rest...

Burning all that propane, they were a little anxious to get the power back...