Or PennElec. Or GPU. Or First Energy. Or whatever they’ve changed their name to this month.
Twelve Fifteen hours without electricity. GPU is nowhere in sight. It’s 33 degrees in my house right now. I closed off the water main and drained my pipes. But since the water main valve is a few inches away from the foundation, there’s still a good chance that I’m going to get a call from NextAlarm telling me that my crawlspace has flooded.
GPU has informed me that they “are deeply saddened by the catastrophic weather events affecting (my) region”, that “customer service is (their) top priority”, and that they “are working diligently to restore power as soon as possible”.
I would like to inform GPU, Met-Ed, PennElec, and/or First Energy that if they consider this to be a “catastrophic weather event”, then they have no business being in business anywhere remotely near the northern half of the United States. They may also wish to consider having enough technicians and trucks on-hand so that when we do get hit with what is by all definitions a fairly mild Pennsylvania ice storm, they can actually demonstrate customer service rather than just recite PR blather about it.
But hey, maybe our upcoming massive rate hikes will clear this all up. After all, utility companies have always demonstrated fair treatment of their customer base. Like offering to “soften the blow” of 30% rate hikes by “allowing” customers to begin paying the increased rates early.
So to reiterate, Met-Ed can suck it.
EDIT: PPL has announced that they won’t be restoring power to Harrisburg, Susquehanna Township, and Lower Paxton Township customers until 6pm this coming Tuesday. Also, county officials have stepped up to help by asking customers affected by power outages to contact their utility company. If you’re with Met-Ed, you can call 800-545-7741 to hear a recording about how valuable you are.
EDIT EDIT: I’m in good company. 41,000 Met-Ed customers in three counties without power, plus another 43,000 PPL customers in the dark. Plus PPL seems to be backing off on their Tuesday-by-6pm quote. I understand that lines go down when ice hits, but when did it become acceptable to lose service for a few days at a time? Power companies have enjoyed monopolistic protection for well over a century now; why have we not seen improvements in delivery?
EDIT EDIT EDIT: Met-Ed has just updated their recording to announce that there has been storm damage to some locations in and around the area, and that some customers may experience power outages as a result. I for one am glad to have this clarified.
5 Comments
December 17, 2007 at 10:08 am
Met-Ed has consistently shown me that they are enept. I have lived in this area now for more than 18 years and their level of competence and performance is nil. My home has experienced continual power fluctuations, and blips that cause the electronic equipment to reset and has damaged more than one piece of equipment. Having lived in a number of states, I have NEVER experienced such poor reliability and performance as I experience from this company. We were without power yesterday 12/16 for more than 7 hours and when I got a live person, it was obvious that my complaints are documented. Unfortunately they do nothing to resolve the problems we experience in our development. Its not fun leaving everyday and wondering if we will have power when we return.
When my development was built they attempted to blame the problems on uncalculated current draw! One excuse after the other. Their tree trimming program is nearly non existent so no wonder they end up in this predicament. Anyone with half a sense could have predicted that the ice was going to create some level of problems.
Wake up Met Ed. Perhaps we need to join together to file a class action lawsuit.
December 17, 2007 at 10:58 am
I’m with you. I’m really starting to think it might be time to force the PUC to put some actual pressure on the utility companies for once. Why don’t we have underground long-range transmission lines? Why don’t we have more reliable above-ground runs? Why don’t utilities get the tar fined out of them for failing to trim trees? For that matter, why are we allowing 30+ percent rate hikes in two years? There are too many whys, and the utilities will no doubt respond with “we are deeply concerned for our loyal customers and share in their frustration regarding the recent line reliability metrics. To that end, we vow to continue ensuring that out customers are our number one priority”.
January 30, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Aw, come. Met-Ed is a stable, caring company that has its customers exactly where they want them, bleeding them dry while the PUC allows them. I’ve been a M-E customer for 30 years and all I can say is that if they were not a monopoly, they would have been out of business years ago. Which sort of reminds me, what ever became of the COMPETITION program that was started around ’99??? Did our idiotic PA government tax those companies out of business or do the utilities that operate in PA still own the state (do I hear Verizon, Columbia Gas, Met-Ed, Pen-Elec, etc)? Screw Met-Ed and screw the PA Public Utility Commision…..
January 19, 2009 at 4:53 pm
all of you people are cry babie’s learn be for you speak it’s NOT GPU IT IS MET-ED/FIRSTENERGY I MYBE YOU HAVE POOR SVC BECUASE YOU PAY GPU NOT MET-ED DUMB ASS reliability and performance will mybe you can get out there in the rain and snow or nighttime and fix it your self and then tell what you think bleeding dry our cost go’s up you think we can give free elec. and lose money we are all ready losing money this now you poeple make me sick!!!!!!!!!!!!!
January 19, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Ladies and gentlemen, the official corporate response of Met-Ed.
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