Sucky outage report - longish

[DarkProwler]

I don't post much, and it's been years since I've worked a job that required customer contact. Nonetheless, I do remember a few of the sucky customers I had to deal with. This one was probably one of the suckiest.

I was working in the call center of the local electric company, taking outage reports. There was a massive storm that blew through, multiple tornado touchdowns all over, and one of the towns south of my location was practically wiped off the map. So, needless to say, we were busy. We had a system set up for emergency outage reports, where we punch in the caller's address, and it can give us decent estimate of the repair time. So, if a line got cut somewhere and there was a team on the scene, we'd be able to tell the customer how long it may be before power is restored. In this situation, that wasn't an option. Crews were called in from all over the state, focusing their efforts on the massive damage in that town, and then working through the reports in order of magnitude.

The calls started coming in right as the storm passed. I hated taking emergency calls, just because they were so repetitive. In the case of this storm, it went a little like this:

Me: <opening line>
Cust: I'd like to report my power is out.
Me: <get cust info> "Thank you. The emergency team has been notified of your report. We do not have an estimate on repair time yet, but the crews are getting to everything as soon as they can."

And most people were fine. I nice "Thank You", maybe a bit of questioning about the repair time (which telling them about the crews focusing on the worst damage first took care of), and they were on their way, and I was on to the next report call.

Then I got this guy.

He calls up from his mother's mobile home, which is on the extreme outskirts of the area affected by the storm. The extent of the damage there is a downed pole. So I take the information and submit it through the report system (which adds the location information to their trouble tracking database, allowing them to more effeciently send out crews) and inform him that there is no estimate on repair, but they will be on it as soon as they can.

Him: "What?! That's not good enough! You send someone out here right now!"
Me: "I'm sorry sir, but all of our crews are focused in <town>, but they will be able to fix the pole when they have a crew available."
Him: "I don't care! I can see the pole from here, just get someone out here."
Me: "Sir, the crews have to work in order of severity. <town> was hit hard in the storm, and there are power lines down everywhere. We have people trapped in cars with live wires on them. But we will have someone out to you, as soon as they can spare a crew."
Him: "Look, my mom's on oxygen what am I supposed to do when that runs out?"
Me: "Sir, if the situation is that bad, you may want to consider getting her to a nearby hospital. I cannot guarantee that power will be restored by that time."

I did feel sorry for the guy and him mom, a bit, but there wasn't anything I could do about it. I kept trying to reassure him that someone would be out there, but I just couldn't pull someone to do it. He'd have to wait his turn.

Then he flipped.

Him: "This is bull****! You know what? Don't come out here. If I see any of your guys out here, I'm calling the police! I've had it with your company, I'm going to call <nearby power coop that doesn't service his area> and get my power from them!"

Which he can't, as the power companies here are regulated.

He just kept ranting and raving, while I'm watching the call queue stack up, and wondering why I'm staying on the phone. Then I hear another line pick up, and a little old lady's voice:

Mom: "Please, just send someone as soon as you can."


Me (ignoring her son who's now shut up): "Yes ma'am, we will have someone out as soon as possible."

And they both hung up.


I had to take a bit of a break after that. On the brighter-side, one of my coworkers got a call from John Mellencamp during that shift

[tigerlily0]

Anybody who seriously needs electricity for life-support equipment in their home knows enough to

- register with the power company ahead of time letting them know about it

- have a generator at their home for emergencies

- have a plan to go to the hospital if the power is out for a long time and the generator isn't enough

When I was growing up, my neighbor had such equipment and whenever there was a power outage, my neighborhood was put at the top of the queue for restoration. I felt bad for the neighbor, but loved the perks.

[Aethian]

When I was a baby I was on a heart monitor. We were at the end of the line for the company we got power from and at the end of the line for the next town over. Once when it looked like we wouldn't get power back for awhile Mom just got the generator hooked up and would watch it and me like a hawk. Then the heat started to rise in the house and wouldn't go back down. Even with the windows open the temp still rose. My monitor going off several times.

So Mom called and said she was worried about the power being off, the rising heat in the house, and the generator looking like it was getting ready to die. Within an hour a power comp truck was out there, a roofing guy from in town was out checking out the attic, and we got to borrow a comp generator.

Turned out during the storm our vents had gotten blocked and since the fans weren't getting any power to turn...heat was building. Still had to wait three days before the power came back. But it was easier with the help that Mom had gotten.

[StevieJD]

August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina came ashore with the eye crossing between Bay St. Louis and Pass Christian Mississippi.


Nearly 100% of the entire STATE of Mississippi from the Gulf Coast all the way up to the Tennessee boarder was without electrical service immediately following the storm. Most areas of the state did not have electrical service for more than 1 week, with some areas in South Mississippi taking more than 30 days to restore electrical service..... if there was a house to accept service.

That "if there was a house to accept service" is important. In Pass Christian MS approximately 85% of the 6,000 homes in the community were destroyed or deemed unfit for habitation.

Next tme somebody witches about your poor service restoring their power just ask them what they think about Mississippi and Katrina. Then remind them your tornado stricken town just got "Katrina-ed". We will get to you when we get to you sounds so much better when Katrina the verb is used.