Power's out, don't calls us

[violiavampyr]

Reminder: I'm a receptionist at a realty/brokerage company.

Today there was a small blackout. Yes, on Nov 1st, the day when all the rent is due there was a blackout.

It flickered country wide, but was concentrated in about a 2 mile radius (give or take) around the mall. Many of our student housing is in that area.
See where I'm going.

One conversation when thusly (all the ones I had were pretty similar:

Panicky girl (this is like seconds after the flicker): Hi, my power just when out!!! I paid my electric bill!!

Me:It's ok, the lights flickered here. Did you call the electric company?

Girl: No!It's not just me!??

Me: Not just you.

Girlo I have to do anything??

Me: You can all the power company if you want, but they're probably already working on it.

Girl:So it'll fix itself?

Me: Yes, yes. It'll fix itself.

Girl: Ok, thanks, bye!

I got at least 10 more calls about it. Some I took, rest I transferred.

[Flying Grype]

All I can think of is that when she was a kid, the most common reason for the power going out was that the bills weren't paid. I'm not making a judgement or speculating about why the bills weren't paid, I'm just thinking that they weren't paid. When I was a kid I knew that storms could make the power go out, because nothing else ever made the power go out.

[Aethian]

Either that or she was just so worried about this being her first time on her own.

[Hyndis]

My first response if the power is out is to ask the neighbors if their power is also out.

If its just me, then its something I need to look into. If no one has any power then its a much bigger problem, though its also one out of my hands, so I may as well just catch up on my reading while they fix it.

[Seshat]

Even if it's neighbourhood wide, I tend to call the phone company.

If I get an automated message stating that they know the power is out in (area/s including mine), I just hang up. They're aware of the problem and working on it. Otherwise I wait & notify them of the problem.

[Bright_Star]

It'll fix itself, dinner will make itself & the the dog will relieve itself when it's freezing cold out...LOL!

[emax4]

I would like to assume that no matter where she lived at previously that there was a power outage at least once. So, in some ways it makes sense to call the power company to ask if it was just her or the whole area. On the other hand, if she couldn't look outside and put 2 + 2 together, then yeah.. a little air-headedness there...

[violiavampyr]

But what's frightening is that it wasn't just her. It was at least 10 separate people.

[Andara Bledin]

I always call if an outage lasts more than a few minutes, even if it is neighborhood-wide.

I figure, if they know, they'll either have a recording or will tell me they know, and if they don't, then they will after I talk to them.

Unfortunately, my last ISP (Earthlink >_< ) refused to have a recording and would actually go through half an hour of troubleshooting before admitting that, "Oh, yeah, there's an outage in your area, so you won't have service, no matter how much time we waste." And I only got that because I asked.

^-.-^

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Unfortunately, my last ISP (Earthlink >_< ) refused to have a recording and would actually go through half an hour of troubleshooting before admitting that, "Oh, yeah, there's an outage in your area, so you won't have service, no matter how much time we waste." And I only got that because I asked.

^-.-^

Been there done that with the ISP. I had one rep I spoke with put me on hold to check with another department to see if there had been an outage reported.

Turned out there was but word had not gotten to their desk yet.

And yes, if my power is out for more than a few minutes I will call to see if they have an estimate as to when it may come back on (if my brother hasn't already done it.)

Of course, before I even do that, I'll step outside and if the traffic light is not working (or if it's night, no street lights at all outside) then I know it's not me - it's the 'hood.

[EricKei]

The power company here must be used to the outage thing >_> They have an option set up when you call them that has them send texts to you for updates on the status of power outage recovery. It also help them, as calling in the reports helps them narrow down which power grids/addresses still need fixing.