Loss of supply line

[Aurora]

I worked on a line that dealt with emergency loss of electricity. Basically people would call in to report a power cut - but sometimes we got reports of accidentally cut cables during building work, overhead cables looking frayed, flickering supply etc...

I learned quite a lot actually while I was there, but because it was dealing with a utility, people used to freak out quite a bit when there was no real need to. I understand that not having power is an inconvenience and no one likes it, but sometimes people used to escalate beyond all reason.

(Also - quick bit of B/G - I worked for the Distribution network - the people that looked after and managed the cables that get the power from the substations to your house. Because the same company had a supply company as well, the people you pay your bills to, customers would assume that it was all part of the same thing - technically, the distribution part and the retail part were completely separate and had nothing to do with each other in any real sense)

A selection:-

1.

Me:- *Opening spiel - company name, my name, how can I help*
SC:- Yes I have no power.
Me:- Ah ok, can I just take your postcode please?
*customer gives address details*
Me:- Right, yes we do have an incident in that area - it was reported about 10 minutes ago, so we're getting an engineer out to site. Can I just ask if you've checked your trip switches?
SC:- Yeah they haven't tripped.
Me:- Oh right - well there are 3 phases of electricity coming from a substation, every third house is connected to a different phase, so sometimes if a fuse blows at the substation, only every third house is off supply. If the other two phases have reset themselves, the power coming back on can trip your switches out. Can you just switch all of them off and back on again for me?
SC:- Ok *customer puts the phone on the side and goes off to reset trip switches*
SC:- No that didn't work, it's still off.
Me:- Ok, well we're getting an engineer out to the substation anyway so hopefully he can get you back on before too long.
SC:- Do you know how long it will be?
Me:- I don't I'm afraid, it depends on what the fault is. If it's a fuse at the substation that needs replacing it doesn't take too long, normally somewhere around an hour. If the fuse keeps blowing it could indicate an underground cable fault, which obviously would take quite a bit longer because of the work involved in terms of getting down to the cable.
SC:- Well, you're about as useful as a chocolate fireguard aren't you? *click*

I get that it's frustrating firstly that your power is off, I get also that it's frustrating not knowing how long it'll be off - but I wouldn't it be more frustrating if I just made up a random time? I've given you all the info I've got for now.

2.


Me:- *Opening spiel - company name, my name, how can I help*
SC:- Yes I have no power.
Me:- Ah ok, can I just take your postcode please?
*customer gives address details*
Me:- I can't see anything in that area at the moment. Have you checked your trip switches?
SC:- Yes, they haven't tripped.
Me:- Sometimes it doesn't look like they've tripped, but to be sure we advise you to switch them all off, then switch them all back on again.
SC:- They haven't tripped out, it's not the trip switches. It looks like there are other houses on the street that are dark.
Me:- Well there are 3 phases of electricity coming from a substation, every third house is connected to a different phase, so sometimes if a fuse blows at the substation, only every third house is off supply. If the other two phases have reset themselves, the power coming back on can trip your switches out. But like I say, we haven't had any other calls from that area at the moment. Can you just switch all of them off and back on again for me?
SC:- Can't you just send someone out? It's not the trip switches. (Frustrated tone)
Me:- We can send an engineer out to you, but we have to ask you to reset your trip switches first so that we can rule that out. Can you please reset them for me, so that I can put on the notes that we've checked it? Switch them all off and then switch them all on again.
SC:- It's not going to be the trip switches. (condescending tone)
Me:- We can send someone out to check it for you, but if they find that it's something inside the house there can be a charge for the engineer coming out.
SC: *sigh* All right I'll check the trip switches, but it's not going to be them.
*SC puts the phone to one side - I hear footsteps going into another room, 15 seconds of silence and then the Coronation Street theme tune almost deafens me - the phone must have been next to the telly. I hear footsteps again and then *click**

Soooo...how'd those trip switches work out?

3.

(This was on the general line - not emergencies, just general electricity stuff - plans for cables, poles etc)

A lady called and had a problem with her bill. She had been understandably frustrated, but had been fine with me on the phone. Note - herself and her husband had a farm.

Me:- So the issue you're having is actually something your supplier will have to help you with.
Lady:- Oh I thought it was all the same place?
Me:- No, we look after the distribution network, so the actual cables and poles and substations. The people you pay your bills to, they supply your electricity itself, we just look after the bits that carry it to your house.
Lady:- Oh I see.
Me:- But your supplier should be able to sort this out for you.
Lady:- *Sigh* Well thank-
(At this point her husband picks up presumably another phone in the house, and chips in with his 2 pence worth)
Husband:- Tell 'em, that if they don't get it sorted, I'll get the tractor out and dig up all their poles they've got in our field. *click*
(Cue inward sigh from me - luckily I've just explained to this lady that yes the poles are ours, but the issue is with the supplier - so she can be the one to explain it to him that removing the poles will do nothing but cause him a whole lot of hassle)
*moment of silence on the phone*
Lady:- Well...thanks very much for your help.
Me:- You're welcome.

Good times

The ones I did used to feel for were the little old ladies that would lose power at night time - normally they lived in houses where the trip switches were either high up on a wall where they'd have to climb on a chair, or at the back of the cupboard under the stairs, where they'd have to run an assault course of household items to get to them. In those cases, since I didn't want any broken hips on my conscience, we used to ask them if they had a neighbour or family member who they (or I) could call, to come and check for them. In some cases they didn't - which was a whole new different kind of sad - but if they didn't have anyone who could come and check, we'd 'send a man out' to have a look, and I would take their number and stay in touch with them.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Well, in the first case I would be of the opinion that you were very helpful. Most people would probably just say, "I do not know" but you went ahead and gave examples of what could've caused the problem and how it means that it could be a short fix or a long fix.

Makes me wish we could static shock people through the phone, that would be pretty awesome.

[Raveni]

SC:- Well, you're about as useful as a chocolate fireguard aren't you?

Learn something new every day...

[EricKei]

"chocolate fireguard"? -_^

OK, I just love the mental image, but now I'm getting hungry for some reason.

[KatherineB]

I love Google!

[Golden Phoenix]

I suspect, from your description, that you're in the UK. So who did you work for? :P The "Orbs" company? The Flames? One of the others?

I worked for the Orbs in the supplier side, and trust me, we got the reverse.

Me: "Hi, welcome to Orbs Billing, how can I help?"
Them: "There's a power cut!"
Me: *Sigh* can i take your postcode?

We would then give them the appropriate distribution network number.

I later moved into debt collection.

Me: "Orbs collections, how can I help"
Them: "Why did you cut off my electric? I just paid my bill"
Me: Nothing wrong with the account. "Ok, could you just go check if your neigbours have power."
Them: "No, they're dark too"
Me: "Ok, looks like you have a power cut, here's the number you need"

(Frustratingly it was usually colleagues transferring people to us when this happened, they heard no power and assumed the supply had been terminated.)

In one case some batty old bird decided that if everyone had lost power we must have shut off the whole street due to someone not paying their bill and insisted we make the person cough up immediately.

[starsinthesky]

My husband used to work for a power company. I have heard horror stories. My job offered a temp skill to help out a power company due to Sandy. Thanks to my husband I turned it down. They didn't pay us enough to have people scream at us about their power being out. I understand that there are more people with power out than employees to restore it and it takes time.

[Aurora]

Ha! I also got 'You're about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike'.

We used to get that about the bills too 'Well I hope you're going to discount our bills for all these power cuts we keep having!'

The amount of times I had to try and explain that the supplier and the distribution were two completely separate companies, and were not connected in a business sense were unreal. I tried to be patient about it, because really - unless you worked in the industry you couldn't really be expected to know how it all worked.

If you had a powercut and saw a van in your road with a man digging a hole, and the van had 'ABC Distribution - a part of So and So company' on it, then looked on your bill and saw 'XYZ - part of So and So company', the logical thing is to assume that it's all part of the same company. They are, but they're not - so I couldn't really get too mad with customers that didn't quite understand. It was more frustrating when you'd explained the difference to customers, and that one was not connected to the other in a business sense - and they didn't believe you, and thought you were just fobbing them off because you 'don't want to deal with it'.

I used to reassure people that the suppliers only charged you for the power that you used - if you have a power cut, you're not actually using any power - ergo, you won't be charged

[Shalom]

I used to reassure people that the suppliers only charged you for the power that you used - if you have a power cut, you're not actually using any power - ergo, you won't be charged

Doesn't work like that here. There are separate charges on the bill for monthly service and for KWH used. Admittedly now that we've had eight days with no electricity (finally came back on late Monday evening), our consumption will be less than it might have been otherwise, but I still intend to ask them for a pro-rated discount on the service charge for this month.

Politely, of course...

ETA: We just got done dealing with a hurricane, and now it's freaking snowing. Marvelous.

[mharbourgirl]

The amount of times I had to try and explain that the supplier and the distribution were two completely separate companies, and were not connected in a business sense were unreal.

I have to say, that would throw me at first. In this part of Canada, and on the west coast where I used to live, the company that supplies the power also maintains the distribution network. Any problems with power, I call Nova Scotia Power - billing, outages, trees laying on the lines, etc. Seems a little strange to have the supplier and the distributor as separate entities.

Learn something new every day, I do.

[Argus]

In one case some batty old bird decided that if everyone had lost power we must have shut off the whole street due to someone not paying their bill and insisted we make the person cough up immediately.

That reminds me of this webcomic: http://www.absurdnotions.org/page18.html

[Seshat]

we used to ask them if they had a neighbour or family member who they (or I) could call, to come and check for them. In some cases they didn't - which was a whole new different kind of sad - but if they didn't have anyone who could come and check, we'd 'send a man out' to have a look, and I would take their number and stay in touch with them.

That's sweet.

I'm glad to hear it. I really am.

[wolfie]

The amount of times I had to try and explain that the supplier and the distribution were two completely separate companies, and were not connected in a business sense were unreal. I tried to be patient about it, because really - unless you worked in the industry you couldn't really be expected to know how it all worked.

If you had a powercut and saw a van in your road with a man digging a hole, and the van had 'ABC Distribution - a part of So and So company' on it, then looked on your bill and saw 'XYZ - part of So and So company', the logical thing is to assume that it's all part of the same company. They are, but they're not - so I couldn't really get too mad with customers that didn't quite understand. It was more frustrating when you'd explained the difference to customers, and that one was not connected to the other in a business sense - and they didn't believe you, and thought you were just fobbing them off because you 'don't want to deal with it'.

From what you're saying, it sounds like ABC Distribution and XYZ are both wholly-owned subsiduaries of Powerco, Inc., with each one handling different parts of the business, and no ability to deal with problems "owned" by the other. Is this the case?

Similar situations:

Cessna Aircraft and Bridgeport Machine Tools are both owned by the holding company Textron. Do you go to the Cessna parts depot if you need a new drawbar for your milling machine?

Before they sold off a lot of their peripheral business, Canadian Pacific owned hotels (the Royal York in Toronto used to be a CP hotel), package delivery services (Canpar, now part of the Transforce group), truckload carriers (Highland, formerly CP Express Trucks, now part of Transforce), and of course the rail line. The parcel you had sent from your office to your hotel room, containing stuff you forgot to bring for your business meeting, hasn't arrived yet. Do you call the railroad to complain?