How is this Ok? I hate the power company.

[Octavious]

So May 18th 2018 (Yes 2018) a car hit a pole on my street and knocked out the power. They half fixed it and left a wires tied to trees. (Not making this up.) Today June 26th they decided to actually attach the wires to a pole properly. Without notice they have blocked my wife in the house (it's right in front of my house) since 10AM and have had the power turned off. It's 80+ outside so it's essentially a sauna in the house. As the power has now been off for like 5+ hours it looks like we'll have to toss everything out of the fridge. I filed a complaint with the power board, but seriously wtf. There has to be a rule somewhere that planned work like this requires notification? Right? So damn pissed off. She works from home so she's essentially lost an entire days worth of work as well.

[LawBeefaroni]

What state is this?

[Octavious]

NJ

[LawBeefaroni]

Ah, I see. In that case not only is it legal, it is strongly encouraged.





Seriously though, seems like notice should be required for a potentially long outage like that. I know compensation for spoiled food is common for unannounced outages caused by seevice work, not sure about lost work time.

[Octavious]

Lost work time is just annoying. She will make it up. It just seems like common sense that they would tell you that you would have no power most of the day. They finally turned it back on at 3PM. Wires are attached to the new pole but it’s also still tied to the tree further down the road. I’m going to take pictures for my records. Flipping idiots.

[dbt1949]

I remember a half century back when a show called Laugh In was on TV. Lily Tomlin played the "telephone operator" (ATT had a monopoly then) and was always saying "We're the telephone company and we don't care. We don't have to."

[Octavious]

Ya that’s pretty much what it feels like. This crap would never fly in a nicer part of NJ. It’s not like I’m looking for money or anything. I just want to know when you are going to jack my power for most of the day. Usually on Wednesday I’m at home until noon. By luck I left just before they came. I would have missed 2 conference calls that I was running. Whew

[LordMortis]

Power being off? Not much you can do about it other than get a generator. If your livelihood relies on no down time, it may something to do. The thought of maintaining one turns me off from the idea before even worrying about the expense but if two days of no power means not only a meat burning hibachi party but also no two days of no paychecks and concerns about my reliability, I might change my tune.

Being blocked in? Did you ask them to move? Or inform them of your intent to leave/come back? I don't fully comprehend the situation but utilities seem to block points of egress all of the time. I always assumed the solution was "hey, sorry to bother you, but I gotta ...." and then you are inconvenienced for 10 minutes while they find the ability to break between what they need to do.


https://www.homeadvisor.com/cost/electr ... generator/

[Smoove_B]

They probably tried calling you, but the power was off so your phone was just ringing and ringing and ringing.

That really sucks and I'm surprised to hear it, even for NJ. As an "emergency repair" I'm guessing that have some flexibility in what they're required to do, but I'm amazed they thought just blocking someone in was a good idea. Unless they didn't think anyone was home? Still, very odd. Heat will be worse tomorrow and Friday, so silver lining there, maybe...

[Octavious]

Holy shit they made it even worse. If this is how they leave it I will lose my mind. Oh and since they closed the road the garbage man didn’t come. Good thing we don’t have bears in the area. Oh wait...

[Blackhawk]

I once had something similar happen. The power wasn't cut, but workers parked their trailer across my yard and right across my driveway about 15 minutes before I needed to leave to pick my kids up from school one county over. They absolutely would not move to let me out. I explained that I had a ~5 year old autistic child that was about to be stranded at school, and they absolutely did not care. I very, very nearly came to blows on that one. I was just about to go down, get in their truck, and move the damned thing myself when they left.

[Octavious]

My issue was them shutting off the power the entire day. I’m sure they would have let my wife out if she asked. And now I have garbage that I don’t know what to do with. After further research the lines tied to the tree are communication lines. So I’m guessing that’s not even the power companies issue. Which means it’s going to stay like that until I find the right company to complain to. I’m guessing it’s Verizon. It’s only been a year. I’m sure they will get to it soon.

[Isgrimnur]

I’d tell you to go to the local government, but, well ...

[LawBeefaroni]

A truck will hit those low lines, so problem soon to be solved.

[JSHAW]

By blocked in you mean their work trucks or the work they were doing blocked your wife from getting in her car and getting out of your
driveway?

Did she ask them if they could move and let her out? If you don't ask....you don't get. That is with alot of things in life.

There's one thing I won't stand for and that's someone blocking my driveway. I had it happen one time and I called the cops. They found
the person whose vehicle it was and had them move it.

[Octavious]

The blocking in is fine. The pole is right in front of my driveway. They had to be there. It’s them knowing they were going to come and shut the power down for the day and not warning me that pisses me off. It wasn’t an emergency. This is something they had on a list that they finally got to.

And they called me at 7:30 am about my complaint and left a message. They know how to annoy me.

[Octavious]

Updated the title to be less dramatic. I was pissed off yesterday. Just seems like nobody gives flying crap about anything. So annoying. Last week the guy who (used) to cut my lawn covered my pretty much brand new car in grass. Annoying but not the end of the world. I then took pictures to send to him to ask wtf when I realized he shattered my foglight with a rock. He did apologize and promised to pay but arrrrrr. On the Civic you have to take the bumper off to replace it. So ya I’m just annoyed lately.

[coopasonic]

All our neighborhood lines are underground. If there's drama we generally don't get to see it. It's a bunch of guys huddled around a truck by a green box on the corner. I'm not sure why I felt the need to add this, but now you know.

[LawBeefaroni]

All our neighborhood lines are underground. If there's drama we generally don't get to see it. It's a bunch of guys huddled around a truck by a green box on the corner. I'm not sure why I felt the need to add this, but now you know.

I don't have a photo of our lines but this is close:

[Octavious]

Power company called and appologized saying that there should have been an automated message that was sent to warn us and that yes the other lines are Verizon. So I'll have to go complain about Verizon now. I really do have the most fitting avatar.

[Holman]

A truck will hit those low lines, so problem soon to be solved.

Our old house (the first we ever bought, 2003-2018) suffered tall trucks cutting the lines on three occasions. Usually we could get everything fixed within 12 or 18 hours.

Our new house now enjoys electrical service based on our own side of the street, which is more important than I'd ever assumed.

[LawBeefaroni]

Holy shit they made it even worse. If this is how they leave it I will lose my mind. Oh and since they closed the road the garbage man didn’t come. Good thing we don’t have bears in the area. Oh wait...

Also, looks like they peed in the road. Is that where the truck was parked?

[Octavious]

Ya I don't think that's pee though.