F Y I 

Lost in the shuffle… 

Sometimes it’s hard to believe that our company is acting in the customer’s best interests. Nearly every day a maintenance crew has to deal with an irate homeowner. Most times, they are frustrated because no matter how many times they call, they can’t seem to get through to the brain trust what needs to be done to improve/repair their electric needs.

Here is yet another instance of a job bungled through the ham-fisted efforts of our company.  Let’s refer to this particular customer as Mr. H.

            On a cold December morning, an ECM crew along with a T.I. man was dispatched to a Glen Ellyn residence that had reported an All-Out. Due to a previous cable fault at this address, the house had been running on a temporary 1-to-1 setup. When we arrived, we were greeted by Mr. H., who was trying to stay warm by waiting in his car.  He immediately relayed to us what he had already explained to the company in numerous phone conversations.

            This past summer, ComEd contractors were installing new primary cable via directional boring when they apparently damaged Mr. H.’s service, knocking out one phase.  That night the 3/0 cable was repaired near the transformer but one phase remained out.  To minimize the outage and prevent any further inconvenience to the customer, the night crew installed a temporary 1-to-1 until they could get the other fault located.  The crew leader told Mr. H. that T.I. would be back to locate the fault and in a few days, a crew would be there to fix it. He also mentioned to the homeowner that he should use his A/C as little as possible along with his electric range to prevent overloading the 1-to-1.

            Here’s where it all goes to hell. 

The 1-to-1 was installed in July!  Needless to say, Mr. H. was a little aggravated when his power went out on the coldest day of the year when the problem should’ve been taken care of 5 months earlier. He told us after every phone call he made in the past few months he was reassured someone would be out there, but to no avail.  He called again when the phone company was doing some work in a splice pit with our cable exposed and suggested we come out while the hole was already dug. He told us how even on the hottest days he didn’t want to turn his A/C on and on Thanksgiving he cooked by candlelight for fear, his power might go out and ruin his family dinner. He said his last resort was to write a letter to Mr. Rowe (not that it would do any good) to get someone out there.

            Ashamed for our company, we quickly apologized to Mr. H., with the aid of T.I. found the problem, and went to work.  After digging through the snow, mud and slop, 3 ft. beneath the transformer, the fault was found and repaired.  Mr. H.’s power was restored and the 1-to-1 (which was in short supply this summer) was returned to Glenbard.  All’s well that ends well…right?  I don’t think so!  Fixing faults is a large part of our job now and obviously, we can’t choose when and where we have to dig.  In this case the customer wouldn’t have been affected as much and the field conditions could’ve been better if we fixed the original problem sometime between oh, say…July – November!

With all the current changes going on in the company, is it possible this kind of thing is happening all the time?  Are the loyal (before they had a choice) customers suffering because of a management shakeup?  Maybe it’s just that no one can make a decision without consulting a higher power first, for fear of losing his or her job.  In this new age of deregulation, someone should step up to the plate and take charge before more guys like Mr. H. get lost in the shuffle.

                                                                                                                                                                                K.P.K. 12/14/00