We, along with 2 other neighbors have been experiencing power brownouts and surges for some time now.
We are the only homes served by a single transformer owned by Consumers Energy. Every time we call Consumers blames the wind or rain, or we are experiencing problems threw out the area, Blah, Blah, Blah.
Power brownouts so bad that light bulbs burn as low as a candle, surges so bad that it burns out light bulbs, florescent ballets, ect…
Well this last time around I burned out the circuit board on 2 furnaces, credit card processing machine, power supplies on 2 computer, bath fans, and GFI circuit breakers, you get the picture. The neighbors both lost $$$$$$.
We all files claims with Consumer Energy only to rejected and told to turn in the claim to our homeowners insurance.
After having our electrician call the claims dept as our rep., he is told that this is none of your business and we aren’t paying anything until the Michigan Public Service Commission tells us we have to!!
Our electrician is going on the assumption the Consumers it to provide us with a certain level of service and they have equipment that need replacing, (Transformer). Consumers keep referring to them as lights flickering, which they feel is acceptable.
Brownout #3 happens, I call Consumers and a lineman shows up, in 5 mins. Looking at the problem he says: The problem is that tub, (transformer), and it’s old and over loaded!! I am placing a work order for that pole to be rebuilt.
Problem is taken care of but we are left with many $$$$$ of damage that Consumers won’t take responsibly for. Filing a complaint with the PSC, was a joke.
Any words of advice on how to proceed farther with this or am I wasting my time with Consumers??
Replies
Sounds like you need a bad-#### lawyer.
That's what I am thinking, but in my past experience, only the atty's come out ahead!! Do you feel the Consumers should be liable?They have had repair guys out many time to see the problem and rectify before any damage was done!!
Unfortunately an attorney would probably cost way too than you could collect.
Now state law might keep you from collecting anything, but for a $25-50 filing fee I would file a suite in small claims court.
Even if they get it transfered to regular court where it might not be practical for you to keep it up they would probably have a couple of hundred in it just to show up.
William the Geezer, the sequel to Billy the Kid - Shoe
Bill,
I was waiting for you to chime in. Tell me if my line of thinking is wrong. All three homes that are serviced by the transformer have had the electrical services upgraded, due to additions, ect. All were done by licensed electricians and permits pulled.
Our service upgrade was ran by consumer's engineering dept. because we went to an underground service.Would it be Consumers responsibility to see if the transformer can supply and was adequate during these service upgrades.Consumer said it was only responsible in the case of negligence.
What does your PSC say about level of service?
I know in NY we get compensated if similar happens. Especially when it is during the period they are requesting a rate hike!
PSC was a waste of time.
I filed a on line complaint, received a email confirmation of the complaint and was told that I should be contacted with 5-10 business days.I assumed by a PSC person, WRONG!!!!I person from Consumer's called this morning, very polite, his only concern was that I had quality electric service NOW!!!!Said, YEP, since they changed the transformer.Asked about my damage claim being rejected, that not his department and knew nothing about that.That was the reason for the complaint!!!!!He was very nice thought!
I had a brown out that fried my heater fan. Called PC (DEMCO) and a few days later the HVAC repairman came and replaced at no cost to me.I would call PSC again and tell them you are going to the news media and raise a stink.KK
I am not sure what their practice SHOULD BE. I have the felling that it is often that transformers are often not upgraded until there are problems.But you said that you had a number of complaints about this before it was finally fixed.Now I am not going to try and go through the library for the tariffs to see what they say about this.But I found this for filing a FORMAL complaint.http://www.michigan.gov/documents/formalenergycomplaint_160880_7.pdf"Please note: Under most circumstances, the Commission does NOT have authority to award money for damages to property or for time and trouble or inconvenience and annoyance. Also, the Commission does not have authority to settle land rights disputes; e.g. disputes concerning proper use of easements."I assumed that you filled an informal complaint.BTW, you most likely would have had more lucky filling a complaint (informal or formal) earlier about the power problems.This shows the divisions of the PSC.http://www.michigan.gov/mpsc/0,1607,7-159-16400_33353-103936--,00.htmlNow there are 2 different groups that "might" be involved. But I am guessing that electric liability has more to do with seeing that there is large enough, but not too much generation capacity and of the right type.And that the regulated energy division is maybe the one that you want.You might want to look around the web site a little and find out if you can sure which one it is.If you click on the check mark it will show the org chart and you can get the name of the division manager. And if you click on the Book it will give you the phone number and email address.I would pick the appropriate division head and then send them the following email or call and get the mailing address for a letter.Don't bother to list the whole problem, but a simple summary like this.Had a problems over #### months with brown outs and light flickering and Consumers would not do anything about it after many complaints. Finally they found that the transformer was defective and overload and replaced it.However, there negligence and replacing the defective transformer caused damage to xxxxx and Consumers has refused to pay for this.I filed an informal complaint through the PSC and was surprised to not get any response from the PSC. But rather another turn down by the Consumers again.I have since found this (and copy the quote from the formal compliant).CAn you help me in a case like this if I fill a formal complaint?Also if, in the future, we have more problems with the quality of the service can you help me get that resolved before more damage is done.----You should at least get a direct response to that letter about what they can and can't do for you.If they can't/won't help you then contact the CEO of Consumers.http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/mpsc/electric/address.htm#InvestorOwnedUtilities.
William the Geezer, the sequel to Billy the Kid - Shoe
In the past we had a brown out problem and received a notice about filing claims for damages. Unfortunitly, the refer took a while to burn up. The repair gut said that it most likely was the cause, but it took 4 months before it finally went. Out of the time window is what we were basically told.
I have been told that they only way get a response is to file a claim(small claims court) Maybe you should consider that. Get all neighbores to file at the same time and if you can, request that all 3 or 4 cases be heard at the same time.