Summer Fun with Detroit Edison

WARNING: Whining post ahead:

Sometime when it's dark, very, very early Sunday morning: We wake up to a beeping sound from our carbon monoxide alarm. I mumble to D that he should check that out. As he stumbles down the hall, I notice that M has been very thorough in turning out the lights when she'd returned home from seeing friends on Saturday night. Then I realize that she couldn't be thorough enough to shut off all our clocks, too.

Power outage number four for this summer.

We've already lost the contents of our refrigerator twice this summer.

I trip into the living room, find my cell phone, find out it's 4:58 a.m. and call Detroit Edison (known from now on as DTE).

I go through the automated system, hear the estimate is 8 hours. Call back again, because usually the first estimate is bogus. During the second call, DTE is terribly sorry and realizes we have a problem but there are NO estimates at this time.

Uh oh. Not good.

However, I've just reported it, so I try to go back to sleep.

6:36: Call back DTE for a real estimate. Find out there's no estimates. Stay on the line for six minutes to talk to a customer service representative (known as CSR):

CSR (answering the phone in an angry voice before I have a chance to say anything): We're not giving estimates. Yes?!!!

Jen: Hi, I just wanted to know what you know about the problem. How widespread it is? We have animals that have medical issues and this might interfere with their medicines, etc.

CSR: You're in a pocket of 90, there's another pocket of 85. There are 3100 customers out of power altogether.

Jen: Have the crews said anything? It's been an hour and a half already. (I am counting down, too, whether I'm going to have restock my fridge for the THIRD time this summer).

CSR: There are no crews out. We don't know anything yet. As I told you the first time, there are no estimates.

Jen: Why are there no crews out?

CSR: We are a BUSINESS. We follow all the regulations we need to and we sure don't have crews working 24/7. They'll come in at 8:00 and we'll start assigning them then.

Jen: But according to the FDA and the Red Cross, our fridge will not be good any more by 5:00 a.m. Do you mean to tell me that NOTHING is done until regular business hours, even with 3100 people out of power?

CSR: Yes, yes, yes. We are a BUSINESS. We don't send crews out at night on the weekends. Why would we do that?

Jen: But your recording says you're doing everything you can to get the power back on. Are you doing anything to get the power back on?

CSR: Look, what about this don't you understand? Do you understand how hard our jobs are? Do you get it that we just don't know, and no, we're not going to even start fixing this until 8:00 a.m. I've been fielding calls like yours all night, and it's not going to change. We are a business, we follow federal guidelines and we don't have to send out crews until 8:00 a.m.

Jen: I'm sorry your job is so hard. I'm sorry I have medical issues that I have to look into every time DTE screws up. I'm sorry we're going to lose the more expensive contents of our fridge for the THIRD time this summer. Maybe if you hate your job so much, since we have the highest unemployment rate in the country, you could move to another job and give your job to someone who would be ever so grateful to have any job ? (I say this thinking of my many friends who have looked for something, anything, to hold onto their houses. I think of friends who've been foreclosed this year. I think of friends who've had to move from Michigan, even though their family is all there and they've lived here for generations because there's just. no. work.)

CSR: I hear your frustration, but you have to understand how hard my job is.

Jen: No, at the moment, I don't. I'd like to speak to a supervisor, please.

CSR: Give me your name and number and I'll have one call you back. They've been getting calls like this all night.

Jen: Yes, I'm sure they have. The problem is that whenever someone has "taken my number" from DTE the other five times our power has been out since the first of the year (yes, folks the three times were just over the summer), no one has ever called me back.

CSR: So?

I hang up. I'm getting way too po'd to handle this even as appropriately as I've handled it so far.

I wake D up and grouch at him. We go to Kroger's and get some supplies that the piggies will need to have first thing in the morning. We don't want to open the fridge in case by some miracle the power comes back on.

9:30 - We decided to wait to call DTE until they've had a chance to send out crews, etc. Still no estimate. D calls CSR this time.

CSR has no information. Crews have been assigned. Not sure what cities they'll get to. Not sure when they'll get to which jobs. Not sure whether it will be today or not. D asks for a supervisor to call back. Leaves his name and number. CSR assures D that supervisor will call back shortly.

11:30 - still no estimate. Still no call back from supervisor. I call vet, find out what to do if power is out for several days. We all feel better. (Due to temperature fluctuations, this can actually be life or death for our piggies, given medical conditions).

1:30 - still no estimate. D calls back again. New information: no information. Apparently the crews haven't called in at all; they have no idea what's going on anywhere. D brings up supervisor call, says it's been four hours. CSR says she'll "look into it."

4:30 - still no estimate. D calls again. Apparently, no crews have called in yet (they were sent out at 8 am). Nice CSR this time. She's going to try to connect D directly to the supervisor. D waits.

and waits.


and waits.

CSR comes back on, says supervisor is trying to contact crews to give us information. While talking to CSR, power comes back on. D says that obviously, he'd called the right CSR this time because now, look, the power is back on!

CSR is confused - the power shouldn't be back on.

But it is.

Whatever.

D and I clean out the fridge for the third time this summer and count our blessings that our freezers haven't been affected. I remind myself that I really, really, really need to learn canning.

DTE is a monopoly for this area. Can you tell?

The Whimper Continues

And I promise something MUCH lighter tomorrow. And actually, this is pretty light, too, in retrospect.

So, as you may remember from yesterday, we had no power. And we were completely snowed in - road blocked, driveway filled up, etc. But the house was still relatively warm, so we believed the power hadn't been out that long. It was around 8:15, thanks to our assortment of cell phones and my DS's watch. We called DTE. We reported our outage. We called them back. The estimate of service was not too bad - three hours.

I cleaned out the dishwasher, put in another load, got the house back in order from the dinner party. C. found all our flashlights and spare batteries (just in case). D went outside, started our cars, and charged our cell phones (again, just in case). We had Coke (D and me), Hawaiian Punch (C) and bread with peanut butter for breakfast (we hardly EVER drink sugar drinks - they were in from the canceled party). We did NOT open the fridge. We might have been snowed in and with no power, but life was good.

We did notice that the house was getting cold, rapidly. We started to worry about the piggies, who can't really tolerate cold. We covered their habitat with a big comforter. They found this to be a grand adventure and we could hear them exploring, wheeking and generally expressing their curiosity and approval.

Eleven o'clock rolled around. It was COLD. We began to worry about the piggies. We called the vet. They told us to do what we'd already done. And then I said, "So they'll be alright that way, right?" The vet tech answered, "Well, I didn't say that. They really need to be kept warm."

Uh. Oh.

We knew from past experience that DTE's service estimates are more like a promise a player keeps on a Saturday night to the three different women he's dating. And our service countdown was continuing with no hint of service actually being restored.

So, just in case, I started calling around for places the piggies could go. My one friend, R, lives about 5 minutes from us. Yes, they'd be delighted to take the piggies. The only problem was, she lives off our road, and we couldn't leave our road. We prayed for the road plow, but knew that was probably a moot point as we are a "tertiary" road and they usually get to us dead. last. I called my friend A. We were supposed to go to their house that day for an open house. They live half a block from us. And they had power. Wooohooo! But their son was allergic to guinea pigs. We thought of other neighbors - B and W had a dog, K and D had cats, S was out of town. Finally, we called the sweet Italian family from the night before. Yes, they had power! Yes, they'd take the piggies! Problem solved, if necessary.

Well, twelve rolled around. We called DTE again. Now the "new" estimate was 11 hours! Time for piggy action. So D and C walked the quarter mile with the piggy cage (minus the piggies, who couldn't have tolerated the cold), to sweet Italian family's house. Then we each took a piggy in our coats and walked said piggies over to sweet Italian family's house. Some piggies thought this was a grand adventure and one piggy still isn't speaking to us.

We arranged piggies, thanked sweet Italian family profusely, and went on our way to A and F's open house, where we feasted on traditional Japanese New Year's food and caught up with A and F's charming children (and A and F, themselves). We were warm, our stomachs were full, and we'd been able to use a bathroom with toilets that flushed. Again, life was good.

Oh, but I forgot the stuff in between!

It turned out that the reason our house didn't have power, and everyone else did, was a downed wire. This upped our status with DTE a bit, but only a bit. We'd called them and then they suggested we call the local fire dept. Then the fire dept. suggested that we call DTE, but they said they'd come out anyway. And all this was taking place while we were arranging piggy arrangements, eating delicious Japanese food, etc. So, by the time we got home, a yellow "do not cross" tape had been placed by our downed wire by the fire dept., and a DTE truck was pulling into our driveway. We were saved!

Not quite.

This was the guy to see if they had to send guys out. And they did. (Need to send guys/girls out). But they had no idea when that would happen. Might be today; might be tomorrow. And although our sweet neighbors the Italians, and our sweet neighbors A and F had offered places to sleep, we knew it was really inconvenient for both of them. And our driveway was now passable, and enough folks with four wheel drive had plowed through our road, so that it was sort of passable, too.

We love our house, but as it was getting dark, and as it was freezing, we wimped out and called a local inn which just happened to have a good holiday special. And we blasted out of our dark, cold house and were so grateful that we were able to do so!

We had a warm dinner and crashed. Hard. The next morning, power was restored, our line was no longer dangerous, and we were able to retrieve piggies from our very patient and very sweet Italian neighbors.

We lost most of the contents of our refrigerator, which was a huge bummer, but we didn't lose the contents of the freezer, which was a huge relief.

And 2008 started for real.

Happy New Year.