Newest BS from the power company

The power company is now saying I have my power on and that my whole town is up and running. Well, my neighbors and I would beg to differ. A lot of the town is under power but my whole area is not. I called and got a human that didn't believe me at first. Your computer might tell you one thing but this human is telling you another. Well she put in my paperwork so chances are we will go to the bottom of the list and who knows how long it will take to get them back here. I was patient before and tried to understand but if this clerical error screws me until Sunday or longer I will be downright pissed!! They are probably doing this for public relations. It looks good on paper to say a town is 100%. It won't look so good when it all washes out however.

My sister is in Danbury and hasn't had power since Sat. Night. She could here the chainsaws on her road, so hopefully soon. Today or tomorrow.!!

I'm in the same exact boat!! We lost power on Saturday night. Here is is Thursday afternoon and still no power. Our oh, so smart and great governor, Mr. Christie vowed to have all of NJ powered back up by today. So, my wife calls the great useless power company JCP&L and asks, "WTF is going on?" they reply with, "It might be on Friday or Saturday."

FRIDAY OR SATURDAY!?!?! Seriously?

But when you look around us, the entire county, or most of it has power. My entire town has power but not the lake where I live. And they say, "MAYBE"???

So much for governor Chris Christie's promise of having it all back on. But like you said, they'll probably say that it was 100% when in fact it was not.

I swear to god, if I had enough money to put enough solar panels on my roof to power my house indefinitely I'd do it and pull myself off the *censored* grid permanently.

We lost power for 6 days after Hurricane Irene.

We lost power for 4 days after tropical storm Carl.

We lost power for 2 days after the rain storm after Carl.

Now we're back up to 5-7 days without power after the "Goosey Night" snow storm.

Anyone else see a pattern with JCP&L (First Energy)?

I know we have a member on here who works for First Energy, nothing against him. But the company sucks as a whole. NJ legislature should do something to get them out of NJ.

Why is it that everybody bitches about legislatures except when they want something pertaining to a personal situation??? Had to do it IOF

Don't think PPL is any better up here in Scranton area, if you live in a big town your good power back up in a couple of hours, in the sticks its days ........





A little off topic but why do we lose power so much any more , growing up i can not rember every losing power due to a storm , only if some one took down a pole or something. But I do rember see the cutting crews trimming trees all summer long....... does any one ever see a crew out any more......

freetown fred wrote:Why is it that everybody bitches about legislatures except when they want something pertaining to a personal situation??? Had to do it IOF

Its OK. In regards to legislature I think a whole lit needs to be changed. Especially the current administration. But I try and stay out of the politics board.

The police in my town are pissed off with JCP&L as well. There was a luve wire down across a major thruway and it took them 3 days to remove it. So, the police had to waste time going around the long way fir calls. Hopefully they write Christie about JCP&L.

I've lived here all my life and when jcp&l was independent there were 5 line crews and 2 pole crews in the garage, now there are 2 line crews and all pole work is contracted out. When GPU took over they bought out all the old timers and sent them down the road sold off alot of equipment. Gpu found a way out of a contract that supplyed health care for retireies so now guys that retired 15-20 yrs ago now have to pay for health ins. A real nice way to treat people that some worked their whole lives for. It's all about MONEY! Stock dividens keeping the share holders happly and screwing joe public! Now we have a storm and it's days for some to get power back and they bring in crews from Ohio that don't know their way around. What's going to happen when a snow storm hammers the mid-west and moves to the east coast?

I know this is the Connecticut section, but we just got the internet back here today at 3:30. We're still running off the generator, and I'm the one that has done all the work. The gasoline is getting real expensive. I have another customer I'm trying to keep energized with the same model Generac 5500 we have. They're older folks and quite helpless. I have their panel back-fed, it's packed and it's the only way to give them power. I cooked a 100 amp breaker by shutting it off with the generator running. That's already replaced, but the panel is still backfed and I don't like it. Their garage doors are wide open and if the wind is coming at them, there's exhaust going in there too. couldn't say no to my best customer. I'm going there at midnight every night to refill their generator, pain in the ass.
This sucks. A lot of people are furious at the time it is taking to fix the damn electricity. I realize the scope of this disaster, I've seen firsthand how a small branch with leaves on it can hold 50 pounds of snow.
My landlords took me out to dinner a couple days ago, to thank me, and three JCP&L trucks were sitting idle in the parking lot there, doing NOTHING.
I realize it's not totally fair to just blame the power company, but that made my landlord start screaming. He's a Viet Vet, the linemen got back in their trucks
I agree, it seems we never had blackouts for so long years ago.
Making me do a lot of thinking about moving way up to Maine and try to get a more self-sufficient lifestyle. At least I'm off the grid with my suply of coal if I need to be!

RAYJAY wrote:Don't think PPL is any better up here in Scranton area, if you live in a big town your good power back up in a couple of hours, in the sticks its days ........





A little off topic but why do we lose power so much any more , growing up i can not rember every losing power due to a storm , only if some one took down a pole or something. But I do rember see the cutting crews trimming trees all summer long....... does any one ever see a crew out any more......

I was just discussing this with the neighbors today. Our ages range from late 30's to 80's ... and nobody could recall a time when we lost power as often as we do now, even in the sticks. What it all comes down to is ... MONEY ... just like every other aspect of American life that's gone down the shitter. Power companies ... and every other American company for that matter ... have trimmed expenses to the bone. So much so, that they've cut aspects of what was once normal operational costs to the point where customer service has also plummeted, straight down the shitter. If there's any doubt that America's best days are a distant memory, it's this one utility's business practices. Case in point: Power crews used to ROUTINELY trim trees all around MA, in every town , & in every city. Now, that costs too much ... so trees grow into wires to the point where the poles begin to tilt .... now the cables are as tight as a bowstring. What do you think is going to happen when a major storm rolls through? Or, how about 3 major storms in one year!?!? Then you have electric, cable, & telephone all fighting over who is responsible for what -- bottom line ... nobody wants to pay an extra dime out of their bottom line. Selfishness, greed, loss of values.



Hate to break it to everyone ... but it's only going to get worse. Just wait until this current generation, who can't even play tag in school because it's too violent, gets the reins handed over to them .... We're f***ked. In the end it will only be people like us on the board here who survive & keep it together. The rest of the nation is so spoiled that they wouldn't be able to function without a blackberry, let alone electricity.

Oh ... and I still don't have power. Lost it last Saturday night.

Dann757 wrote:My landlords took me out to dinner a couple days ago, to thank me, and three JCP&L trucks were sitting idle in the parking lot there, doing NOTHING.
I realize it's not totally fair to just blame the power company, but that made my landlord start screaming. He's a Viet Vet, the linemen got back in their trucks
I agree, it seems we never had blackouts for so long years ago.

Same thing I experienced back in 2007 during the ice storm. We had been out of power for four days so on the last evening of having no power I decided to take my wife and step-son out to dinner. It was after I bought the generator but before I hooked it up and used it. So, we went to the Applebee's in Newton, NJ and there were four JCP&L bucket trucks in the parking lot and ten JCP&L linemen in the restaurant. We still had no power and I understand that even they need to take breaks and eat lunch/dinner depending on their shift. That wasn't what got me. I look over at their table and there were beer bottles. They had been drinking. I lost it in the middle of the restaurant on them. The following morning after my power was restored I got on JCP&L's website and found a link to their HR department and made sure I voiced my disdain with their ethics and productivity. There was a month long investigation and I believe several of the linemen found themselves standing in the unemployment line.

NWBuilder wrote:Your computer might tell you one thing but this human is telling you another.

They have no idea if the power is on or off until someone calls in most places in the country.

Now that we're had a 200-300 year Oct snow storm, what next will nature offer our unprepared society ?

Bring the beasts into the barn cellar, son, it's going to be a good blow.

And make (or buy) your rocket stove.

So get this. It's 4:30 pm today at the big factory in central connecticut and the PA system kicks in. That infamous same voice you always hear for those emergency drills says CL&P has issued a severe power emergency due to significant demand. The voice then suggests to shut off all unnecessary lighting and equipment.

It's 33 degrees, wow, those electric homes are running a full tilt, today was "Open your windows day for the heck of it" in Connecticut.

What is this? The beginning of the plot?

If they are in trouble today, what are they going to do if people start buying plug in cars?

jpete wrote:If they are in trouble today, what are they going to do if people start buying plug in cars?

Between their sales figures and catching fire, it doesn't look like it will be much of a problem.