W.A. Complaints to Western Power

[Monkeyboi]

Hi Guys,

 

Not hi-fi related but may interest some members who live in W.A.

 

As some of you will be aware I've shifted out of the city and now living in a rural location.

 

Yesterday Western Power declared an unscheduled power outage claiming (according to their website) "a network fault" which affected supply to my area.  The power went off just after 7:30AM and didn't come back on until 4:45PM.  Initially the website stated the estimated restoration time to be 11:30AM so I didn't worry as 4 hours without power shouldn't create too many issues.  Given the expected 4 hour outage I decided not to open the fridge or freezer doors to keep the hot air out and the cool inside.  The ambient outside temperature reached 42 degrees yesterday so it wasn't a cool day by anyone's definition.

 

At lunchtime I did a drive into town to collect the mail.  On the way in to town I noticed a Western Power vehicle was stopped on the roadside so I thought I'd ask if they had found the fault.  The guys said, "There are no faults mate, we're doing network upgrades".  On the way back from the PO I stopped on the other side of the hill and asked a different crew member the same question and no surprise I got the same response in regards to them performing a network upgrade.

 

Now my understanding is WP are obliged to inform customers of planned outages in writing and on previous occasions this has been the case.  They have scheduled for another one on the 25th of this month and they have cited network upgrades as the reason.

 

On previous scheduled outages I've put a strategy into place to keep refrigerated and frozen perishables either safely at a low enough temperature by bringing in bags of ice or depleting stocks of these items to near zero so it's not an issue.

 

So here's the problem.  WP didn't inform any of the affected customers of their unplanned network upgrade.  I checked with my neighbours just in case I missed the notice.  They weren't told either and many suffered similar losses.  So during the power outage my fridge temperature reached +20 degrees C and the freezer +3 degrees C.  These areas are normally set to -22  and +1 degrees respectively. All the dairy and meat that could not be consumed yesterday has had to be thrown out.  The entire contents of the freezer has defrosted to +3 degrees C and is now completely ruined.  I contacted WP to complain and was directed to a webpage to lodge a claim for loss.  Unfortunately it appears the maximum a customer can claim is limited to $50.  What a laugh!   Just did a complete fortnight's  restock on Wednesday night.  Now it's all had to be thrown out.  A loss of about $350 in perishables  Thank goodness today is garbage collection.  At least I don't have to live with the smell of rotting meat and fish today as the bin is now at the roadside some 100 metres from the house.  

 

By about 5:00PM and with the refrigerator and freezer sections set to "POWER FREEZE and POWER COOL. the fridge section had only recovered to +14 degrees C and the freezer was still at +3 degrees C.

 

To add insult to the loss I couldn't even drown my sorrow with a cold beer or white wine.  

 

 

Looks like another trip to the nearest supermarket to re-stock.  At least an hour of travelling time alone.

 

Cheers,

Alan

Edited March 7, 2014 by Monkeyboi

[wolster]

Alan, I reckon you could claim more than the pathetic $50 given that they failed to notify you of the upgrade in writing.

Sounds like someone forgot to push that particular button so they had to come up with a made-up excuse.

The supermarket receipt from Wednesday should assist.

[Monkeyboi]

Alan, I reckon you could claim more than the pathetic $50 given that they failed to notify you of the upgrade in writing.

Sounds like someone forgot to push that particular button so they had to come up with a made-up excuse.

The supermarket receipt from Wednesday should assist.

 

Thanks Wal, but gauging from an ex-work colleagues experience with WP when they disconnected the power from the wrong unit whilst he was away from home working for a week, I doubt I'll even see the pathetic $50.      They denied disconnecting his supply despite the HRC cartridge fuses having been removed from the incoming side of the meter and having the enclosures sealed with WP security seals.

 

At the time a friend of mine who's father was in upper level management at WP was able to get some compensation for my colleague, but only after being furnished with overwhelming photographic evidence the fuses had been removed and sealed by a WP worker / contractor.  The stupidity was the supply was disconnected because of a non-payment issue of another resident in the complex.  Not only was the unit number well removed from my colleague's but the meter wasn't even near his.     It wasn't therefore a simple mistake on the part of WP.

 

I'll run with your suggestion of scanning the purchase receipts and attaching the photo from my original post and see how I go.  But because they declared on their website it as an unscheduled interruption (network fault) rather than an unadvised network upgrade I feel the $50 limit will apply.  

 

Cheers,

Alan 

[Benje]

Alan

Different regulatory regimes apply in different states.

You could try WP and point out that lack of advice of such a duration amounts to negligence . Get some of your neighbours involved, and claim what you incurred, nothing more and nothing less.

Call me if you need to discuss.

Benje

[colinm1]

im in  a small town in the wheat belt,

in the last year wp have been a regular sight  

we did get notification of an outage due to upgrades, 

be it by junk mail drop off,and I saw a guy targeting places in the town and dropping off wp notices in their letter box,

he was looking at the power lines going into the home and putting letters in possible repair areas

last year they replaced many power poles in the district,

so they DO NOTIFY,

sadly in your case it didn't happen,and you should be compensated!

in jan we had a blackout for 10 hours when it was 45c,we got no sleep but lost nothing as it was in the night mainly!

funny how our town of some 1200 people in the district get wp,and Telstra ,get  frequent visits  doing lots of stuff,its quite noticeable! both services are very good here,much better than the Kelmscott area I used to live in!

your problem was avoidable by a simple notice!

go for them! I think it may be a little more than $50 70 or80 rings a bell!

but their lack of due process should be enough,ask the local post office if they got a letter/ junk mail  drop,

from wp!

im the local postie here, and wp should have records of junk mail delivered to your postcode ,as they have to pay for it!

and don't forget its their job to follow up complaints

all the best colin

[Gordon Macfarlane]

Hi Alan , we have had 3 power outages this year. The first one was notified the other two were not notified and lasted all day.

Sorry to hear about the food wastage.

G

[TP1]

I know we shouldn't have to do this but having a decent generator as a backup takes care of the fridge, tv & a couple of lights until the power comes back on. I used to have a few power interruptions in summer until the supply problem to the area was fixed. The generator made all the difference by taking all the angst and anguish away. It only gets used rarely these days but the peace of mind alone is worth the cost.

[betty boop]

all energy companies have a form you can fill out for claims....

 

its quite common in country towns with poor power supplies where they have "brown outs" big street parties ensue with much cook ups and celebrations...and forms get filled out next day for new freezers and fridges and contents "wasted"

[nofixedaddress]

Hi Alan - welcome to Australia's third world region!

 

Couriers won't deliver, cannot get tradies, internet is slow, land lines go down quite often and of course....... power black outs.

 

 

 

Can confirm we have had 19 significant power outages in the past 12 months. One event lasted three days in May last year. Significant, I class as anything over 30 minutes. There has also been a string on power loss/ bumps and brown outs among the 19 events.

 

We also have a geni for those times to run the water pump and the fridge.

 

Hope you get some answers from WP and fully compensated for the loss. Is it possible to claim on the house insurance? Frustrating to, as your know, as one tends to stock a lot more in the fridge/ freezer than when you are in the suburbs close to shops.

 

NFA