After nearly a week of watching Duquesne Light fix stuff all over my neighborhood while repeatedly skipping my house, I've really become fed up. Apparently, they have no standards for customer service whatsoever. I suppose they don't have to as I have no other option for electricity unless I want to build my own power plant. They fixed a problem at my next door neighbor's house on Saturday & skipped me. Yesterday, they fixed some stuff a block away & skipped me again.
They kept reporting to the news that northern parts of the city & the northern suburbs would be fixed yesterday & overnight. Today they're acting as though those places were all fixed so the schedules they're releasing to the media only encompass Eastern, Western & Southern areas. Well I'm in the northern category & I was obviously overlooked -- even though they have assured me every day since the incident that my downed line is an emergency work order. They've also assured me that downed line are always a priority over power outages, however they have managed to restore power to tens of thousands of people while repeatedly overlooking my "emergency" (their words).
Today, Duquesne Light finally came. The guy was nice enough to put some caution tape around the downed wire & inform us in person that it still be "a while" before they can fix it. He couldn't be any more specific. However, he was able to to explain that when their wire was partially ripped from my house, it broke the "hub", which is apparently some little box thingy. he said I have to have an electrician replace the hub before they'll fix the line. Three electricians say it's very likely that they can't safely replace the hub until DL fixes the broken wire.
So now it seems we have a chicken & egg situation. Their wire broke something on my house that can't be fixed until they repair the wire. However they say they can't repair the wire until I fix the something that it broke. It wouldn't seem that this hub would be my responsibility anyway but that's the least of my problems right now. Until this is resolved, my power is on but not safe to use. My telephone service can't be restored until the electrical danger is resolved. Tomorrow it will be a week & there is no end in sight.
Even though DL told me to shut off all the breakers because using my power with the wire broken is a big fire risk, other employees of DL have told me it's ok to use it -- even though the most basic electrical knowledge tells me that these voltage dips & surges will damage my appliances & wiring.
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