Bad service.. from both the power company and 911.

[ViolaPlayer]

Oncor sucks. It's the thing I miss least about Texas. They seriously do not know how to get their act together. The store I used to work at had its' power go out VERY regularly and Oncor never did figure out the problem. But lemme tell you, it was fun trying to run the front while troubleshooting the server rack from power surge issues. (Dang tech support/install background!)

Good luck and nail them good. They suck!

[d962831]

Yeah, call up the media. They'll jump all over it. And the power company should be paying for all your stuff that no longer works. It's been this long and they haven't actually done anything aside from making the wires not touch each other, which doesn't actually do anything productive. Hell, gimmie the location and I'll call the media up.

Let the press know all about what 911 and oncor have done, or rather not done. Neighboring counties FD's shouldn't have to be brought in for something like this..

[mariamousie1]

What the hell??? Keep us updated and then when it's all over write it into an article and send it to as many newspapers as possible.

[Jetfire]

Keep us updated and don't wait for it to be all over, write it to the papers and news studios now, along with the power boards and what not. If you can, contact your neighbours (especially if they have damages too) and see if they will call in with you. The media would love to eat that sort of thing up.

[bean]

Well, it's been several days. Oncor still hasn't been back out - when I got home from work tonight I stopped for a minute next to the trees and rolled down my window - sure enough, every few seconds I could hear a bzzzzzAAAAP and see some sparks between the tree and lines. All of the grass around the tree has dried up and died too, which is telling me the ground is live and has been for awhile.

Ironically, it would seem the TX PUC's website is down right now.

I might go do a long exposure of the lines, it's almost like fireflies are flying around in it.

[bean]

Just woke up to heavy trucks again.. fire dept just rolled out of here, followed by an Oncor truck.

I went over to the trees and lines - absolutely no change whatsoever visibly, but my lights are flickering a lot more now.

[d962831]

So they've pretty much done nothing more than moved the wires around a bit and potentially even worsened the situation. I'd say call the media now. Let them know that the "fixes" have visibly made things worse and they'll love it. Once it's out there, it'll get fixed fast.

[bean]

In some ways, it's a lot better - there's no longer huge lines making big fireballs and booms and knocking out power. Now they're just burning up the trees and oh by the way doggies, don't pee on that tree over there, it'll sting just a wee bit.

Figures, I tried to go take a couple of photos from the parking lot, and my camera battery died after 2 photos.

The only decent one I got shows very minimal arcing (faint orange glow in the middle of the photo), but it also looks like they've cut the ground wire and left it on the ground. Even though I was a good 30 or 40 feet away, I could still hear the buzzing and crackling as the branches touched the lines. The wind is calm right now, earlier it was pretty windy and it was a pretty good lightshow. There's also a trailer parked under it right now, so I can't get very close, neither can Oncor.

You can see some charring on the left pole too.

[LillFilly]

I've never heard anything like this!

That company has no regard for human safety or life!

Yeah, I agree on going to the media; maybe get your neighbors in on it too.

And I hope they pay for your stuff!

[r2cagle]

Several things: First, definitely call back Oncor and see if you can get the name of a customer service rep/marketing rep, or engineer for your zip code/area. They'll be the people in the company that can get you answers as far as how long until repairs are done. I'd also request an order be issued for the continual arcing and inconsistent surging at the pole. More than likely the service people are aware of what needs to be done, but supplies may not have come in, or it has to be worked into their already overlogged schedule... that's why you need someone like an engineer or cust rep that can get you some answers. Plus with a formal enough complaint of the arcing and fried electronics even with surge protectors, you could claim that they owe you for the repairs/replacement --you may not actually get it, but tell the engineer/cust rep that due to the delay of fixing the arcing/surging the day it was called in, that power has been inconsistent enough and fried several of your things... if that doesn't put a lit match under them... time to call the PUC.

Second: When you call 911, it is their job to notify the utility company that power needs to be shut off, etc. My utility company responds asap to all public authorities. So 911 fail here as well. You might mention that to the PUC and ONCOR rep that you regard that as a failure on both parties.

Third: You can notify the PUC, but regardless of what anyone thinks, that really doesn't make the utility company move any faster. There is a process that has to be followed and often times due to the time required for investigation, it can actually delay answers. SO, if you complain to PUC, make sure you advise that the complaint is not just the lack of repairs, but the seeming lack of quick response with no communication, and the lack of preparedness this company seems to have for any emergency (big or small). Or add whatever information you do or don't get from the ONCOR rep. The same holds true for any media coverage. You might get a quicker turn around time, but it could be a repair job designed to hold for a few years, but not a complete fix. Which would involve tree cutting/removal, new lines/poles, etc.

Most utilities have a weekend/emergency crew.... but if the guys are in the middle of something, it's a big delay in them having to go home, change, drive to get the work truck(if necessary), then drive out to the location. It can be a minimum 2-3 hours from the time the servicers are notified to the time they actually get on site. In a severe emergency, usually a Field Supervisor is first onscene.

And not to negate your frustration or anger, but in the world of electricity, a tree on fire with no person or building in immediate danger is lower on the emergency rung than say a car accident with a broken pole, or building fire or outage to hospital services. Yes, it will lead to a full blown outage, but lines and poles can be replaced, people's lives can't, so they always are first priority. No company wants to have to replace poles, it's a pain in the tuckus, but not knowing what was already going on, or where the field crew was, it's hard to say what the reason was. That's why I say, the lack of communication from ONCOR really needs to be the bigger complaint.

EDIT: I can't remember, isn't Dallas/DFW area deregulated? It's quite possible that ONCOR doesn't even own the lines/poles in which case they would be calling the company that does own them.. thus the delay in response.. that's why you need someone from ONCOR that you can talk with. Find out the true background. I thought TXU Electric used to serve the Dallas area..the delay might be from the provider of last resort(who actually owns the poles/lines). Either way, really, get back in touch with your utility company. See if you can get some answers. And that may be the answer to all of this (911 fail, utility fail, etc), it's the provider of last resort that the responsibility lays on, but your electric company should be providing better customer contact than this.

If all that fails... let me know, I'll see if I can dig you out some contact names for your area. I know people, who know people... etc. Oh, see if you can get the order number and information from the time you first called and reported the problem, etc. Document, document, document.

[bean]

TXU used to own the lines - they spun that division off, and Oncor was born. My "provider" is Reliant Energy, but they don't own or maintain the lines, they just handle the billing. Oncor owns all the poles, lines, distribution equipment, etc in this area.

Power has gone off briefly twice so far today, both times with that lovely 60 hz bzzzzzzzap then BOOM. The lines are hitting each other again, just in a different spot.

[r2cagle]

Gotcha... I've been out of the phone center long enough, I can't remember all the dereg information and company changes for Texas anymore. Well, definitely, get that repair order requested, and see if they'll get you a name of someone to talk to.

I pulled up Oncor's website just to see what they got, and you can only contact them by phone or email. My company, you can actually report the outages on the website, but then we're not deregulated either. Keep being a 'nice' pest, and asking for answers, persistance can pay off. Even the 'regulated transmission' side of the business still should have someone that is the public face of the company. All you want to find out is how soon on the list of scheduled work load is this pole/arcing going to be fixed 'before' you get your electronics fixed or replaced. You might call Reliant and ask if they have any suggestions or someone you can talk to as well. I'm fuzzy on all the rules, but as I recall the provider cannot talk to the generation side, BUT, they have to have some suggestions. We serve NE Texas, so like I said, I can find some more answers if you can't get anywhere.

[Primer]

Call the news stations, NOW. If I knew where your apt complex were, I'd call a friend of mine who is a director for one of the stations up there. OK, I'd have to call one of her friends first, to get her number. Or if you want to PM me, I can send her an email directly.

[bean]

I got a little closer to it today. Looks like Oncor has removed a (very charred) ground/neutral from the pole and left it.. well.. taped to the pole. With a "Do not remove" tag on it. I'm pretty certain it's only a ground/neutral, but I still don't think it should be exposed like that, at ground level.

There's some decent carnage on the pole itself. I'm not sure if it's a recloser that's burned or what the technical term is, all I know is it looks very burnt. The pole itself is charred nicely too.

Instead of attaching more low-resolution photos, I'm just going to toss these up on Photobucket. Apologies for the crap in the top left corner of every photo, my camera's image sensor is way, way overdue for a cleaning.

Photos here: http://pbckt.com/sQ.IYr

edit: PM sent.

[bean]

I just spoke with a tech at Oncor. I called them to report flickering lights, and this time, they actually... called back!

A very polite, very southern (accent) gentleman called me, first asking for details, and assured me someone would be out soon. He just called back again, about 10 minutes later, and told me that as it turns out, Oncor is very aware of it and has an "urgent work order" in place for the tree and pole. But also said they're a bit behind because of the last snow storm we had, and since it's not causing an active outage at this point, the best they can do is at least set up cones/tape around the area until they can get to it, as apparently they're still dealing with outages from the last snowstorm.

He told me it'll be a few days, but they WILL deal with it, please be patient, and while you're at it, please unplug sensitive electronics until it's fixed. He also told me they were extremely short handed and have called in crews from surrounding states to help them.

It's not the answer I was hoping for, but they did make an effort to open a line of communication to me, and I'm very grateful for that. The guy was also EXTREMELY polite and well mannered. And I understand that full outages take priority.

So, at least as of right now, Oncor gets a B+ for their response tonight. Just having an open line of communication, a name and # to call if things get bad, and a polite, yet reasonable, person answering at the other end, etc helps a lot.