DTE vs ME

[VooDooPC]

For the last four days i've been battling DTE energy, the local Metro-Detroit power company.

 

Monday: Around noon DTE comes and shuts our power off at our house becuase they said we hadn't payed our bill. We have NEVER had a time when we havn't payed our bill on time. We KNOW we payed the bill so when we got home around 4pm we called them. They realized they had made a mistake and we did infact pay our bill. They then said they would send a truck out tomorrow morning(Tuesday) to turn the power back on.

 

Tuesday: No one came. We called them at around 3pm and they said we never requested a truck to come turn out power back on. The person we talked too also wanted use to pay our bill twice and throw on an addition 20 dollars for them to come out and turn out power back on. We finally got a hold of someone who knew our situation and knew that we had already paid. She said they would send a truck out tomorrow(Wednesday) morning becuase they only turn the power back on in the morning.

 

Wednesday: By this time our food is begining to go bad. We had to throw some things out like Ice cream, milk, sour cream and what was good we sent to near by friends and family to keep in their freezers and refrigerators. We called them at 8am to make sure a truck was coming. They assured us a truck was coming.

 

No one came. We called them at around 2pm and they said a truck already came and turned our power back on. But of course no one did becuase i was home all morning and would have seen them and would have also obviously had power. Even the padlock was still on the electric box that they use to make sure you don't try to turn the power on yourself. The lady on the phone tried to give us some BS thing about curcuit breakers taking a while to turn power on or something but they don't seem to realize we have an 100 year old house with 50 year old glass fuses. They said they would send a truck out.

 

5pm we call again. They said they had already sent a truck out but they work all the way until 7pm, another woman we talked to said they worked all the way to 10pm. Wouldn't have mattered anyway becuase Wednesday rolled by and a truck never came.

 

Thursday: No truck came in the morning. We called around 12pm and asked them if they'd send a truck out to turn our power back on. The lady said it would cost us 20 dollars and they would send one out tomorrow(Friday). At this point, we couldn't take it anymore we were so angry with them. We argued with them on the phone until they agreed that they send a truck out RIGHT NOW and we weren't going to pay the 20 dollars. They said one would show up between 1pm and 9pm. So we waited... and waited...

 

Eventually at 4pm they finally sent a truck out to turn out power back on. Now our power is back on. If we didn't pay our bill i don't think i would mind nearly as much but the fact that they turned our power of on accident becuase their so damn unorganized and it takes them four days to send someone out and turn it back on it just tinklees me off.

 

Long Story Short:

-They accidentally turn our power off

-They try to charge us the bill again plus an added 20 dollars to turn the power on they accidentally turned off.

-They said they sent a truck out but they didn't even try to get one sent out.

-They said a truck came to our house and turned out power back on which it clearly didn't.

-They said they sent another truck out immediately, one never showed up.

-They tried screwing us over another day by sending one out Friday.

Edited July 21, 2005 by VooDooPC

[g@!dEn]

man that had to be ruff, I really have a short tolerance for ignorance which they clearly displayed, the first day i would have gone off, and not waited but you seemed to show good peristency and eventually got the smack down, good work.

 

To bad power is more of a monopoly than and the other type of bussiness that i can't think of right now.

 

We need more power companys!!!!! So ignorant ones like these can be put out of bussiness!!

[VooDooPC]

There is good news though. I finally had a reason to throw out the cheese from 1988 that was in the back of the freezer.

Edited July 22, 2005 by VooDooPC

[anonymo]

Why is it that electric companies have this demi-god status? In quebec I get screwed by the electric company at least twice a year...and there's nothing you can really do about it as the they seem to own the government.

[JackieChan]

Wow... I would have literally gone insane.

 

Cheese from 1988? Shoulda sold it on Ebay.

[Guest firemanzero1]

Holy cow VooDoo, that was some major crap. I live on the other side of the state in Grand Rapids, and thankfully, I havent had to deal with anything like that. I have had to deal with SBC's crap before though.....no offense if you work for them, but everytime I have had to deal with them, its been nothing but headaches.

 

If you havent already, I would write a letter to the corporate offices of DTE and demand for some compensations. That was totally unnecessary on their part, and they should compensate you for the crap they caused you.

 

I agree, sell the cheese on Ebay. Some poor sucker.....like me....would have bought it. ha ha ha

[Ice_Berge_00]

All I can say is wow!

 

For all the pain and screw-ups have you gotten anything from them? If not you should call them up and starting going up the chain of managers until you get some compensation. Their screw up cost you some money in lost food, not to mention several days without power.

 

I would like you have some legal actions you could take for all of this. Their record keeping screw-up shouldn't result in you losing money. If anything they should be responsible for some of your losses.

 

You may want to check with the BBB even.

[VooDooPC]

For all the pain and screw-ups have you gotten anything from them?

 

Yeah, i've gotten some things. Like 2 dead power supplies from when they blew up the transformer that provides power to my house 3+ times last year. The days without power for each time they blew up. The week we didn't have power AFTER everyone else on the east coast got their power back in the big blackout last year(?).

 

So i wouldn't say they haven't given me anything.

[bear^]

no surge protector?

[VooDooPC]

I have a surge protector and it works fine. I have never lost any power supplies from the power going out due to storms or fuses being pulled. But when that damn transformer thing goes all hell breaks loose.

[gOOters]

Why is it that electric companies have this demi-god status? In quebec I get screwed by the electric company at least twice a year...and there's nothing you can really do about it as the they seem to own the government.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It's called a market monopoly or regional monopoly or something like that. Often happens with power companies and phone companies.

 

IT really tends to breed some fantastic customer service. I love when you call one of these idiot companies and every time you talk to them, they tell you something different.

 

The good news is, when you dont like what they have to tell you...just hang up and call back until you get the answer you want. Then ask that person their name

[*BiGBonES**]

The easiest way to sort this problem out is to smash their windows.

 

That should make sure things are evened out.

[Preacher]

I would write up a detailed invoice of all food you threw away and had to give away. Write a polite letter explaining the situation step-by-step and go to the head office and give them a copy and mail a copy to them as well. They should reimberse you for all expenses. I would also ask them to reimberse you for 4 days of lost work waiting for the dumb truck.

[shadow]

Definatly would have held them responcible for all food gone bad.

That really sucks voodoo.

Glad to here it got turned back on though.

Hope you get something out of them atleast.