Credit from electric company for days without power?

[scfr]

Back in December, we were without electricity for a bit over 5 days due to a storm.

Is it reasonable to ask the electric company for some sort of discount for the inconvenience of being without power for such a long time? If so, how much? Have any of you ever succesfully gotten such a discount? How did you go about it, and how much compensation did you get?

I know that I wasn't getting charged for electricity on the days the power was out. [I already checked my meter and compared it to my bill.] But the fact of the matter is it was pretty darned inconvenient to go without power that long, and it took them an awfully long time to get it back on.

I really want to call PSE (Puget Sound Energy) to discuss this with them, but I need to come up with a strategy first.

The cable company was easy as pie. I called them and they credited us for 6 days of service.

Thanks to anyone who can share their experiences or offer suggestions!

[mom-from-missouri]

Having worked for a utility for over 20 years, no, you will not get credit.
#1. As you already pointed out, you weren't billed for it. They can not afford to give everyone who lost electric during the storm credit back for something that was not paid for to begin with.
Also, in my state, if you called and asked for the credit and they did give it to you, they would then have to give it to all customers. That could break the company-litterly. It is discrimanition to only give the credit to certain groups or certain people (ie only to the people who called and asked for it). Believe it or not, most utilities don't really bring in that much money. There is a lot of money in maintaining the lines and equipment, payroll, insurance, vehicles..... That is why in rural areas you see a lot of coops-No one person or company can afford to own the electric company.
#2. The PSC (Public servic commission who governs the utilities in your state) will be on the side of the utility company on this one. The storm was not caused by the electric company, nor could they have done anything to prevent the storm. The storm was caused by an act of nature. HOWEVER, you may be able to recoup some loss from your renters or homeowners insurance if you lost money/materials as a result-such as loss of food in a freezer, pipes freezing and breaking as a result and then ruining furniture or flooring...it would depend on your insurance coverage.

Now, for phone and cable/dish, its different. You pay a set monthly fee, plus any extras such as a long distance call or ordering up a movie. They can give you credit for days you had no service off of the flat monthly rate.

Sorry. Probably not the answer you wanted to hear.

[boefixepa]

This happened once here in Utah and people made a big stink about it. Finally after quite a few months and lots of people complaining they DID give everyone a credit based on the number of days they were without power. I don't know the details, nor how long it took, but it would be a big thing to accomplish. You might be able to Goggle some past articles and see what the arguement was based on. If memory serves I think our was based on the fact that it was the companies job to keep the trees trimmed and they had slacked off after a number of easy winters. I know there was quite a bit of new coverage and all.

Good luck, but it is not going to be as easy as simply calling the company and getting the credit. They will have to give it to EVERYONE that was without power.

[PRICEPLUS]

I think it would be hard to get money from the utility unless you could show there was a loss due to their negligence. I would check with the homeowners to see if you are covered for losses due to elctrical outages of extended length.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by PRICEPLUS

I think it would be hard to get money from the utility unless you could show there was a loss due to their negligence.

I agree. You can't hold the utility company responsible for acts of nature. If electric companies had to pay their customers every time the power went out due to storms, they'd go bankrupt in no time.

[scfr]

I called the utility company today. As expected, they did not issue any credit for days without power but they did agree that I can delay payment of my bill (gas & electric) one month with no late notice, late fee, or finance charges. So, I can keep the money I would have used to pay my bill in the bank for an extra month and earn about $1 in interest. Sure, it's only a buck, but it feels like a small moral victory.

[Ima saver]

Wow, how big is your bill??

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Ima saver

Wow, how big is your bill??

If my math is right on a quick estimate, if you earn 5% on your account, a bill of about $250 would result in $1 in interest in a month's time.

[scfr]

Yup --- $249 for gas & electric. We are temporarily in a rental home that is very inefficient (poor insulation, low-rated water heater & furnace, etc), but also we are just in a higher-cost part of the country where everything is more expensive. We are tolerating the high bills this winter because we are renting from a friend below market. The home we sold had lower bills because we had excellent insulation, appliances, etc.

[mom-from-missouri]

Where do you get a 5% interest on a checking account? Or even savings? Guess I forgot about the on line banks. Right now our credit union is paying a whopping 1% on checking and 1.75 on savings, and thats higher than our regular bank is paying!

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by mom-from-missouri

Right now our credit union is paying a whopping 1% on checking and 1.75 on savings, and thats higher than our regular bank is paying!

Why do you leave your money there? Check the thread at the top of the Investing and Banking board for a list of high yield money market accounts. I think the highest right now is at 5.38%.

[mom-from-missouri]

I never keep enough in my checking to do a money market account. I earn after taxes, $250 a month from my very part time job, and $800 from my rental, which goes right back out to pay its mortgage, taxes and insurance. If I have $400 in there, I am doing good. I do have a MM account elsewhere, but its desginated for my girls tution for this year. After this school year is over that account will have a balance of 0.
DH account is the same way. He uses the credit union. Bills are auto paid and its gone. We could keep more and have a MM account for his check, but instead we opted to raise what goes into his 401K and Emp stock plan, and live on whats left.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by mom-from-missouri

Where do you get a 5% interest on a checking account?

ING - Electric Orange (High Interest Checking Account)
Check this thread.

[mom-from-missouri]

Most businesses around here have signs, local checks only. I don't think it would work for me. I have even had trouble using a check from my MM account at a local business because it is from a bank, in MO, but at my old town. On the average, I have under $50 in my checking for the majority of the month. Its big on the 4th, and most of its gone by the 10th.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by mom-from-missouri

Most businesses around here have signs, local checks only.

Does that mean the bank needs to be local or the user needs to be local? I don't' see how they can possibly judge based on where the bank is located when we have so many large multi-state banks today, as well as many people doing their banking online. Many checks no longer even list a bank address on the check - just the bank name and a toll-free phone number. I would definitely argue with that policy.

[mom-from-missouri]

local bank, local user. I think they have been burned too many times. We are in the area of I-35 and 69, lots of cross country traffic, truckers and such. All the time in the local paper you see bad checks for non existant banks, insuff funds, no such account..... Its been to the point that now the businesses just wont take them anymore. Last week the large truck stop had over $9000 of bad checks in the paper--this week we noticed their pumps are all shut down. Wonder if its connected. Seems like a lot, but some of these guys pay $700 or more now to fill up their rigs if they have double tanks.
So, because of a few bad apples, we are all paying for it.
The MM check I tried to write for propane, they refused because the bank was 100 miles away, yet my new local address was on it. The banks phone number was on it also, and they did take it after they called to verify the check would clear. (but really, if i was dishonest, I would have put someones elses # on the check...)

[LuxLiving]

Mom-from-Missouri -

You might have small amounts but you could still take advantage of the MM rates. We don't keep a lot in checking either beyond the bills. Here's what we do though:

1)Hubster's checks are direct-deposited into our Money Market Account which is at a local bank where it earns 4.56%.

2)On the first I have an automatic transfer set up to load the local checking account (same bank as MM) up for bill paying much of which can be done free thru our banks bill-pay.

3)Pay lots of my other bills online at their websites, but can still write local check to pay some of them. Get cash out for allowances/spending money at drive-thru or our banks ATM.

4)Move any long term savings into my online savings accounts 5.05%+ from the checking account by online transfers.

It only takes 2-3 days for money to come back into our checking if we were to need it for something.

It may seem like some effort to set up but if you can get out ahead of your bills instead of just paycheck to paycheck your money can begin to work for you, instead of just you working for it! Once it's set up it's easy to transfer your money around where you need it to be.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by mom-from-missouri

local bank, local user.

The MM check I tried to write for propane, they refused because the bank was 100 miles away, yet my new local address was on it.

That's a lousy policy. I'm amazed they can enforce that. For years, my bank's address was in Bethlehem, PA even though I lived in southern NJ. There was a branch right down the street from my house, but the main office was in Bethlehem so that's what it said on the checks. By that policy, even though my bank was local, they wouldn't have accepted the checks. Makes no sense at all. I can understand not accepting checks from non-local users but refusing to accept checks from local residents because of where their bank is located is ridiculous.

[mom-from-missouri]

Small town, and the business owners tend to band together, along with the fact that the same man owns both service station and the only C store, another man owns the paper, runs the license place and the grocery store.....Most of the business owners here own 3-4 businesses.
Will your MM accounts let your write a check for under $250??? Ours, nor the ones at the other banks around here wont. Its even printed on my MM checks, below the signature line, not valid for amounts under $250. They also want to maintain a $1000 balance in the MM account or there are fees to pay. It is also custom around her to charge $12 for every online or wire transfers. My personal checking is at US Bank--to avoid some of those charges & to have a debit card. But the other 3 banks in this town, and those in the surronding towns are owned by local families. They offer little in the way of services, other than accounts and loans--no debit cards or ATM cards. But, this is a farming community, and most of their farmers are not interested in that stuff.
We even had to wait for internet service, because the phone company server only offers so many lines at a time. There are times I can't get on because the server is too busy. Our phone company is privately owned too. Some times I feel like I am living in Mayberry. In fact, I have seen the sheriff at the bowling alley (4 lanes) bowling in uniform, gun and all, with his deputies. He and his wife live at the jail, and his wife is the cook and matron.

[LuxLiving]

Gee, You DO live in Mayberry! My sister lives in a similar small town setup.

Those things might make it very difficult to do. I write very few MM checks, just do online transfers to checking, which at my bank is free probably because of the larger amount we keep in that particular MM account.