BC Hydro, power out, renters

[Nostradama]

Friday August 20th: Power failure lasting about five minutes at about 5:15 pm. Phoned 1-888-POWERON, got a "non-service" rep who told me that he could not take a report of my power being out, along with that of everyone else, because I was a renter. I needed to get the building manager or owner to report the power was out. But did ask me if the elevator was working or not. Put Jeremy on hold, checked, elevator not working. Still told me "building manager or owner." Well, Jeremy, the management office is closed Friday until Monday, and this isn't a barn-burner emergency, but you're telling me that I'm a BC Hydro customer and you won't even listen? Everyone in this building has their own BC Hydro account and power meter, because we have our own in-suite laundry rooms. Jeremy relents (so very comforting, made me feel warm and fuzzy all over), tells me to phone back in two hours if the power isn't restored, which it is pretty quickly. For a few minutes, then goes off again, but is back quickly again. Another power outage at about 10:50 pm, but power back on quickly.

What makes the difference seems to be whether or not you have your own BC Hydro meter, account, etc. Most multiple-resident, multiple level apartment buildings in this town don't have individual power meters, etc., for each apartment, as far as I'm aware. Am I wrong? I'm not talking strata-style condos used as rentals, I'm talking old-fashioned regular apartment buildings.

What is this? BC Hydro tells me that if you're a renter in a multiple residential building, they won't accept reports of power failure, even 'tho it's affected the whole building? When did this start? They've always accepted "power out" calls before.

At the end of the call, Jeremy is required to ask me if he's been helpful. I'm polite. It's not his fault. He's only following orders. All of which I tell him. But Monday morning, first thing, there will be blood. I don't care if I have to hang on hold for four hours. Does this mean that if you're a renter in a four-plex, for example, and your landlord, who's built the cost of power into your rent, lives in Wetaskawin, you have to get him/her to phone BC Hydro? That is just plain not fair and not right. If I hadn't kicked up just a tiny bit of a stink, I wouldn't even have got as far as I did. What are people supposed to do?

So BC Hydro gets a call, gets an e-mail, and so do two MLAs and the Utilities Commission. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. There are only two things I'm good at in life: being a mouthy, stinkin' nuisance, and raising a heck of a fuss when I'm riled at unfairness.

[Nostradama]

Phoned bright & early Monday August 23, reasonable and logical, with my beef. My complaint wasn't in the handbook of the person I spoke to, but they have records of my call, the time, the service rep I spoke to, blah, blah. I have been kicked upstairs! Wahoo! It may be a day or perhaps two, but they'll get back to me. They don't phone me by Wednesday August 25 3:00 pm, I'm phoning again. Moral of the story: don't piss off an old woman with a bad attitude and a lot of time on her hands.

[Nostradama]

BC Hydro called in response to my complaint. A better-trained reader of pre-selected portions of the employees' handbook, Ms "I'm better than most at schmoozing nut jobs" realized she'd got a problem when she told me she had no supervisor, and my next step would be the BC Utilities Commission. Really? BC Hydro has no President, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Administrative Officer? You're the person at the top of the food chain in BC Hydro's corporate structure? That may work with someone in Kincolith or Hixon (with apologies to people who come from places that small and isolated; I know that you, too, didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday; yes, I've been to both places, and have lived in one just as small, which no longer even exists) but it doesn't work with me.

Wandering from the employee handbook in handling disgruntled customers is a mistake. Weigh every word before you say it. One of her few spontaneous responses was "Are you a lawyer?" Mine: "What my profession may have been has no bearing on this issue, which is unfair and unsatisfactory treatment of renters in this province."

I got the very strong impression that I would have been treated better and at least have felt I was being listened to if I'd been a man with a big, booming voice. Watch it, Tammy--it's the silent tiny scorpions who are the most dangerous.

It ain't "Houston, we have a problem", Tammy, it's "You've got a problem."

I even had to explain three-phase wiring and exactly whose responsibility it is to poor Tammy.

She forgot to tell me to "have a good day."

Warning to renters, even in single-family dwellings, whose hydro is built into your rent--it seems to me that BC Hydro has now adopted, or is beginning to adopt a policy that if your power goes out and you report it, instead of your landlord (or manager in a multiple-resident dwelling) and Hydro has to come out, they may under some circumstances try to pass the cost of the "call-out" on to the building owner, if they can find any way of claiming that the power outage was the fault of wiring belonging to the owner. Not a political statement, but I think it's another example of passing costs on whenever possible. If there's a locked "power room" in your apartment building, which has BC Hydro signage on it, and something goes wrong in there, where obviously it's equipment only ever accessed by BC Hydro personnel, it seeems to me they'll try to pass the cost of repair on to your landlord. At least according to the "Gospel of Tammy". Unless other buildings or houses in your neighbourhood are also experiencing power failure, they won't even listen to you. So what happens if the problem is with BC Hydro property/lines but affects only your house? You're supposed to phone an absentee landlord in Wetaskawin, or try to contact the owners of the numbered company you rent from because BC Hydro will only accept calls from them? Try that in the middle of a cold winter night with no heat and a new baby, for example. Nightmare. Another good reason when looking for a rental, as Ryan Coffeey has reminded us here, to rent through a realty company that handles rentals. They'll know how to handle the problem.

After the phone call, I immediately called my landlord, who was a friend before I moved here, and gave him my impressions of the direction BC Hydro may be moving. He is not a man they want to mess with. Probably one of Nanaimo's wealthiest and quietest, and don't let the flannel shirts, jeans, beaten-up "runners" and oldish model pick-up fool you. I've seen him in action with the City of Nanaimo, and that man, although a great guy with more humanity than most I've ever met, takes no prisoners when he knows he's right.

[kittahmunhaPromotions]

it does make sense.. if you lived in an apartment building. i mean, if there was an issue with the building, and the building only - then you cannot do any troubleshooting in that little locked room.

if you're renting out a house, townhouse, duplex.. then yeah, you can do proper troubleshooting instead of having to contact your landlord to do the exact same thing that you're more than capable to do.

[Nostradama]

it does make sense.. if you lived in an apartment building. i mean, if there was an issue with the building, and the building only - then you cannot do any troubleshooting in that little locked room.

if you're renting out a house, townhouse, duplex.. then yeah, you can do proper troubleshooting instead of having to contact your landlord to do the exact same thing that you're more than capable to do.

Do you mean that you're OK to do troubleshooting yourself if you're the landlord, or if you're the tenant? I know that if I did anything here myself, I'd be in deep trouble with my landlord. Two of the ceiling fixtures in my place were just awful, looked like they'd come out of a mobile home from the sixties even 'tho the building's much newer than that, and they were the "better" of the two choices they offered me. They were willing to change the ceiling fixtures, but only with others they already had. I found two ceiling fixtures at Costco that I just loved, checked with my landlord, he OK'd the change, on the condition that when I left the fixtures stayed (which is the law), but only if one of his employees, who is a certified electrician, or anyone who I might know who was a certified electrician did it. And if I'd had a friend who was a certified electrician, the landlord wanted to see the electrician's papers first. His concern was the possibility of fire damage from wrongly installed fixtures, insurance liability, etc. I could certainly see his point. I got my fixtures.

My beef with Hydro is that if you're a renter, they won't accept a "power out" report from you, only from the owner or management of the place you're renting. So if the power goes out in your single-family home that you're renting, and it is Hydro's fault, you discover later, they won't listen to you. You could be renting from someone who lives halfway across the country, but the report has to come from your landlord.

Sorry, maybe I'm not doing a good job of explaining this.

[kittahmunhaPromotions]

ummm i was talking about BC Hydro troubleshooting... not repairs around the suite.

Is it a new rule with BC Hydro about reporting power being out?? because i've never had that issue reporting a power failure - either at home (in my apartment) or at work (money mart when i worked there - never at my previous job).

maybe next time leave out the fact that you're renting. it makes sense for them to ask the landlord if you lived in an apartment building - a simple switch may need to be flicked in the locked "BC Hyrdo" room... but for a townhouse/duplex/cabin/house - you should be able to do this by yourself. as well as check around the neighbourhood to see if anyone else doesnt have power.

you can also go onto their website and report this (i havent had to in awhile - it might not still be there?)

[Nostradama]

ummm i was talking about BC Hydro troubleshooting... not repairs around the suite.

Is it a new rule with BC Hydro about reporting power being out?? because i've never had that issue reporting a power failure - either at home (in my apartment) or at work (money mart when i worked there - never at my previous job).

maybe next time leave out the fact that you're renting. it makes sense for them to ask the landlord if you lived in an apartment building - a simple switch may need to be flicked in the locked "BC Hyrdo" room... but for a townhouse/duplex/cabin/house - you should be able to do this by yourself. as well as check around the neighbourhood to see if anyone else doesnt have power.

you can also go onto their website and report this (i havent had to in awhile - it might not still be there?)

The woman who called me yesterday said that the rule about "owner or management" must make the call had been around as long as she had been, which turned out to be four years. But I swear I've called within the last four years to report "power out" and had no trouble with it. On the original "power out" call that I made, they already had the information about my address, etc.,which I guess popped up on the service person's monitor, because I'd already pushed "1" on my phone key pad to confirm that a street number that was given by an "automated" voice was actually my street number. In fact, "Jeremy" who took my original call even asked me to walk down the hallway to see if the elevator was working. Not. Also reported to him that the emergency lighting was operating, and my neighbours were standing in the hallway discussing it. I can't see any other building from where I'm situated, and at my age and female I'm not about to start wandering around through the bush alone after dark (the third power outage of the night began at 11:50 pm). I think it was the surprise, actually, of BC Hydro refusing to accept the "power out" report from me that got me. I'm a Hydro customer with my own power meter and my own Hydro account, all the power in the building is out, the management office is closed, it's hardly a barn-burner emergency, and they won't take the call?

[Wyatt Earp]

Nostra, if you pay a bill then they have to listen to you or you stop paying the bill and tell them to talk to the landlord. LOL... When I first moved back to this province in 2004 they wanted to perform a credit check on me and I said, like hell you will and i had power the next day. I guess it is all in who's asking and what the response is.

[grommet]

Nostradama - I am so impressed with the way that you handled this situation. You could teach a course. Well done!

[Nostradama]

Nostra, if you pay a bill then they have to listen to you or you stop paying the bill and tell them to talk to the landlord. LOL... When I first moved back to this province in 2004 they wanted to perform a credit check on me and I said, like hell you will and i had power the next day. I guess it is all in who's asking and what the response is.

Ever had one of those "Why didn't I think of saying that?" moments? I did, as soon as I read your response. I really am tempted to pre-arrange with my landlord that I'll stop paying my hydro bills and refer them to him. May their souls rest in peace once he's finished with them.