National Grid, they so sweet.

[wtdoor67]

18 p.m. CT, Fri., June 25, 2010
CONCORD, N.H. - A woman who needed powered oxygen equipment to breathe died after she did not pay the power bill and a utility shut off her electricity, police said Friday. State officials were investigating whether any regulations were broken.

Kay Phaneuf, 53, died Thursday at Caritas Holy Family Hospital in Methuen, Mass. She had been in critical condition since her husband found her unconscious Monday about an hour after power was cut to their home in Salem.

"She can't survive without it," Salem Police Capt. Shawn Patten said of the oxygen equipment. "They cut the power to the house, the power to whatever machine she had went out, and that was it.

[electriklady]

Life support accounts at our company have always been tagged with a life support seal through the regular meter seal, years ago I did a "collector pilot program," and that is one thing I wouldnt go near. If that seal was there when i showed up, I would leave a notice, but if it ever came to cutting it.....no way.....not me.....no matter what they said.

[Trbl639]

In Arkansas anyway, with Entergy, had a similar situation, we cut a customer off...fecal material hit the fan, but was settled pretty quick, and customer was back on within a few hours......customer went to their neighbors while they were off..........

The customer had not filled out the paperwork to have the account with the company flagged as LIFE SUPPORT.....and No Medical seal on the meter can.....so If the company does not know about the Life Support, nothing can be done to the company for cutting them off......It's customer's fault if they didn't do it!

If the account is Flagged and a Medical Seal is on the can, we were not allowed to turn them off for Non-pay!

We also had big blue and yellow Life Support stickers to put on the pots..smaller ones to go on the meter cans, with the Medical seals and if there was an Orange reflective band on a switch pole/lateral fuse pole, it meant someone behind that switch was on life support...........

[wtdoor67]

In this day and age you have to think of all contingencies. What would those folks have done after a lengthy outage? Some things slip thru the cracks. This was one of course.

Old boy I worked with once talked about an informal outage with a contractor once. We used to just knock doors and tell people. They missed one ever now and then. Said they had done this on a transformer changeout or something. This was back when a few people suffered from Polio. Said after awhile a woman came running from a house with sweat pouring off. She said. Someone come in here and pump this iron lung awhile, I'm give out.

We used to cut them off when they never made their deposit. Practice was to leave the meter hot when folks moved out. However if there was usuage and no one listed or signed up for the service the meter reader made note of it and the serviceman booted the meter. Had one like that I remember. Folks moved in and started using. Went on a trip. They had a bunch of fish in the freezer. Was called to that address on a no power. You could smell it in the alley. They were pissed. But tough ****sky. I reconnected and listened to them *****. I remember the one guy when I pulled the meter told the other. "Bygod, I told you they had covers on them ****". He was speaking of the meter lugs. Funny.

[MI-Lineman]

http://www.wnem.com/news/18566890/detail.html

A man risks his life for this country and we can't even give him the courtesy of speakin to him face to face to see why he's late on a bill?:(

If you read through the story you'll see his bill was on his table with "money clipped to it!"

**** SHAME!!!:mad:

[topgroove]

If it was that important She should of paid her bill:) one less deadbeat in the world:D where's the funeral at, I'll be the one with the Tshirt that reads " I put the fun in Funeral":D:D

[wtdoor67]

Compassion thou name be Topgroove.

[topgroove]

Compassion thou name be Topgroove.Hey know what compassion means ... its in the dictionary somewhere before corpse:D too bad it was'nt the middle of winter' the husband wouldn't have to pay to bury the body just stick it outside and let it freeze:)

[topgroove]

Is someone Else posting on your account Groove? Cause this sure as **** ain't the Groove I've known for years....WTF man.:(

Where's the "democrat" in you? The woman was 54....The dude was 93....I mean seriously...WTF is up with you?

I think you account has been Hijacked. You were NEVER a **** like this guy...Yeah you're right swamp... What the hell was I thinking:eek: WE should of shut her off for half an hour and then turned her back on so she could catch her breath and than turn her back off. :D

[Trbl639]

Danny, had the other T-man in town, doing regular T/off orders.....had 2 houses with the same house number, with both numbers facing the same street, but one house was actually on another street, with the house number on the back of the house, instead of the front......kinda confusing.....anyway, he just looked at the house number, not the last 3 on the meter, when he booted it off..............customer was out of town , came back about a month later....all the food, in a big double door reefer/freezer was spoiled, ran out under the door, ruined the floor...big mess.........customer was some kinda peeod when they came back home...............company replaced the floor, had the big reefer/freezer Professionally de-funked......customer said when she opened it, she could still smell the spoiled food...so the company bought her a new one........the old one was still plugged up and working at the yard when I retired.......about 10 years after the fact, and I never smelled the spoiled food smell in it!!!!

Another time, the same guy turned off a warehouse for Non-pay...pulled the bank off..2 accounts on the bank warehouse and an office, was supposed to turn of the office only.........the temp was staying in the low 20's to mid 30's .....the bldg had a Dry sprinkler system.....when the air pressure dropped to a certain point, it charged with water...well you know what happened...no electric to run the air compressor, so it leaked down and charged........Luckily, it didn't get cold enough to freeze and bust a sprinkler head.........the warehouse was full of electrical components that one of the defense plants used making the MLRS rocket system...........

The defense contractor found the problem on a Saturday, and the dispatcher called me to go heat the bank back up......that night the temp went down to 10 degrees or less at night and in the high teens low 20's during the day for close to a week.......................he almost lost his job over the first one, and **** sure would have if that sprinkler system had broke!!!!

[loodvig]

http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/12001519894440/

Home had backup oxygen tanks

A co-owner of Home Care Specialists, the Haverhill company that supplied Phaneuf with her medical equipment, said patients are furnished with enough backup oxygen tanks to survive 24 hours in the event of a power outage or equipment problem.

"All of our patients have emergency backups," Bill Desmarais said.

[west coast hand]

If it was that important She should of paid her bill:) one less deadbeat in the world:D where's the funeral at, I'll be the one with the Tshirt that reads " I put the fun in Funeral":D:D

LOL thats funny... bottom line if you are on life support you should pay your bill on time

[topgroove]

If you needed oxygen to stay alive don't you think you would have battery backup? What the F^ck would happen in a power outage. We don't just shut people off. There are numerous phone calls and letters and many months go by before we're forced to shut off. If we are aware of a life support situation we would never turn off.

[Trbl639]

If you needed oxygen to stay alive don't you think you would have battery backup? What the F^ck would happen in a power outage. We don't just shut people off. There are numerous phone calls and letters and many months go by before we're forced to shut off. If we are aware of a life support situation we would never turn off.

Policy here, Approved by the PSC (Public Service Commission) Customer doesn't pay,...

by the due date of the bill, a penalty is added to the bill....

the power company can take action the day following the due date....

Meter Services guy or T-man goes to collect, knocks on the door, if he/she talks to the customer, and the customer shows the bill with a check made out to the company, or cash to pay the bill, company can leave the customer on for an additional 24 hrs to give the customer time to a pay station..........WE didn't collect any money in the field.......sometimes we'd take an elderly persons check, that didn't have transportation, and take it to a pay station and bring a receipt back to them

If the customer cannot or does not show the money, company employee is to Disconnect service then...........and leave a door hanger to that effect...

If Customer shows money, and is given 24 hrs, and does not pay, on 2nd trip, No questions asked...if customer cannot show a Paid receipt, they are turned off...........

Most of the time the Meter guy/girl or T-man bends the rules to try to help customer........like an account that wasn't a regular on the list...just leave a door hanger and go on down the road, or when it was hot as hell and No heat advisory was in effect.....

We could not T/off (non-pay) if there was a Medical Seal/Life Support sticker on the meter..

If the Temp was going to be Below 32* that night...

or if a Heat Advisory was in effect.....

On days/weeks with the low temps and heat advisory we didn't work non-pays

Been in many situations where I bent the rules for one reason or another, but sometimes it was cut them off or lose my job......

There were ways for the customer to stay off the list, without paying the bill in full, like a Delayed payment Agreement...but if they re-nigged on it..they were cut off.........


Personally...I'd rather take a beating than work the non-pay list........sometimes you'd get a sob story, I got a new week old baby, can't pay (a $50 bill) till next week, then 45 minutes later you stop to get a coke and a candy bar, and the same customer is in there buying 2-30 packs of beer!!!! No 2nd chances given there!!!!!