Was it only a week ago that North Texas experienced the Storm of the Century? It wasn’t quite a Stephen King story, to the best of my knowledge there wasn’t a demonic killer with a wolf-head cane saying, “Give me what I want, and I’ll go away.” That’s not exactly correct. They may not have said it quite like that, but that’s sure the feeling that I got from Oncor.

We (my partner and I) and 199,999 other Oncor customers were left without power after last week’s record snowfall. The lights went out at 9:00 PM on Thursday night (just as Project Runway was about to begin!) and wasn’t restored until 1:00 PM on Sunday. A good friend of ours didn’t get her power back until Monday afternoon so I guess we were lucky.

In today’s Dallas Morning News columnist Jacquielynn Floyd addressed the night(s) the lights went out in Texas with some quotes from DNM readers and her conversation with an Oncor spokesperson (Customers say Oncor gave them cold shoulder).

Oncor’s explanation for the lack of information/communication with power-less customers was the aging/antiquated ‘power grid’. Whaa, whaa, whaa! I’m just not buying that. Which is kind-of funny because I AM buying it, and so are you! Not the power-grid excuse, the new super-meters for our homes http://www.glbtbiz-blog.org/meter-made/ Remember Oncor’s $93 million mistake? Granted, smart-meters aren’t the power grid, however, given this new technology that we’re all paying for (twice) Oncor’s information systems shouldn’t be better.

I had to laugh; when I called Oncor on Friday, their automated system (and I use the term loosely) could not match my phone number with my electric services. Even when I keyed in the number there was still no recognition. Oddly enough I can call Pizza Hut and they know my address without prompting. They delivery pizza maybe they could deliver electricity too. Hmmmm?

Popularity: 23% [?]