User:Shanasmiles

DEMCO hides shoddy service behind a noncompetitive market
Our electricity goes off at LEAST once a day. Sometimes it goes off for hours and hours, more often it blinks off and on 20 or so times. What the Hell??!! I pay for electricity, I expect it to be on when I need it. Hell, I expect it to be on when I don't need it! Now, I understand that inclement weather causes power outages. I am fine with losing power during major storms. I am also aware that the occasional transformer will blow, or that other technical difficulties will arise causing the rare power outage. HOWEVER; Dixie Electric seems to have these "technical difficulties EVERY DAY! It is 97 degrees, clear, and sunny here...but we have no power. As of right now the power has been off and on 15 times in the last hour...and now it has been off for about 45 minutes. Thankfully I have an extended life battery in my laptop, or I couldn't write this rant. Like Martin Luther's 95 theses...I will list my grievances against Dixie Electric...although I don't think I will have 95...and even if I nailed it to their door, they would not read it, because no one is ever at their office. 1. Dixie Electric is destroying our electronics and appliances. The constant flashing and surging of electricity is wreaking havoc on our electronics. Computers, TVs, air conditioners, refrigerators, and the like are not designed to be rapidly turned off and on. The components are taking a beating, and surge protectors burn out more often here than anywhere else in the world. 2. Dixie Electric is hindering work and education. I, fir one, cannot get any work or homework done without lights or my computer. I am sick of starting a paper, havng the power go out for 6 hours, and then have to frantically work until 4 am to finish it. Likewise, it is a real pain in the keister to have to find a coffeeshop to sit in to complete my work... I have a home for a reason. 3. Dixie Electric is causing sleeplessness and missed work. The power goes off randomly and often. I am terrified to go to sleep, because if the power flashes at night, my alarm clock turns off. Ergo, I do not get woken up on time...I am late for work...and consequences ensue. 4. Dixie Electric is harming the ill and the elderly. Record high temperatures have been plaguing the south and causing heat injuries and death. Without electricity, the elderly and infirm are suffering. Furthermore, people on medical machines, people with asthma and emphysema, and others with heat sensitive conditions are being put in potentially life threatening situations due to Dixie Electric's neglect. 5. Dixie Electric is depriving the community of water. In this rural rea, many people get their water from wells. These wells require water pumps for each household, and like nearly everything else, they require electricity. This means that there is no running wter in these homes to clean, flush toilets, or drink. 6. Dixie Electric is destroying hundreds of dollars of groceries. The power goes off for hours on extremely hot days, and our refrigerators cannot keep food cool forever without electricity. Therefore, our groceries spoil in the heat. This is an economically depressed are and many families can ill afford to replace all of their groceries at any given time. Not to mention the foodborne illnesses caused by food being kept at warm temperatures. It takes only 30 minutes for E. Coli to multiply to infectious levels at around 70 degrees... 7. Dixie Electric is causing unsanitary conditions in households. If you are washing clothes, dishes, or yourself...you may not be able to complete this task. The machines shut off, water is not available, and all the while more filth is building up. You cannot clean your home when you are able, you must clean it when Dixie Electric decides to repair the power. There are many more instances where the power issue causes problems... But here is why I think Dixie Electric is continuing to have these problems. 1. Corporate Greed: They will not put the money into repairing and replacing an aging and ineffective system. Nor will they put out the money to expand their system to meet the demands of growing community. However; they will raise your rates. 2. No Competitive Competition: Of course they say "you aren't charged for electricity you don't use." Well that is all fine and good, but I do expect good service and I am not getting that... Oh wait, I CANNOT take my business elsewhere, because Dixie Electric has a monopoly over this area. There is no choice but to suffer with shoddy service and nonexistnt customer service, because there is no other provider in which to turn. 3. ZERO CUSTOMER SERVICE: Try calling DEMCO, I dare you. You will be zipped and zapped through a maze of electronic responses and NEVER reach an actual human being. Not one person will ever answer your call. You will get a saccharine voiced computer telling you that your outage has been reported. I say that we as a community demand proper and consistent service under reasonable conditions. We should file a class action lawsuit against Dixie Electric Company to recoup losses due to power outages. We should demand that the pay our heat injury and foodborne illness related medical bills, replace or reimburse us for appliances, groceries, and electronics destroyed due to their constant surging and outages, reimburse us for time lost at work, and for every hour that the power is out (not during storms or adverse conditions) we should recieve a rebate on our bill equal to the price of the average kilowatt usage per hour. We should also demand tht they update and expand their current system to provide reasonable service to the citizens forced to buy from DEMCO. Of course they could claim no one is being forced to buy their services, but with no competitor in the area, what are we supposed to do? Go Amish? One last thing...at the St. Amant branch, the office has stopped accepting credit cards... when 95% of purchases are now made with credit/debit cards, they take a step back in time... to pay with a credit card, you must go in the office and use a credit card machine (that rarely works), be charged a $2.00 CONVENIENCE fee, and typically the clerk must come out from behind the counter to do it for you anyway. Convenience fee??? What the Hell??!! How is that MORE convenient? If anything it is far LESS convenient. I am outraged that in 2007, this company has the audacity to rape its customers and smile while doing it.