Letter: Dear PSE&G...

Dear PSE&G –

You are a company in deep need of an emergency response communications system.  This whole thing is a joke.  Here we are nine days after the storm and no power.  And PSE&G can't even answer the special power outage hotline they have set up.  I have called repeatedly – multiple times I have waited an hour and no pick up, I have been disconnected numerous times, and I have never reached a rep.  This might make sense a day or two after the storm but not nine days after.  PSE&G should at least be able to answer the phone by now. 

And the internal communications isn't any better.  I have repeatedly reported the outage at my address - to the police, on online maps, and on the PSE&G My Account page.  Then today one of PSE&G’s survey teams is looking at (but not fixing) the downed wires outside my house, and tells me he has no record of a reported outage at my address.  Clearly one hand is not talking to the other.  And now My Account page on the PSE&G website says the status of my power outage report is "Power has been restored to your area".  NO, IT HASN'T!  I live here, there’s no power.   “If there is anything still wrong” it asks me to call the 1-800-436-PSEG hotline, which I do and it promptly disconnects me - three times in a row.

I understand this is an unprecedented storm.  I understand it may take time to repair things.  But the lack of communications and the level of misinformation is unforgivable.  People are very stressed out by living in the dark and the cold.  PSE&G is making worse by being the "gang that can't shoot straight".

What is going on?  Your company is in deep need of restructuring and new management.  In the age of electronic media and high quality service, you are failing miserably.

Thos Paine

Fairway Drive, Princeton