Oh yeah. The crews are out working…. Right? I submitted the outage thing hours ago and it says that the cause hasn’t been assessed yet and that is scaring me a bit since restoration isn’t expected until tomorrow and it went out at like 1 am 😭
Hopefully you get power back soon.
Our power went out Friday night and came back Saturday evening, but even by then our house was down to 50f.
It's a lot colder now than it was Fri/Sat. Good luck!
Mine went out at 1:15am and came back on around 7:15 am, no reason for outage was given until the ticket was closed after power went back on, it said equipment issues. I also tried to call today and just got the office close message.
Wow, yours was restored? Ours went out around the same time. Would you mind sharing what part of town you are in (can message)? I just got a message from them, instead of just tomorrow, now they are specifying tomorrow 11:30am.
I’m in Dixboro, we added a generator a couple of months ago after just having had enough of the outages in the last three years.
However we need a larger gas meter installing, DTE were impossible to get hold of to set it up, then they said they would be out for an inspection. After a month i called cause there had been no follow up and was told “we came by and did it today”, which was a lie - no one came, and said that i just had to call and pay $500 and they would get to it by the spring because they are behind.
Today i called to pay and they are on holiday.
Are you sure you need a larger meter from DTE or Consumers? I got a whole house generator and needed to get a larger gas meter from Consumers. Cost about $550. Scheduled for next week and I started the process in August.
DTE said i do, and my BTU balances suggest it. The generator was struggling this morning, i don’t know yet if the issue was the gas meter capacity or the generator, it’s the first time it’s been used.
I’m quite certain it is a Consumers Energy larger gas meter that you need. I submitted all BTU info to Consumers and they recommended a larger meter. Sent me an invoice and after I paid it they scheduled the meter upgrade. It was quite a lengthy process. DTE was not involved at all with my whole house generator install. Unless of course you get your natural gas from DTE? I have no idea if they supply natural gas in some areas. You have to be home when they do the upgrade because they turn off all the gas coming into the house and have to relight pilots for furnace, water heater, etc.
I also have whole house generator (also fed by DTE gas, and we also lost power outside Dixboro at 115am), but our generator (which we've had for years) often makes noises like it's "struggling", but I've always thought that was normal as it adjusts to power load needs. It sometimes sounds like a car revving its engine, and our lights may dim briefly, but it's never failed to keep the house powered.
yeah it actually stopped running and we had to go out and manually restart. Not sure why, it’s the first time we’ve used it, the installer has been contacted and will come and assess it. Hopefully it was nothing serious.
Same thing happened here, and it seems I'm in a similar area. I think our power was out from around 1am until around 1:15pm (I actually didn't need to change the clocks too much since it seemed to be right around a 12-hour mark). But all day there were no updates or estimates, no problem described, nothing. It was incredibly frustrating. I'm sorry you had to deal with it as well :(
You mean Tues 11:30? Power outage too here in spicetree. I received a message in the morning saying it would be restored today, but the markers on the DTE outage map say my place won't be restored until Tuesday. I'm debating whether I should book a hotel in case the power wouldn't be restored for another night. Would you mind sharing what part of town your place is?
I have found their estimates to be awful. Ours went off overnight Saturday into Sunday and they said it wouldn’t be back until Monday. It was back on by 230pm yesterday. Today the outage is a much larger section than it was yesterday. I am thinking it will be fixed today. We’ll see. I’m at the very end of a grid and when I’ve seen this same section go out before it’s usually been the substation equipment. They tend to get that fixed on the faster side but we’ll see. We’ve lived in this house for 10 years but almost never lost power like this in the winter. It’s always been in the summer.
I actually was able to contact them via messaging despite the phone people being closed and they did have additional information beyond what I got on the app.
Oh and for anyone who might be out and worried about their pipes and stuff - either turn your entire water off and open the faucets at the lowest level of your house or turn your faucets on at a slow drip to keep water moving through to prevent freezing. Open any cabinets or drawers to allow for additional air circulation. Do this especially for any pipe that is near or on an exterior wall. To try and stay warm choose a room and stay in there. Close the door and block any gaps with blankets. Make a blanket fort and then wait. It sucks but helps
The deferred maintenance should be criminal, and critical services like utilities should absolutely have 24x7 call center coverage. All employees should absolutely get some time off for MLK day and other holidays but the reality is in some jobs like this sometimes you have to work the holiday and get a different day off.
The linemen repairing all this have the shit end of the stick as usual. Frostbite can set in 15-30 minutes with these wind chills so work is just going to have to progress more slowly until things warm up.
All of these things can be true simultaneously. It sucks that your power is out and I hope that you can stay safe and warm. Hopefully you can find some comfort in the fact that even had you been able to talk to someone, they would not have known what was going on or had any way of helping you any faster. That's assuming their call center even has power ;-)
I respect the crew workers out there and am extremely grateful for their work. I respect and appreciate them as individuals and workers - but have minimal respect for the people on the top
(Exec, company leadership, company practices etc) of DTE. Your post actually did bring me some comfort - thank you! 🙂
Adding to this rant: I can’t believe we have this many outages after a MILD AND NORMAL winter storm for Michigan. This is TYPICAL weather for Michigan….why can’t DTE KEEP UP?! They suck. When my power can back on Saturday night - I got an email to send in a survey about DTE. Ripped them a new one in my replies. Probably won’t matter though. I wish the residents of Michigan could take legal action against DTE and all the power outages they have caused from mild and normal Midwest weather.
Here is a quote from an environmental lawyer friend of mine that I thought was insightful:
DTE is notoriously negligent about clearing vegetation from their distribution lines. I mean, you can read this anywhere. That’s the No. 1 cause of reliability problems. So putting in fancy new equipment is a more expensive solution, but not as effective.
And the difference is, you know, if I hire a crew to go cut trees and I pay that crew $100, I pass that cost on to customers, and the customer pays $100, and I, the utility, don’t get anything out of that deal.
If I put in $100 of new equipment, I can put that in my rate base, and I can get my rate of return on that which includes, you know, 50% equity for my stockholders.
Mr. Buddy heaters can be ran indoors. They also sell adapters to hook to 20lb propane tanks. If you have the means, standby generators are awesome. The only bad thing about them is that they burn through natural gas at a rate of $10 to $30 a day, and that adds up. *edit* But yes, fuck DTE. The government should mandate they begin projects to bury all lines or make public utilities, I don't know, a PUBLIC utility. *last edit* fuck consumers too
Also just to add kerosene heaters are a $160 at home depot and will heat for a lot longer and larger area. They put out about 3x more heat than a mr buddy. They are larger and require more storage space. But for an extended outage or even warming up a garage or basement they do a good job. We got ours at a garage sale for $20, but obviously no garage sales right now.
Power is one thing but you really shouldn’t live in a cold climate without a backup heat source, be it a natural gas fireplace, kerosene heater, propane heater, etc.
Also just to mention if you have a grill you can use that propane for a heater in a pinch. There are heaters that just clamp on the top of the tank that aren’t expensive and easy to store.
We have all kinds of heat sources since we spent most of covid meeting up with friends in our garage out outside on the porch. I am sure friends and neighbors can lend other friends and neighbors a heat source.
Stay warm! And keep your pets warm!
Also, run some water every so often. If your house gets below freezing pipes start to freeze.
Plus they can leak propane into the house if the fitting isn't secured. Tons of risks for sure. Definitely gotta put on the big boy/girl pants and do some research before brining a pressured tank of fire juice into your home.
This is just bs holiday excuse, they can just give the employees floating holidays like other corporations so they can use it whenever during the year.
They provide critical infrastructure and can’t have holidays. I can’t imagine the hardships on folks with disabilities or the elderly. My house is currently at 52F and it’s unbearably cold.
My power went out Friday evening and is still out. Initial restoration estimate was yesterday, Sunday. Late in the day I got a message saying repairs had been completed and to verify if I had power, which of course I did not. I responded saying so and they said my work would have to be "reprioritized" and pushed it back to today. At this point I don't believe they'll have it done today either, so I went out and bought a generator to run the furnace. Not sure what else I can do but wait at this point.
I'm not actually in Ann Arbor, I'm in Farmington Hills. But I have nothing better to do with my time right now than browse all the local subreddits looking for any kind of hope. Looks like all I found is more despair though. Hoping we can all get back up and running soon!
Edit: I did get my power back earlier this afternoon. In case anyone is still reading through here, I wanted to give out a snippet of hope if anyone needs it. It seems like there's a lot of localized damage with this storm, so this last 5% or so of outages is tough to fix. For me it was only me and the immediate neighbors without power, everyone else in the neighborhood was fine. So it might take a while because they can't just fix one substation and bring the whole grid back up, it's a lot more touch and go with repairs. But they are making their rounds, so hang in there!
These bitch ass monopolies like DTE owning our politicians need to be stopped!
Jerry Norcia (CEO)is a douche of a human being. Remember that as he takes millions in pay and your power is out for the thousand time in Ann Arbor.
Hope your power is back soon!
For you or others in the same boat — once you are warm and safe, I recommend contacting your elected representatives. I posted a [detailed guide](https://old.reddit.com/r/AnnArbor/comments/197cekk/detailed_guide_to_contacting_your_elected/) on this subreddit. Questions welcome!
Hopefully you guys get power. I lost it about an hour ago and it was restored within an hour. I guess equipment issue :/ but it ended from golfside to the north side off Plymouth rd.
My boyfriend and family in West Michigan have not nearly been fucked up by this storm in the same way as the East Side has, Consumers is annoying but not as bad as DTE.
Here's my take.
DTE is facing the consequences of one or more likely two decades of neglect of their distribution network.
Unfortunately, they are continuing to pretend that this is somehow a consequence of global warming.
The only logical consumer response to such corporate chicanery is to first demand that the Public Service Commission account to us for their total failure to avoid such utter failures on the part of those they are charged to oversee.
But the core response should be this.
Identify your state house and senate reps.
Inform them in clear and plain language of your discontent and your expectation that they will publicly demand accountability and a full press effort by utilities to remedy the systemic problems.
Assure them that your future voting for them will rest on the quality of response as perceived by you.
It's up to you to evaluate how well they respond to your message. Just remember this...
Actions speak louder than words.
I understand your situation sucks but this is an important holiday to many of DTE’s workers. From what I have heard MLK day was initially declared a holiday by DTE after a EEOC lawsuit for discriminatory hiring and other discriminatory practices. Any talk by DTE of eliminating MLK day as a holiday (switching the day off to a different holiday, not losing a holiday) it is met with a huge resistance by their employees because the holiday is meaningful to them for many reasons.
I completely understand the importance of the holiday and am not contesting that - however - they are the entire city of Ann Arbor’s power source. While I may not agree with certain companies not giving the holiday off, I do view the company - since the entire city depends on them - as critical work and that in addition to the crews at least someone should be around to speak to. It is literally -6 outside, and like I said, I myself in addition to several others I know do not have today off. Not that I agree with that but they are a power company holding a 100% monopoly over certain regions.
Yeah and with that said companies if they can’t give an employee a holiday off, then they should pay holiday pay. Some places do like prisons and hospitals.
Your initial message seemed quite upset that DTE was specifically closed on MLK day. I agree that DTE should be properly staffed to answer customer questions during outages but that should apply to ANY holiday. Disparaging DTE’s performance and availability on holidays rather than their choice of holidays will get you a better response.
I can only speak on what I know which is todays schedule and todays holiday - I do not know their other holiday schedules. Also I’m fine with the response I got. My initial message was that I am upset that DTE was closed today, a holiday, with a mass power outage in the middle of January with subzero conditions. That is all. Hope you stay warm and safe.
Edit, just for clarity since you said it was difficult to understand - problem is not with the holiday today, as stated in my initial response in this thread - just w the situation.
Lol, what world are you living in. Believe it or not, it’s not racist to be upset about losing a critical resource and not being able to talk to someone about it just because it happens to fall on MLK day.
>am not contesting that - however
You're rationalizing.
>someone should be around to speak to
Why do you want customer service people to perform bullshit work on a federal holiday? You can call them tomorrow from work.
If you consider answering calls regarding power outages in subzero conditions for the elderly who may not know how to use automated systems, or those without internet, or to correct power outage status when they falsely say it’s restored, “bullshit work”, then there’s really no point in discussing further with you. If having access to power is BS work then that is immense privilege. Move on.
Customer service representatives are not scheduling repair crews. They are low paid make work jobs taking calls to let frustrated people feel empowered by whining to a live person. You can have your privilege to ask to speak to the manager restored during normal working hours.
But in no case are CS reps restoring access to power or saving the lives of the elderly. Those are other people who are doing real work and probably holiday pay to manage the actual crisis.
There is an entire book about bullshit jobs you might enjoy reading, or you could just google the original essay on the subject. If you truly want more BS jobs created the utility company will be happy to raise rates to provide that service to you on holidays, and you can reassure yourself that they will go home hating their jobs that require them to make apologies for situations they didn't cause and can't fix to unreasonable angry people that should be talking to their barber, bartender, or therapist.
i worked my hospital boiler room shift today from 4am-12, not because mlk day isnt important, but because its a necessity. i come home to no power, but since its mlk day, dte gets to derelict its duty? especially when its -7 out, in what world should they get a pass on this?
I get the frustration.
That being said, DTE isn't closed. You may not believe me, but they are still generating and distributing power. Some, not all of the departments are closed for the holiday.
No different than a hospital. The billing department isn't open 24/7 and closes for holidays.
This is one problem with dense housing. You can't mitigate the risk. Single family homes can just throw a generator on the side of the house and power outages become nothing more than a 45 second annoyance and a continuous hum outside their house.
Condos and apartments.....you're screwed.
Totally. When I called to speak with someone regarding the outage, though, I did get a message telling me to enjoy my holiday and that they were closed. I have seen the crews out and working though and am grateful. Just a shit day to lose power for many hours I’m afraid.
Don’t at all care about not having the day off - I do care about people being in their homes with subzero conditions outside and home temps rapidly dropping inside their homes. Especially dangerous for those who are ill, old, young, etc. like I said many times - the problem is not the workers, especially at the ground level - it’s with company leadership who decides to have monopoly over a CRITICAL SUPPLY - something as basic as UTILITIES AND ELECTRICITY - choosing to not operate contact services today. try to read between the lines a bit, or literally just read the other comments in the thread is a decent option too.
Did you power go out overnight too? This sucks!!!!
Oh yeah. The crews are out working…. Right? I submitted the outage thing hours ago and it says that the cause hasn’t been assessed yet and that is scaring me a bit since restoration isn’t expected until tomorrow and it went out at like 1 am 😭
Hopefully you get power back soon. Our power went out Friday night and came back Saturday evening, but even by then our house was down to 50f. It's a lot colder now than it was Fri/Sat. Good luck!
Mine went out at 1:15am and came back on around 7:15 am, no reason for outage was given until the ticket was closed after power went back on, it said equipment issues. I also tried to call today and just got the office close message.
Wow, yours was restored? Ours went out around the same time. Would you mind sharing what part of town you are in (can message)? I just got a message from them, instead of just tomorrow, now they are specifying tomorrow 11:30am.
I’m in Dixboro, we added a generator a couple of months ago after just having had enough of the outages in the last three years. However we need a larger gas meter installing, DTE were impossible to get hold of to set it up, then they said they would be out for an inspection. After a month i called cause there had been no follow up and was told “we came by and did it today”, which was a lie - no one came, and said that i just had to call and pay $500 and they would get to it by the spring because they are behind. Today i called to pay and they are on holiday.
Are you sure you need a larger meter from DTE or Consumers? I got a whole house generator and needed to get a larger gas meter from Consumers. Cost about $550. Scheduled for next week and I started the process in August.
DTE said i do, and my BTU balances suggest it. The generator was struggling this morning, i don’t know yet if the issue was the gas meter capacity or the generator, it’s the first time it’s been used.
I’m quite certain it is a Consumers Energy larger gas meter that you need. I submitted all BTU info to Consumers and they recommended a larger meter. Sent me an invoice and after I paid it they scheduled the meter upgrade. It was quite a lengthy process. DTE was not involved at all with my whole house generator install. Unless of course you get your natural gas from DTE? I have no idea if they supply natural gas in some areas. You have to be home when they do the upgrade because they turn off all the gas coming into the house and have to relight pilots for furnace, water heater, etc.
Some people get gas from DTE too, not Consumers. My gas and electricity is via DTE
Thank you! I had no idea DTE was a natural gas supplier! Learned something new!
I also have whole house generator (also fed by DTE gas, and we also lost power outside Dixboro at 115am), but our generator (which we've had for years) often makes noises like it's "struggling", but I've always thought that was normal as it adjusts to power load needs. It sometimes sounds like a car revving its engine, and our lights may dim briefly, but it's never failed to keep the house powered.
yeah it actually stopped running and we had to go out and manually restart. Not sure why, it’s the first time we’ve used it, the installer has been contacted and will come and assess it. Hopefully it was nothing serious.
Same thing happened here, and it seems I'm in a similar area. I think our power was out from around 1am until around 1:15pm (I actually didn't need to change the clocks too much since it seemed to be right around a 12-hour mark). But all day there were no updates or estimates, no problem described, nothing. It was incredibly frustrating. I'm sorry you had to deal with it as well :(
You mean Tues 11:30? Power outage too here in spicetree. I received a message in the morning saying it would be restored today, but the markers on the DTE outage map say my place won't be restored until Tuesday. I'm debating whether I should book a hotel in case the power wouldn't be restored for another night. Would you mind sharing what part of town your place is?
Dixboro village area
I have found their estimates to be awful. Ours went off overnight Saturday into Sunday and they said it wouldn’t be back until Monday. It was back on by 230pm yesterday. Today the outage is a much larger section than it was yesterday. I am thinking it will be fixed today. We’ll see. I’m at the very end of a grid and when I’ve seen this same section go out before it’s usually been the substation equipment. They tend to get that fixed on the faster side but we’ll see. We’ve lived in this house for 10 years but almost never lost power like this in the winter. It’s always been in the summer.
I saw crews out today
Thankful for them but also feel sorry for them. Hope they stay warm.
There is nothing the call center's can give you beyond what the app says. If you submitted the outage they know about it, and it's in the queue.
I actually was able to contact them via messaging despite the phone people being closed and they did have additional information beyond what I got on the app.
Oh and for anyone who might be out and worried about their pipes and stuff - either turn your entire water off and open the faucets at the lowest level of your house or turn your faucets on at a slow drip to keep water moving through to prevent freezing. Open any cabinets or drawers to allow for additional air circulation. Do this especially for any pipe that is near or on an exterior wall. To try and stay warm choose a room and stay in there. Close the door and block any gaps with blankets. Make a blanket fort and then wait. It sucks but helps
These tips helped last year when we lost power for four days. Thanks for sharing!
The deferred maintenance should be criminal, and critical services like utilities should absolutely have 24x7 call center coverage. All employees should absolutely get some time off for MLK day and other holidays but the reality is in some jobs like this sometimes you have to work the holiday and get a different day off. The linemen repairing all this have the shit end of the stick as usual. Frostbite can set in 15-30 minutes with these wind chills so work is just going to have to progress more slowly until things warm up. All of these things can be true simultaneously. It sucks that your power is out and I hope that you can stay safe and warm. Hopefully you can find some comfort in the fact that even had you been able to talk to someone, they would not have known what was going on or had any way of helping you any faster. That's assuming their call center even has power ;-)
I respect the crew workers out there and am extremely grateful for their work. I respect and appreciate them as individuals and workers - but have minimal respect for the people on the top (Exec, company leadership, company practices etc) of DTE. Your post actually did bring me some comfort - thank you! 🙂
Adding to this rant: I can’t believe we have this many outages after a MILD AND NORMAL winter storm for Michigan. This is TYPICAL weather for Michigan….why can’t DTE KEEP UP?! They suck. When my power can back on Saturday night - I got an email to send in a survey about DTE. Ripped them a new one in my replies. Probably won’t matter though. I wish the residents of Michigan could take legal action against DTE and all the power outages they have caused from mild and normal Midwest weather.
Heavy snow, rain, ice and 40- 50 mph wind gusts are not "mild and normal"
We’ve had way worse winter storms 🫠
Because shareholder profits matter more to them than service. Literally.
Here is a quote from an environmental lawyer friend of mine that I thought was insightful: DTE is notoriously negligent about clearing vegetation from their distribution lines. I mean, you can read this anywhere. That’s the No. 1 cause of reliability problems. So putting in fancy new equipment is a more expensive solution, but not as effective. And the difference is, you know, if I hire a crew to go cut trees and I pay that crew $100, I pass that cost on to customers, and the customer pays $100, and I, the utility, don’t get anything out of that deal. If I put in $100 of new equipment, I can put that in my rate base, and I can get my rate of return on that which includes, you know, 50% equity for my stockholders.
What’s the rate of return on the new equipment?
Not very articulate for a lawyer
Mr. Buddy heaters can be ran indoors. They also sell adapters to hook to 20lb propane tanks. If you have the means, standby generators are awesome. The only bad thing about them is that they burn through natural gas at a rate of $10 to $30 a day, and that adds up. *edit* But yes, fuck DTE. The government should mandate they begin projects to bury all lines or make public utilities, I don't know, a PUBLIC utility. *last edit* fuck consumers too
Also just to add kerosene heaters are a $160 at home depot and will heat for a lot longer and larger area. They put out about 3x more heat than a mr buddy. They are larger and require more storage space. But for an extended outage or even warming up a garage or basement they do a good job. We got ours at a garage sale for $20, but obviously no garage sales right now. Power is one thing but you really shouldn’t live in a cold climate without a backup heat source, be it a natural gas fireplace, kerosene heater, propane heater, etc. Also just to mention if you have a grill you can use that propane for a heater in a pinch. There are heaters that just clamp on the top of the tank that aren’t expensive and easy to store. We have all kinds of heat sources since we spent most of covid meeting up with friends in our garage out outside on the porch. I am sure friends and neighbors can lend other friends and neighbors a heat source. Stay warm! And keep your pets warm! Also, run some water every so often. If your house gets below freezing pipes start to freeze.
> kerosene heaters Kerosene smells awful though, compared to propane. Taste the meat not the heat Itellyouwhat.
Note the heaters still put out CO and most detectors can only detect acutely high levels of CO, meaning you can be slowly poisoned.
Plus they can leak propane into the house if the fitting isn't secured. Tons of risks for sure. Definitely gotta put on the big boy/girl pants and do some research before brining a pressured tank of fire juice into your home.
Response to all edits: f*** privately owned, investor-and-not-resident-or-worker-focused-power companies, go public power
This is just bs holiday excuse, they can just give the employees floating holidays like other corporations so they can use it whenever during the year. They provide critical infrastructure and can’t have holidays. I can’t imagine the hardships on folks with disabilities or the elderly. My house is currently at 52F and it’s unbearably cold.
Typical retail jobs provide far less generous holiday packages, and retail is perhaps less essential than electricity.
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See above for my comment about your water. Do this immediately. That will make sure you don’t have further issues
Report the outage via the website or the mobile app.
My power went out Friday evening and is still out. Initial restoration estimate was yesterday, Sunday. Late in the day I got a message saying repairs had been completed and to verify if I had power, which of course I did not. I responded saying so and they said my work would have to be "reprioritized" and pushed it back to today. At this point I don't believe they'll have it done today either, so I went out and bought a generator to run the furnace. Not sure what else I can do but wait at this point.
What??? I’m so sorry. Do you mind sharing what area of town?
I'm not actually in Ann Arbor, I'm in Farmington Hills. But I have nothing better to do with my time right now than browse all the local subreddits looking for any kind of hope. Looks like all I found is more despair though. Hoping we can all get back up and running soon! Edit: I did get my power back earlier this afternoon. In case anyone is still reading through here, I wanted to give out a snippet of hope if anyone needs it. It seems like there's a lot of localized damage with this storm, so this last 5% or so of outages is tough to fix. For me it was only me and the immediate neighbors without power, everyone else in the neighborhood was fine. So it might take a while because they can't just fix one substation and bring the whole grid back up, it's a lot more touch and go with repairs. But they are making their rounds, so hang in there!
These bitch ass monopolies like DTE owning our politicians need to be stopped! Jerry Norcia (CEO)is a douche of a human being. Remember that as he takes millions in pay and your power is out for the thousand time in Ann Arbor.
Hope your power is back soon! For you or others in the same boat — once you are warm and safe, I recommend contacting your elected representatives. I posted a [detailed guide](https://old.reddit.com/r/AnnArbor/comments/197cekk/detailed_guide_to_contacting_your_elected/) on this subreddit. Questions welcome!
Hopefully you guys get power. I lost it about an hour ago and it was restored within an hour. I guess equipment issue :/ but it ended from golfside to the north side off Plymouth rd.
I’m happy for you guys! We lost it about 1:30 am, still fully out. Fingers crossed. Stay warm and safe
Hopefully you got your power back. We just got our restored after about ~13 hour outage. Inside temps made me feel like I was camping in the winter.
Same here
they need to be sued.
I lived in the rocky mountains and we never lost power. We lose it at least once a year for days !!!
My boyfriend and family in West Michigan have not nearly been fucked up by this storm in the same way as the East Side has, Consumers is annoying but not as bad as DTE.
Here's my take. DTE is facing the consequences of one or more likely two decades of neglect of their distribution network. Unfortunately, they are continuing to pretend that this is somehow a consequence of global warming. The only logical consumer response to such corporate chicanery is to first demand that the Public Service Commission account to us for their total failure to avoid such utter failures on the part of those they are charged to oversee. But the core response should be this. Identify your state house and senate reps. Inform them in clear and plain language of your discontent and your expectation that they will publicly demand accountability and a full press effort by utilities to remedy the systemic problems. Assure them that your future voting for them will rest on the quality of response as perceived by you. It's up to you to evaluate how well they respond to your message. Just remember this... Actions speak louder than words.
Agree - I will reach out. Thanks for sharing.
I understand your situation sucks but this is an important holiday to many of DTE’s workers. From what I have heard MLK day was initially declared a holiday by DTE after a EEOC lawsuit for discriminatory hiring and other discriminatory practices. Any talk by DTE of eliminating MLK day as a holiday (switching the day off to a different holiday, not losing a holiday) it is met with a huge resistance by their employees because the holiday is meaningful to them for many reasons.
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Precisely.
I completely understand the importance of the holiday and am not contesting that - however - they are the entire city of Ann Arbor’s power source. While I may not agree with certain companies not giving the holiday off, I do view the company - since the entire city depends on them - as critical work and that in addition to the crews at least someone should be around to speak to. It is literally -6 outside, and like I said, I myself in addition to several others I know do not have today off. Not that I agree with that but they are a power company holding a 100% monopoly over certain regions.
Yeah and with that said companies if they can’t give an employee a holiday off, then they should pay holiday pay. Some places do like prisons and hospitals.
I certainly hope crews are getting holiday pay. If not just another example of DTE highway robbery and me feeling sorry for the crews.
Your initial message seemed quite upset that DTE was specifically closed on MLK day. I agree that DTE should be properly staffed to answer customer questions during outages but that should apply to ANY holiday. Disparaging DTE’s performance and availability on holidays rather than their choice of holidays will get you a better response.
I can only speak on what I know which is todays schedule and todays holiday - I do not know their other holiday schedules. Also I’m fine with the response I got. My initial message was that I am upset that DTE was closed today, a holiday, with a mass power outage in the middle of January with subzero conditions. That is all. Hope you stay warm and safe. Edit, just for clarity since you said it was difficult to understand - problem is not with the holiday today, as stated in my initial response in this thread - just w the situation.
>problem is not with the holiday today Not buying it
Lol, what world are you living in. Believe it or not, it’s not racist to be upset about losing a critical resource and not being able to talk to someone about it just because it happens to fall on MLK day.
I agree but we seem to be the only people who think this.
>am not contesting that - however You're rationalizing. >someone should be around to speak to Why do you want customer service people to perform bullshit work on a federal holiday? You can call them tomorrow from work.
If you consider answering calls regarding power outages in subzero conditions for the elderly who may not know how to use automated systems, or those without internet, or to correct power outage status when they falsely say it’s restored, “bullshit work”, then there’s really no point in discussing further with you. If having access to power is BS work then that is immense privilege. Move on.
Customer service representatives are not scheduling repair crews. They are low paid make work jobs taking calls to let frustrated people feel empowered by whining to a live person. You can have your privilege to ask to speak to the manager restored during normal working hours. But in no case are CS reps restoring access to power or saving the lives of the elderly. Those are other people who are doing real work and probably holiday pay to manage the actual crisis. There is an entire book about bullshit jobs you might enjoy reading, or you could just google the original essay on the subject. If you truly want more BS jobs created the utility company will be happy to raise rates to provide that service to you on holidays, and you can reassure yourself that they will go home hating their jobs that require them to make apologies for situations they didn't cause and can't fix to unreasonable angry people that should be talking to their barber, bartender, or therapist.
i worked my hospital boiler room shift today from 4am-12, not because mlk day isnt important, but because its a necessity. i come home to no power, but since its mlk day, dte gets to derelict its duty? especially when its -7 out, in what world should they get a pass on this?
Did you get holiday pay?
I get the frustration. That being said, DTE isn't closed. You may not believe me, but they are still generating and distributing power. Some, not all of the departments are closed for the holiday. No different than a hospital. The billing department isn't open 24/7 and closes for holidays. This is one problem with dense housing. You can't mitigate the risk. Single family homes can just throw a generator on the side of the house and power outages become nothing more than a 45 second annoyance and a continuous hum outside their house. Condos and apartments.....you're screwed.
Totally. When I called to speak with someone regarding the outage, though, I did get a message telling me to enjoy my holiday and that they were closed. I have seen the crews out and working though and am grateful. Just a shit day to lose power for many hours I’m afraid.
I love when people do this. If you are so butt-hurt that someone had a day off you didn’t go work for DTE otherwise please keep it to yourself.
Don’t at all care about not having the day off - I do care about people being in their homes with subzero conditions outside and home temps rapidly dropping inside their homes. Especially dangerous for those who are ill, old, young, etc. like I said many times - the problem is not the workers, especially at the ground level - it’s with company leadership who decides to have monopoly over a CRITICAL SUPPLY - something as basic as UTILITIES AND ELECTRICITY - choosing to not operate contact services today. try to read between the lines a bit, or literally just read the other comments in the thread is a decent option too.