News from the Great Beyond

The Last Update?

The power is on, everything works, and we're spending the weekend cleaning and getting settled back into our house!

I spoke to the owner of the electrical contractor who did the work yesterday evening, and he didn't put up a single vestige of a fight about reimbursing us for the whole hotel cost ($1407 and change) - in fact, he was about to contemplate sending back the amount we paid for the original service call and repair we had done in October, but I told him we weren't worried about that, we had a legitimate problem that needed to be repaired, and we expected to pay something for that.

I suppose that was silly of me, I could have come away making money on the deal, but I wanted to be fair to him, since they've been nothing but helpful and fair to me since we brought their mistake to their attention.  So he's cutting me a check for $1500 on Monday and once we receive it, the Electrical Saga that has overtaken our lives since October of last year will be over.

Next on our plate, the saga of getting our teensy condo ready to sell and finding a new house.  That ought to be a doozy.

It's all over but the shouting...

... and the demanding reimbursement for our hotel bills.  (That'll hopefully be relatively painless... but may involve threats and lawyers, I'll let you know.)

I just received word from my electrician that the meter pack replacement has been done and power to my home has been restored.  When I get home tonight I'll be flipping my breakers back on inside the garage and going around the house turning on lights and sighing happily.

Tomorrow morning we check out of the hotel and move back into our poor abandoned home with our poor lonely kitties.  Saturday will be spent cleaning (I haven't been able to clean house in over 6 weeks at this point, since my second phase of power went out and we had no hot water, no dishwasher, no washer/dryer, and very few working electrical outlets.)  The refrigerator will need to be deodorized from the mustiness of being off for nearly a month.  There is much to do... but I'm so grateful to be able to do it.  *very big smile*

And there was much rejoicing.

Something may be going right for once!

I just heard from my neighbor who had objected to the power being off on Thursday.  After going through a bit more information with her (and hearing a few more complaints about her disability and how tough it was going to be for her), she agreed that it would be better to get it over with and scheduled the work for tomorrow.

ElectricianDave was happier than I was at the news, I think.  I'm still praying fervently that nothing else goes wrong to prevent this from being done.  Those among you who pray, please join me in praying that it's all resolved tomorrow and we can move back into our home.

(For those who are interested, the whole story can be found in my category archive.)

It goes from bad to worse...

We were on for Thursday.  Everything was going to go fine.  I could feel it in my bones.  I went last night to notify my neighbors that their power would be off on Thursday... and...

One of my neighbors put her foot down.  She has been, she said, very flexible about the other three dates we've scheduled to have the work done that ended up being cancelled for one reason or another... but this Thursday she has work to do in her home in the morning that she absolutely cannot have her power off for.  So Thursday is a no-go.

ElectricianDave is going to try to push to have an exception made and have the work done on Friday... but he's not extremely optimistic.  If there's a problem and the City Inspector doesn't sign off on the work that day, then the whole building would be without power for the rest of the weekend.  And next Monday is a City holiday, so it would be a long weekend without power.  While that wouldn't so much be a problem for us (since we're already living in a hotel, what's a few more days, right?) the other 3 neighbors might have an issue with it.

If APS refuses to play, I'm getting on the phone to them myself, and they are going to be made aware of exactly how unhappy we are.  I have been a customer for 11 years, 7 of them in this same house, and at this point I would expect some consideration.  They need to at least pretend they care about the fact that we're going on 4 weeks here being displaced from our home, or they're going to find themselves with a lot of bad publicity (worse than I can do in the blogosphere).  Pretty much every local TV station with a news division has a group that does stories on consumer abuses like this.  We'll call all of them.  And the utilities around here are regulated by the Arizona Corporation Commission, who will hear of this situation as well.

I'm waiting for a call back from my neighbor to see if she is OK with having her power off on Friday before the electrician is willing to push APS for it.  Hopefully she gets her voice mail before too long.

Sigh.

Crappy!

Note the weather forecast for next Tuesday:

UPDATE:  Just a note, the only reason why I have a problem with this weather forecast - because it looks mighty good to folks who live elsewhere in the country - is this.

Primal Scream Therapy

GAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

OK.  I'm trying really hard not to go nuts here.  I just got a call from ElectricianDave.  Everything was all set and ready to be fixed today.  They were all out there, including the technicians from APS (our power company) when someone from APS told him that he had the wrong parts - some lugs or some such thing - and he would need a conversion kit of some sort.

And then APS refused to deenergize the panel and pulled their guys off the job.  And now I'm stuck until at least Tuesday, because apparently ElectricianDave was told that they will only do this sort of thing on Tuesdays or Thursdays.  What do you want to bet it's raining again next Tuesday?

I am so sick of this.  I miss my kitties.  I miss living in my own house and being able to cook my own meals.  I miss being able to do laundry at my own convenience and without a pockete full of quarters.  I miss playing my piano.  I miss having a VCR and DVD player if I don't like what's on TV.  I miss being able to get dressed in the morning and choose from my entire wardrobe instead of whatever I threw in my suitcase the last time I was at the condo.  I miss having two computers so Hubby-head and I can both be on line and we don't have to try to figure out a way to share when neither of us is really doing anything all that important anyway.

I miss my life, and I don't know when I'm going to be able to get it back, because of this stupid situation.  It's costing me money - a lot of money, and the money that the electrical contractor has refunded me is not going to cover it all.  I don't know who to blame for the last week-plus, but right now I don't care.  I don't want to have to fight about who is going to reimburse me my hotel costs and meals and whatnot.  I don't want to have to think about it.  I just want to live in my home again, and what really sucks is that I have no idea when that's going to happen.

I know, I know, it could be worse.  I could be like the lady at our hotel who's been there for 6 weeks or so fighting with her home builder about repairs they are supposed to be making - her hotel bill is approaching $5,000 from what I'm told... or I could be like one of the folks in Thailand or Indonesia or Sumatra who has no home at all anymore and is lucky to be alive.  I should be more grateful, but right now I'm just frustrated and upset.  Perhaps I'll gain some perspective after the initial anger has passed.

Praying for Sunshine

If the weather cooperates, our electrician has scheduled the work on our condo for Thursday.  Right now, the weather forecast is giving us a 20% chance of precipitation.  Please join me in praying for sunshine!

Everything That's On My Mind: Post-Christmas Edition, Part 1

I'm back in Phoenix, and thoroughly enjoying my vacation week - well, as much as I can considering the circumstances.  What circumstances, you ask?

Well, primarily our electrical situation - on this front, there is good news and there is bad news.  The good news: our electrical contractor has agreed that their technician did make some mistakes when replacing our main breaker (and the repeated misdiagnoses over the next two-plus months didn't help any), and so they will replace the entire meter pack and main breakers for the whole building at no cost to us.  They are working with our HOA trying to get them to accept part of the cost, since they are replacing equipment that affects the whole building - but this is being worked out at high levels between the electrical contractor and the HOA and management company, and I don't need to worry myself with how and when it gets resolved.

The electrical contractor has also agreed to refund the money we spent in October getting the main breaker replaced in order to defray our hotel costs - we should have a check from them early next week.  It's all being handled at no cost to us, which is a total blessing.  In fact, the electrician was ready with permit in hand and materials purchased, prepared to do the work today - but a couple of days ago, the power company put the kibosh on the whole operation because of the weather forecast.  Today is cloudy, windy and has been raining off and on since yesterday evening.

Triumphant Roar of Consumer Empowerment

I'm going to get this electrical situation resolved one way or another.  Right quick.

I have a service team from the electrical sub that's on our project going out to my house to check on the situation and whether they can repair it at less cost and with more expediency than the contractor I've been working with.  I'm waiting for a call back from them.

I spoke to an inspector with the registrar of contractors this afternoon, who advised me the easiest way of going about this would be to speak to the contractor who we feel broke it, and give them the opportunity to make it right without going through the formal complaint process.  If they don't make it right, I am well within my rights to have someone else do the work, file a complaint, and backcharge the first contractor for the cost.

I spoke to the supervisor of the three technicians who have been called out to my house over the past two months, who plans to come out tomorrow morning and take a look at the situation.  He knew a little bit about it, having been advised by ElectricianBrian of the ongoing saga, but seemed to be a bit fuzzy on what caused the damage.  I duly notified him that I have had two (just nearly three) other electricians look at it to bid the work, and that both of them indicated that the chances are something in the panel in the area where his electricians were working caused this damage.  I also told him that I called his guys out several times with the same two complaints, and it was never properly diagnosed or resolved.  I told him I have spoken to the registrar of contractors.  I told him we are without power and staying in a hotel, and that we want at least a plan in place for a scheduled repair within 24 hours.  I told him I would like it fixed on Monday so we don't have to check back into a hotel.

I think by the end of the conversation he had the picture that I was serious.  He's "going to try" to get out first thing in the morning and see what APS stated as the problem and what the situation is currently, and he'll call me when he does.  If I don't hear from him by 10:00 AM I'm calling him back.  If he hasn't worked something out with me by noon (and if I have an alternate bid I'm happy with) I'm having someone else do the work and filing that complaint.

I am empowered consumer, hear me roar.

Just when we thought things were looking up...

... Hubby-head got home from work today to find that APS had pulled our meter and tagged it as "unsafe" due to the breaker situation.  A call to APS got me absolutely nowhere, except that I was told that they would be happy to replace our meter once the panel is fixed and the City inspector has signed off on it.  Which means...  not any time soon, since we still have to hire an electrician, schedule the work, pull a permit and notify our neighbors of any inconvenience to them.

So I'm blogging tonight from the Sleep Inn, which boasts free wireless high-speed Internet in every room.  Whee.  As an added bonus, we get hot water and TV and a heater that doesn't have to be strung in from the kitchen via 40' long extension cord.  We'll still be going over to my brother's house to do laundry tomorrow night, and to bake a cake.  I had this big ol' long post started this afternoon regarding the cake thing, but I was interrupted by the "umm, we have no power" phone call from the Hubby.  I'll finish that post up tomorrow.

Also tomorrow, I'll be contacting both electricians I've had out to see if they have answers for me on whether parts are available, and possibly calling one other one to give me a bid... and writing a very carefully worded letter to the electrical contractor who has been working with us these last couple of months to notify them that we consider them responsible for the extent of the damage we currently face, and if they do not contact us within 24 hours to schedule the work to be done by Monday,  December 27, we will have another contractor perform the work and we will backcharge them.  And file a complaint with the registrar of contractors.  And possibly the Better Business Bureau.  And hire an attorney if need be.  And I might even threaten to call one of our local news channel's investigative journalist teams just for the extra negative exposure.

Oh, and they'll be backcharged for our hotel bills too.  I wonder if we can get a settlement that includes "pain and suffering" for the 16 days (so far) of having to shower elsewhere and not being able to cook or do laundry at home?  Hmm.