Southern California Edison

Southern California Edison, your malfunctioning transformer caused a 12-hour power outage in our neighborhood, and when power was restored, only half our house was operational due to a tripped circuit on your transformer, impacting our main electrical panel. Despite your initial promise to send someone out immediately, after repeated calls, you later claimed the issue wasn't your responsibility, leaving us unable to secure an electrician on a Friday evening. Now, we are facing significant costs to temporarily repair the damage, not to mention the loss of a full refrigerator and freezer of food due to the prolonged power disruption - this is clearly a problem directly attributable to your faulty transformer and needs to be addressed by SCE.

Key points:

Transformer failure:

The issue stems from a malfunctioning SCE transformer that caused the initial power outage and subsequent partial power restoration due to a tripped circuit on our main panel.

Unreliable communication:

Despite promises of immediate service, SCE representatives later denied responsibility for the issue, leaving us stranded without a solution.

Financial burden:

We are now incurring substantial costs to temporarily fix the problem caused by the faulty transformer.

Food spoilage:

The prolonged power outage led to the loss of a significant amount of food from our refrigerator and freezer.

We demand that SCE take full responsibility for this situation, cover the costs of necessary repairs, and compensate us for the spoiled food resulting from your equipment malfunction.

Ignoring the combined wasted 1.75 hours of the phone dance to avoid getting upset over that farce of a "customer service line" again.

It will take a minimum of 1 week (5 working days) for a tech to come by to cut a meter ring --- if you are lucky. I just wasted 2.5 hours of my vacation time due to being misinformed about eta of a non-existent technician.

SCE cannot say what day of the week someone might be coming by let alone give a time slot so if the phone person gives you date and time, save your vacation time. It won't be real.

You are basically put on call from 7 am-5pm Mo thru Fr a week from getting that confirmation number.

Advice - Organize when your hot water heater is allowed to break in advance. If you think SCE can leave their script for the quick snip it forget it.

Best just be prepared to boil water for a very long time. They really could care less about your situation.

I am very grateful that I have a gas range.

11-02-24

Below is a message I sent to Southern California Legal today. Although not technically a legal issue, this was my only option, since there is NO WAY TO CONTACT A SCE REPRESENTATIVE IN PERSON.

Yes, you've heard that right.

You're welcome to use my letter below as a template to deal with your own SCE issue. If you're experiencing this same issue, for the greater good, please report it. Think of all the people out there who may not have access to a computer (mostly elderly and low income), and how stressful this situation must be for them.

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Dear Southern California Edison Legal:

I have spent hours on the phone attempting to speak with a SCE agent about a sudden significant increase in my bill. There is no option to speak with an agent in person when calling on the phone, nor is there an option to send an email to customer service.

This is unacceptable. As a major utility company, SCE should be required to provide access to humans to help answer questions when necessary. At one point, I selected the option to open a new account, thinking there would be someone to help in this case. But no.

The voicemail directed me back to the web site. Although I was reluctant to pay a bill I did not understand, eventually I was forced to pay, since it was a few days late. I do not pay my bills late and resent having to pay for something that requires an explanation.

I've reported the issue of not being able to speak with a SCE agent to my local representative.

I'm uncertain what, if anything, she'll be able to do to help. In the meantime, I need to know how I can contact a SCE customer service representative to get an answer to my question about my bill.

Thank you for any help you can offer.

I spent 30K to put solar panels on my roof and for 3 years all was well. In 2023 on my anniversary date I got a $900 bill I was told because of the rainy spring my system didn't generate enough power to offset my usage like it was designed to do.

In 2024 I got a $1500 bill which when you divide it into 12 months turns out to be more than I was paying for electricity before I put the Solar System in!!!

(I have a battery included with my system as well). Needless to say I wish I could rip my panels off and drop them off at SCE! Of course, I am still paying for the panels so that is not an option.

Here is the best part I told SCE to break that $1500 into a couple of months since I was clearly not expecting it in the budget.

I got the new bill today and find out they are now charging me a late fee because the $1500 was not paid in full when due.

After a long conversation with SCE turns out they are buying my power at .002 cents and charging me .61 cents to use power which is why I got the $1500 bill!!! In the past they were purchasing it at .48 cents which is why the consumption and production were pretty similar.

If anyone knows of or wants to join into a class action lawsuit I am all ears because this is a joke.