Outrage Over Denial of Responsibility

The electric utility industry must be the only business in the country that does not stand behind the product it sells (“Customers Will Foot Bill for Outage Repairs,” Oct. 19).

I wonder how their CEOs would react if GM told them it was not responsible for the brakes failing on their Cadillacs because they were built by its supplier. Or if their supermarket told them it wasn’t responsible for spoiled canned goods because they were canned by a supplier.

In the community where I live, we had circuit breakers trip; TVs, PCs and other electronic gear crash; and surge arrestors catch fire. The cause, however one weasel-words it, is bad product quality. We pay our power company for a product that has certain quality parameters: 110 volts, 60 cycles, clean and uninterrupted. We don’t pay Bonneville Power or any other interim tier supplier for this and shouldn’t have to deal with them on damage claims.

I got a phone call from our power company’s insurer regarding my blown TV. The upshot was that their client wasn’t responsible because the problem was not caused by its equipment and was beyond its control . . . and besides, if its customers had used (or employed better) surge arrestors, maybe they wouldn’t have lost their TVs.

Despite the power companies’ collusive response of innocence and non-responsibility, the stench of the unethical is unmaskable.

PAUL FRYAR

Big Bear Lake