In Electricity Crisis, Edison Service Staff Takes the Heat
Tacked on Southern California Edison customer service representative Barbara Esterada’s cubicle wall are pictures of blue cresting waves stamped with the word “tranquillity,” reminding her to stay calm. Early morning coffee within reach, she took a deep breath Friday and answered her first call, knowing the odds were better than even that an unhappy person would be on the other end.
Esterada and other customer service representatives who work in Edison’s main Long Beach office say that about 60% of the calls they have been fielding since warnings of rolling blackouts were announced last week have ranged from concerned to cranky.
Like many Edison employees, the customer service representatives were already under pressure, aware that the financially strapped utility had decided weeks ago to lay off 1,850 employees to save half a billion dollars a year.
Even though Southern California has experienced none of the rolling blackouts that pained Northern and Central California on Wednesday and Thursday, customers are anticipating the worst, and in some cases are eager to express blame.
There was the mother worried about her sick child who depends on an IV that runs on electricity. Couldn’t the representative tell her when blackouts would occur? Impossible. Edison representatives would hear about blackouts only 20 minutes ahead of time. The best advice they can give such a caller is to get extra batteries or a generator and to call 911 in case of emergency.
Chi Hong, who has worked at the company for 16 years, received a call from a husband and wife who are both amputees. They were worried about blackouts because their electric wheelchairs run only 90 minutes before needing to be recharged.
“There is so much confusion,” Hong said. “Some want to be exempt from the blackouts. They should all have contingency plans, regardless.”
The most touching customer comment came by mail, not telephone. Along with his $40 monthly payment, a man sent a $500 check to Edison and a note that read, “I hope this helps.” (The company said it credited the sum to his account and sent him a thank-you letter.)
On Friday morning, Esterada was surprised to hear an elderly female caller say: “I just want to let [Edison] know I pray for you several times a day. I pray when I’m cleaning, when I’m dusting and when I’m in my car.”
For every one of those, there are ones like the call Esterada took during last week’s storm.
“Is this Edison?” growled a very different voice. “Thanks a lot for turning off the lights because you didn’t get the rate increase you wanted!”
The man hung up, leaving a stunned Esterada thinking: Hey, Edison didn’t turn off your lights--the storm must have caused a power outage.
“Everyone blames Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric for this but it’s not really our fault,” said representative Luis Hernandez.
$5 Temporary Rate Increase
California’s utilities have paid extra to purchase energy during the last year because of skyrocketing prices. But under the state’s 1996 deregulation, the companies have been unable to raise their rates. To offset some of this, most of Edison’s 11 million customers in Southern California will notice an average $5 temporary increase in their bills, beginning Tuesday.
Edison customers, who have heard chilling accounts of San Diego residents who paid as much as three times their normal bills, have been calling the company concerned about their own bills.
Other customers have been calling with reports of how they are turning off lights in an effort to save electricity and keep prices stable. One even called a customer service representative to inform on a neighbor who had turned on holiday lights before recommended hours.
“We’ve even gotten calls from people in San Diego that heard our rates were lower and wanted to switch to Edison,” said Paula Campbell, Edison’s customer communications manager.
It’s been a struggle for many of the 400-plus customer service representatives at the Long Beach office to maintain a helpful demeanor while the cloud of uncertainty hangs over their own company. No matter what a caller says, the representatives can’t end the conversation; company policy requires them to listen until the customer decides to say goodbye.
Asked to describe how she feels at the end of the day, Barbara Esterada lifted her hands toward the ceiling, its lights dimmed to save electricity. No words followed, just a shaking of her outstretched fingers on both sides of her head.
