AT&T; disappoints after windstorm

After the recent windstorm, we were without power for six days here in La Crescenta.

A large tree from my neighbor behind us was torn to bits and took out the power lines and then landed in my yard. Amazingly, there was no damage. We endured nights in the 30s, and I eventually bought a noisy generator.

Southern California Edison eventually restored the power — we didn’t get any visits with free flashlights — but the trees remained on the phone lines. I’m writing to commend all the neighbors around us who offered assistance.

I especially want to send a huge thank you to Crescenta Valley Town Council President Cheryl Davis and her husband Mark Davis for the chain saw, truck and gallons of elbow grease they expended to help remove the massive amount of debris from our patio roof and yard. We are very fortunate to have so many great neighbors up here.

On the other hand, I must chastise AT&T. After the power was restored, I called them, and after an hour-and-a-half of wandering their maze of user-unfriendly automated phone and circular Web menus, I got to an actual human in North America.

He scheduled an actual visit from a “premises technician” to see the trees on their lines. We were told that AT&T would not remove the trees that were weighing directly on their lines because the phones were working. So we did it ourselves!

How much should I charge AT&T for these services?

Tim S. Jones

La Crescenta