Will utilities talk live to their customers during chaos?( ref. Cowles article Customer Service)

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Electric Utilities and Y2K : One Thread

Rick Cowles, in critique of Yourdin's 1997 book "Time Bomb 2000," writes that utility workers will tire of receiving phone calls from angry customers and walk off their jobs in the event of chaos caused by the threat of massive numbers of power disconnections. My local utility, Duke Power (Charlotte, NC) has found a way around the problem. They simply don't talk to any person live and take no messages. During the recent ice storm when 300,000+ customers were without electricity this happened. I guess they kept their workers from being frustrated but it did little to assure customers who needed to desperately communicate. Instead they practiced their version of triage. Woe to the rural customers and others who did not make a high place on the list! DOES RICK NEED TO REVISE HIS ARTICLE?

-- Anonymous, January 17, 1999

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