Calling the Seven Major Pennsylvania Electric Companies' About COVID -19 Response

Text

Calls:

On April 9th, I called PECO's customer service line to ask a few questions pertaining to their response to COVID-19. After calling, I was told that nobody in the office could help me, but they gave me an email address. After sending an email with my questions and leaving my phone number, Later that day I received in email back stating they were not interested in completing the survey at this time.
On April 9th I called Duquesne Customer Support  and was redirected to a media representative, but he stated he could not answer my questions and was unsure who could. He apologized for not being able to be more helpful and suggested I search the website for any phone numbers. Upon doing so, I only found their customer service number.

I called all the numbers listed on First Energy's Press Release on April 9th. Met-Ed, and West Penn, Penelec stated they did not know who could help me and apologized. Penn Power redirected me to a FirstEnergy representative who redirected me back to the number on the press release. After asking if there were other numbers, I was told he can only give me one number.

On March 12th, I called PPL's customer service line and was redirected to a media representative. I called them before all other power companies because they were the only one at the time who did not have a COVID-19 announcement on their website. I asked what they were doing regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and was told that they had nothing to state at this time but were monitoring the situation closely. I then asked if they were considering suspending shutoffs and late fees and was asked if he could call me back later. I never received a call back. I called PPL's customer service again and was redirected to media representative again. I told they would forward my contact information to their PR department on April 9th. They stated they would get to me by the 13th. As of April 19th, I have yet to hear back.

Analsysis:

What I find most interesting is that a media representative answered my questions (sort of) the first time I called, but now they stated only PR could answer my questions. I wonder how many other researchers have been calling them. It seems like none of them have someone employed or available whose job it is to answer research questions.

 

License

Creative Commons Licence

Creator(s)

Contributors

Contributed date

April 19, 2020 - 3:45pm

Critical Commentary

This is the result of my calls to the seven major electric companies using my calling script. This document is a recollection of the calls and an analysis.

Language

English

Group Audience

Cite as

Andrew Rosenthal, "Calling the Seven Major Pennsylvania Electric Companies' About COVID -19 Response", contributed by Andrew Rosenthal, The Energy Rights Project, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 21 July 2020, accessed 29 March 2024. https://energyrights.info/content/calling-seven-major-pennsylvania-electric-companies-about-covid-19-response