San Francisco PG&E customers express frustration

San Franciscans still dealing with aftermath of PG&E outage

San Francisco residents are still dealing with the fallout of a late December power outage that left many in the dark and cost businesses money. However, PG&E has only offered $2,500 to cover losses, which many say is not enough for their losses during the 10 hours the lights were out.

SAN FRANCISCO - Pacific Gas & Electric customers in San Francisco had a chance to tell the power company about their ongoing frustration following the holiday power outage. Customers say they're still struggling through the claims process and were eager to meet with the power company to talk about their concerns.

PG&E is offering financial compensation to those affected, but many are saying it's too little.

Not only did Joe's Ice Cream lose business due to the outage, they also lost product. Owner Sean Kim said the outage, which lasted over 10 hours, left his ice cream unrefrigerated, and inedible.

"So that's the problem," Kim said. "Then you know this showcase, we have 16 buckets that basically all melted, and then we had to throw away."

PG&E representatives met with customers in the Richmond and Sunset Districts, both hit hard by the outages. PG&E said it is working to help customers work through the claims process and said the $200 for residential customers and $2,500 for businesses is just a starting point.

"A lot of customers may have lost more than that, and we encourage them to go through the claims process," Tamar Sarkissian from PG&E said. "We're going to be looking at each and every claim, and we will be addressing them on a case-by-case basis."

What they're saying:

Customers said they've been frustrated by the claims process.

Chinese language speakers complained about paper forms they have to fill out instead of an online process. The utility said that is to make sure there are no technical problems as the claims are translated back and forth.

Other customers said the whole process has been frustrating, with a long list of losses and sometimes limited space to list them. Customers hope PG&E hears them.

"So I explained," Kim from Joe's Ice Cream said. "PG&E needed to understand this industry's reality, but somehow they don't get it."

Sunset District Supervisor Alan Wong walked with PG&E representatives through his business corridors. Supervisor Wong said PG&E has been too slow to respond to concerns from businesses that were hit hard by the outage.

"Today is a chance for them to actually meet merchants and talk to them directly," Wong said. "They should've done this way sooner, and not at my prompting."

PG&E said it is meeting with customers throughout San Francisco with culturally competent representatives in an effort to meet customers' concerns, ease frustrations, and earn trust.

"We want to meet that frustration by showing that we are here. We have a customer service lines specifically for various languages, and we are ready to answer anybody's questions," Sarkissian said. "We're here on site. We're going to be out here on site again and again."

San Francisco city leaders are calling for hearings to get to the bottom of what went wrong, and hold PG&E to account. At the same time, lawmakers on the state level are working on a plan to facilitate a takeover of the power grid by the city.

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