FPL Must Pay

So I have an apartment. Apartments need power. That requires that you get in touch with Florida Power & Light(FPL). So Friday, I contact them about this and they inform me that in Florida, you need to pay a deposit for your power to be turned on. So on Saturday morning, I pay a nice little fee and get my power scheduled to be turned on on Tuesday. For your information, Tuesday ended 30 minutes ago. You are probably asking why I am awake at this hour but I have a good reason.

Earlier yesterday(Tuesday) I went over to the apartment to check if the power was on around 2:00 PM. Just in case it was on, I was going to make sure everything was shut off so I wasn't wasting power(money). Well the power wasn't on. No big deal. So I leave and take care of some other business elsewhere. About two hours later, I call back up their customer support line to see if I can get a status report of how the power is coming. A lady informs me that the power should indeed be on. So I drive all the way back down to the apartment. Low and behold, the power is off.

So I call back. I speak with someone who tells me that the last lady I spoke with was wrong to tell me it was on and that it is still scheduled to be turned on today. He also reminded me that the power can be turned on anytime from 7:00 AM until 12:00 Midnight. That's a 17 hour time span. That's quite a huge time span. Most places, such as cable companies will schedule you for a more reasonable and accommodating block of time such as 4 hours.

But no matter, being assured that my power will indeed be turned on and they had somewhere around 8 hours left to do it, I go on about my daily business. So then 11:00 PM rolls around. I get a little curious about my power...after all it wouldn't do to have the lights and such on all night. So I head over. At 11:10 PM I get there and the power is off. So again I call up the customer support line. I explain to the individual on the phone in no uncertain terms that I felt their company was showing a huge lack in professionalism and efficiency in that they could not seem to do a simple thing as turn on power for an apartment when given 17 hours to do it. I also stressed the point that I felt that my time had been wasted since I had planned on doing things in the apartment, such as moving in, etc.

I was of course civil with her, since it was something way out of her realm of control, since she simply takes calls. So she puts me on hold while she calls the service department. A short while later, she gets back on the line and informs me that the 24-hour emergency department is on task and should be there shortly to turn on my power. I thank her for her efforts and inform her that I will be waiting there for the power people. So I sit in my car since I kind of like AC compared to being outside. An hour later and no one is there yet. At that time it was 12:10 AM on Wednesday morning. Seventeen hours and ten minutes and somehow they could not seem to get the power on, notwithstanding the efforts of their fearless, dedicated emergency crew.

So I call back. Again I explain to them how unhappy I am with their service and ask what the problem is. I think the individual I spoke with followed my logic white clearly as his vocabulary quickly became filled with an excess of "sirs." He informed me that as of 12:04 AM a truck was en route. So I was curious how there was a one hour time lapse in their response time from when I had placed the call and when they had dispatched the truck. Surely this isn't indicative of the work ethic of the aforementioned fearless emergency crew. He didn't exactly have an answer. Mainly out of curiosity and my personal amusement, I also asked him what FPL was prepared to offer me as compensation, given the mismanagement of their time, the fact that they had wasted quite alot of my time, etc. I also mentioned how disgruntled I was with the fact that I had already wasted an hour of my time I would have rather spent sleeping.

I know I really didn't have to stay there and wait, but it was a matter of principle! Well this individual informed me that the compensation issue is handled by the customer service department and that they were closed and would not be open until 7:00 AM. So I thanked him for his time and hung up. So now, my point had been proven--that is to say that they had not seemed to be able to turn my power on even with the 17 hours provided--by the fact that it had been logged that the truck was dispatched at 12:04 AM, clearly 4 minutes after the guaranteed installation timeframe. With that in mind, I got in my car and drove home. I just wanted to share this with you. I'm not really mad with them. OK maybe a little. It's not really THAT big of a deal. It was just nice to put some of my Army conversational skills to work. Those being the ability to carry a perfectly professional conversation while expressing extreme distaste about an issue.

So tomorrow I call the customer service department. They will give me something. Whether it be a credit to my account, a letter, a t-shirt, mug, something, I don't care. I was just really curious why they couldn't see to come turn on my power over a 17 hour period. Oh well.