Hope businesses were caught off guard when the power was turned off last week, leaving them scrambling to get generators so staff could get back to work.
At Nelson Automotive Solutions, John Everitt says he had cars stuck on hoists and it took half the day to organise a generator and wire it up. While over the road at Ewing Poultry, Paul Ewing says he had 14 staff standing around as they waited for generators to be wired up so they could do their jobs.
Both are Contact Energy customers and the company says it sent out notification of outages in Hope in early June. Since September last year, the responsibility for outage notifications in the area has switched from Tasman Energy to the retailer.
John says he was completely unaware there was going to be a power outage until 9.30am on Tuesday when the business suddenly had no power, which meant no computers, telephones, and cars left stuck up on the hoists.
“I managed to get hold of a generator, but you have to spend time wiring it to get everything going. I couldn’t phone customers because I couldn’t access their phone numbers because the computers were down.”
He says it cost him thousands of dollars in lost work, with three staff unable to use the hoist or machines for half a day until the generator was set up. The coffee cart beside the business relied on power also and had to shut for the day.
John phoned Contact Energy and was told an email and letter had been sent, but he says he never saw anything. He was also offered a $30 credit off his next invoice which he says was insulting.
“I’m just a small fish in a big pond and they don’t care if they lose me.”
Over the road, Paul says he found out the night before that the power would be being turned off and that sent him scrambling to find generators, then get an electrician to wire them up in the morning which together cost the business about $2,500.
“I had 14 staff standing around that day because there was no power, waiting for the generators to be wired in. We had grumpy customers who wanted to pay by Eftpos and our feed operation has to keep running, as well as the grading floor and office.”
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In a statement, Contact Energy says it reviewed notifications which showed all affected customers were advised in early June about the upcoming outage.
Since September last year, the network advises the retailer of outage so it can then send outage notifications via email or post to everyone who will be affected.
Typically, Contact Energy notifies customers two to three weeks before the outage occurs.
