Smart Meter is Finally Installed - Something's Fishy!

As promised by Alicia at ComEd, the field tech actually showed up - on time, on Tuesday 23 March.  He was actually a bit early and, when I explained that I would need to shutdown some equipment before he could proceed he stated he was authorized to jumper the meter plug-in while swapping the meter and keep the power on during the process.

There were initially two issues which mandated my requiring ComEd an appointment for this process:

1. Our back yard is locked.  We have a high fence and live in the West Humboldt Park area of Chicago.  Yes, it is just as safe as any other neighborhood in Chicago, perhaps even a bit safer because we don't have moms driving their kids to the school across the street as the talk on their cell phones, ignoring both the City of Chicago's mandatory hands free law for cell phones and the new state law which has zero tolerance for the use of a cell phone in a school zone;

2. We have some nice garden furniture, decorative statuary, and a rather well maintained garden in our back yard and we don't want the kids from the school across the street coming in and helping themselves to any of our garden art or picking the flowers off the blooming plants - something they do in the front yard all spring long while the Iris is blooming; 

3. We don't care to have any further attempts at having our down-spouts stolen.  While neither the gutters or downspouts are either aluminium or copper - they are PVC, they attempted to steal the largest downspout from our front yard and some friends of ours in Logan Square had all of the newly replaced copper downspouts on their home stolen last summer - just a few days after they had them replaced.  

Given the fact that the economy is NOT, in spite of what either the Wall Street Journal or the FED would like people to believe, getting any better, and given the fact that Orr High School's new aluminium bleacher seats are disappearing, one section at a time, we'd prefer to not come home to find all of our trees and plants cut down and our garden furniture and gutters gone.

Now it's Sunday, 28 March, five days after the new Smart Meter has been installed and I am working around the house trying to play catch up before I start another week of work when I never have time to do those things which always seem to pile into the list no matter how hard you work on it, and I get a call from the Blackstone Group . . .

Apart from the fact that I fully agree with their analysis of the fact that our economy is still in a crisis, what the hell does the Blackstone Group, an investment group which deals in everything from alternative asset management, private equity, real estate, mutual funds, and, yes, even though they are publicly stating the the economy is still in trouble, hedge funds - the product that put more than one investment company out of business and is still creating a strong undertow which will eventually surface and, along with the mortgage crisis, vacant business real estate, and failing banks, bring our economy back to it's knees far worse that what we saw in 2008 and 2009.

Getting back to the call, I answer the phone and it's a gentleman who identifies himself as representing the Blackstone Group.  He states that he is calling because, "ComEd will soon be placing Smart Meters into some neighborhoods and . . . "

I cut him off at that point and told him ComEd had already replaced my old analog meter with a Smart Meter and he becomes totally silent!

More silence . . . .

More silence . . . .

Now I am curious, so I ask him what this is all about - as he is beginning to hang up I might add.

He mumbles something to the effect that he was calling about the ComEd Smart Meter and then just hangs up.

OK, now I am curious.  Why would someone from the Blackstone group, who, somehow, got my name - exactly as it is on my ComEd bill, and got my phone number, which is not published, call me to discuss a future Smart Meter installation which has already been completed?

Hello caller ID.  I check the caller ID and there is none - probably because Vonage needs at least two rings to transmit the data to the phone.  No problem, I have Vonage and I can look up any phone call, either in-bound our out-bound, at any time.  So, I retrieve the number and call back.

The voice mail belongs to LaSalle Franklin at The Blackstone Group, but neither Mr Franklin, nor anyone else, it responding to my return call so I get his voice mail.  After pressing "2" to leave a message  [how archaic is that?   Well setup voice mail should never prompt you to press something to leave a message - it should just allow you to leave the message!] I leave a voice mail message requesting information as to:

1. Why is the Blackstone Group involved in calling ComEd customers who might receive Smart Meters on a Sunday afternoon?

2. What, exactly, is the Blackstone Group's relationship, or non-relationship, with ComEd?

3. How did someone from the Blackstone Group get my name, exactly as it is listed on my ComEd bill?

4. How did someone from the Blackstone Group get my unlisted, unpublished home phone number?

5. What was the purpose of calling me about my participation in ComEd's Smart Meter program?

6. Why did Mr Franklin, or whoever it was who called me at 1:48 PM, on Sunday, 28 March, 2010, from 312.423.4005, become unresponsive and refuse to give me any more details regarding the reasons for his call when I questioned him?

I'll wait a few days to see if anyone responds and then forward this case on to CUB to see if they can help demistify the experience . . .

Alicia from ComEd

After calling a few times and not finding me at home or in my office, I receive a call from Alicia at ComEd's Bellwood office on 17 March 2010 and she's calling to schedule an appointment to install our new Smart Meter.


She's only doing her job, but she's calling on the 17th and practically demands that I allow them to do the meter swap the next day.  I explain to her that that's not convenient and will have to have time to plan to take equipment off-line and arrange to be home.  After babbling something non-intelligible into her phone I tell her that I have the following Tuesday, 24 March, in the afternoon available and she trys to schedule the appointment for 10:00 AM.


I explain to her that I had already indicated to her I would not be available until the afternoon and ask what time she has available after 1:00 PM.  She begrudgingly agrees to set an appointment for 2:00 PM and tells me they will see me then . . .  


I've written down her phone number from the caller ID display, and can always go back to my Vonage logs and look it up, so I now have an actual person who can make decisions and I can contact if there are problems with the scheduled time.  

How Hard is it to Make An Appointment?

What part of the word, "appointment" do the employees of Commonwealth Edison not understand?

According to The Free Dictionary dot com, the word appointment can be defined as follows:

ap•point•ment (-pointmnt) n.

1. a. The act of appointing or designating someone for an office or position.
    b. The office or position to which one has been appointed.

2. An arrangement to do something or meet someone at a particular time and place. See Synonyms at engagement.

3. appointments Furnishings, fittings, or equipment.

4. Law The act of directing the disposition of property by virtue of a power granted for this purpose.

In our case, we are looking for an execution of the second definition of the word - "an arrangement to do something or meet someone at a particular time and place."

As stated previously, I have given ComEd my home and cell phone numbers to use as points of contact, specifically stating that I would require several days notice so I could clear my schedule, make certain my clients activities were not disrupted, and allow them access after shutting down some very sensitive equipment in the proscribed manner.

So, how does ComEd handle the making of an appointment? The first two times they actually sent a field tech - paid at the rate of $35.00 per hour, plus very generous benefits, to the door to "make an appointment" for that day or the next day.

In both cases they were told the appointment had to be at least one week out and the next day was not acceptable.

On Monday, 15 March, we received an in-person visit from a second installer who was "in the neighborhood, making appointments for tomorrow." He was unceremoniously told him that less than 24 hour notice did not an appointment constitute. He was a bit miffed and I told him to refer this to his office, citing my CUB [Citizen's Utility Board] complaint number and he left.

On Tuesday 16 March, we received a call from Alicia in ComEd's Bellwood Illinois office, asking to schedule an appointment. Ben took the call and told her I would be back in touch with her to make an appointment.

I got Alicia's message when I came home and went to bed Tuesday afternoon with a lousy head cold. I was still home and in bed with the cold when she called back on Wednesday afternoon and she immediately tried to make the appointment for today - Thursday, 18 March. Once again, I explained I required more lead time than just 24 hours and asked if Tuesday or Wednesday of next week would be good. She asked if Tuesday morning, 23 March, would work and I told her I had already scheduled a meeting that morning, but any time after 2:00 PM that afternoon would work.

So, now we will wait and see how well ComEd can keep an actual appointment - now scheduled for 2:00 PM on 23 March.

Installer Calling to Schedule an Appointment on the Day of the Appointment

I received a call from my partner indicating that an installer from ComEd was "in the neighborhood" to install a meter down the block and wanted to know if they could "stop by and replace our meter." 

When Ben called me to relay the message and ask what he should do, I told him to inform the installer that a case was pending with Customer Service at ComEd and the installer should contact them and ask them to call to schedule an appointment to swap out the meter.  Please keep in mind that we live on the west side of Chicago, have a decent back yard, locked gate and I have equipment that is always on which cannot just be shut off when a ComEd installer decides to pull a meter to "swap it out." for a smart meter. 

Even if it weren't for the fact that the equipment requires a proper shut-down sequence, we would never leave the back gate unlocked as the typical Chicago hoodlums - you know the gang-bangers who control the Chicago police department and contribute the re-election of the Daley administration so they are guaranteed that nothing will ever change in City Corruption - would come into the yard and steal the yard furniture and garden ornaments - not to mention the aluminum gutters and downspouts - anything that can be sold for drug money . . .

The installer called back a few minutes later and Ben gave him my cell phone number so he could call, but he never did.  Once again, this is in the hands of the inept manglement at ComEd who, incidentally, have just requested another $207 Million rate increase - even before the one they filed for two years ago, in 2008, has yet to be approved. 

How about teaching their employees some common sense?  You don't just tell people you are going to be in a neighborhood to disconnect their power for 10 to 15 minutes when there are hundreds of those who, like us, lock their gates - providing alternative means for the meters to be read when required.

Both the letters announcing the meter change-out to smart meters, and the very persistent automated phone calls, repeatedly stated that the "installers will make two attempts to change your your meter and, if unable to change your meter after two attempts, we will contact you to make an appointment."

How about saving us all some money and allowing us to make those appointments right off the bat?  ComEd employees are union employees who make an average of $72,000 per year. 

With 3 employees on a truck and taking an average work-week of 40 hours, with 50 weeks per year worked, that's $36.00 an hour, times 3 employees per house.  Make that two wasted visits, taking 30 minutes while they attempt to gain access, and you have wasted $108.00 per house when an advance appointment could have saved 3/4 of that by making an appointment with the homeowner in advance.

Now ComEd wants another 208 million dollar a year rate increase?  I think NOT!  Not until they clean up the waste within their own company.