George Town loses power due to pole fire
(CNS): Crews from CUC have now restored power to the capital following an outage on Monday afternoon in the wake of electrical pole fire on North Sound Road in George Town. Officials from Grand Cayman’s power company said that teams were at the location and were hoping to restore power as soon as it was safe to do so. CUC apologized for the inconvenience that the outage caused its customers in the George Town area. It was not clear in the official release from CUC how extensive the outage was and CNS has contacted the company for clarification on the areas affected by the power loss and is waiting for more details.
Category: Local News
Great now the money that we saved due to the last few days of cold weather will now end up being spent on repairing this instead. Check bills for a "Pole Fire Recovery Charge"
CUC-another law unto themselves, no transparency again..can hardly get them on the phone and then try to understand what is said if you can!
By pure error we forgot to pay 1 bill before Christmas..my partner thought I had done it and vice versa, so yes our mistake. On a Friday night, with no warning at all, power is turned off.
In Europe you have to be warned several times before they can do that, it is not as if they do not have email address for most of us, and they know where we live 'cos they have to drive out to cut off the power..they also have phone numbers.
Just one bill late, and not a big one, and nothing could be done on a Friday. So food in our freezer was wasted.
CUC, you have a duty to warn people, sometimes simple errors occurr which are not your fault, but you have to warn. People know what is coming then and will try to do something about it. And for those that struggle with the bills, at least you know it is coming and can try to negotiate something…some more competition here might sort this out..
Dear Anonymous, it is very unlikely that your electricity was cut because of non payment for one month. Disconnections are usually done when one is in arrears for two months or more. You may want to check your timing again. My experience has been that they will work with you if you cannot pay off the arrears and put you on a payment plan.
Maybe letting the customer know that they are due for disconnection would be a good thing. But until that happens, we have to be responsible and aim to pay on time in order to avoid disconnection. If you are a LIME customer, you know that you will probably have no phone service if you don't pay them by the 20th.
I have travelled a lot and lived other places and I keep telling my friends that they need to have a similar experience to understand that Cayman has a very reliable electricity service. We have power most of the time. Visit some of the other islands or parts of the USA and then come back and acknowledge that we do indeed have a good service.
Some of what you say is true, but this is not Europe.
What is of concern however is certain parts of CUC's infrastructure appears to be not properly engineered for resiliency in this day and age.
Having seen the 'overdue' bills I find this story incomplete. It's a pity that companies aren't willing to speak to specific customer complaints publically. Even if just to say 'we screwed up and disconnected before we notified'. Until they are and we can hear both sides of the story we're left to side with the complainant.
Ummm…..this is more YOUR fault than CUC. At least now you will know to be more responsible and pay on time. LESSON learned on YOUR part. This is Cayman and you arent going to freeze to death, so good on CUC for forcing you to be more disciplined next time. Yout cant blame CUC for something that YOU did.
Everyone wants to be portrayed as a victim. But reading this, you have admitted that YOU screwed up and now YOU have learned a lesson. That is the way it should work. (now if they could do the same with garbage collection fees………)
It is easily done missing a bill or getting in too late to pay in time. By the time I get my bill in the mail it's almost too late to pay it, plus if it arrives when I'm on vacation, then it is late when I receive it & I then get a disconnection notice. But typically there is still time to pay. They should send the bills earlier I beleive. The problem of course is there's so many people who do not pay at all, & leave CUC out of pocket; CUC can't allow people to run up huge bills & then skip paying/move house/leave island; half the population are expats so it's a big exposure for CUC. Having defended them, I find they are a pain in my a$$ each month with their late billings & lack of time to pay, plus the monstrous cost of electrictiy here; outrageous.
Been paying my bill on time for 18 years…………easy to blame CUC but I manage to pay on time. When you get the bill, just pay the damnthing!
Actually if you call them after hours, the security guard will accept a check for the full amount and schedule someone to come and turn it on after hours. You do have to drive down to the plant to do this, but it is worth it. This has happened to me and only once. They only disconnect if the account is 30 days past due, and the service was provided well before that. CUC is expensive but they have always been very helpful to me.
Morning all, original poster here.
1. Yes, first thing I said was that it was our error, slipped between two stools, not deliberate, we had the money to pay, an oversight, miscommunication between us. To the ranter about it being our fault, tell me, you never made a mistake in your life? An honest one? Apart from ranting that is.
2.However, we recieved absolutely no warning, no email, no call, no letter, no knock on the door. It was not even 30 days overdue.
3. My point was that a warning is the least that is needed. Reading some of your posts I understand it is common to get warnings, which is good, but we did not. We would have corrected immediately.
4. Because it was after hours on a Friday (why turn it off then if not to cause maximum problems to the consumer?) and they said nothing could be done, as we do our banking electronically, no cheque book (this is the 21st century). We electronically transferred, showed the paper at the office the next day and it was sorted, but I am still really p****d that we got no warning, sure there is law about that. Maybe an oversight by CUC in this case, but one that makes others suffer.
5. The CUC office was packed with people that day that had the same issue.
6. One poster made good point about people not being able to afford bills. I am not surprised, they are outrageous. It costs more to cool our place here than it did to heat our northern european home and we lived in a really really cold place where you need heating 8 months a year. Where is solar and wind power???? Bills must come down. No need to import oil here at all for electricity generation. The more expensive it is, the less people can afford it, and that is just not here. A government fell in Bulgaria today as a result of energy bills rising too much.
Why should CUC have to go through efforts of trying to track you down to pay your overdue amounts? They taught you a lesson (maybe you need to set up calendar reminders on Outlook or something to ensure you dont mess this up again).
They got your attention by doing this and you learned a lesson and will not be so careless next time. Stop blaming others for your mistake. You made a mistake, sufferred a minor inconvenience, and learned a lesson. Period. Your ranting about being such a victim is ridiculous. CUC is not your banker and should not have to fund your overdue amounts.
You are such a baby. Maybe you should take a trip 400 miles east to Haiti and while there, make another ranting post about how badly you were wronged…….although, while there you will realize that a substantial portion of the population doesnt have electricity at all….and realize that your rant is absurd and merely an attempt by you to be portrayed as a victim.
Bottom line: YOU messed up. YOU dont like the way CUC treated your mistake. Tough luck. I bet you will never miss a payment again. Case closed and lesson learned. Gawd!!!!
Yes, how many times do I have to write that we made a mistake before you understand? It does not give them the right to treat me or others like that. My/Their mistake or not.
However I don't have anger or emotional issues or an inability to listen or read.
Next time the police mistakenly arrest you for being a threatening, angry and agressive yob, please do not write about your experience on here. Someone will only tell you its your fault entirely, no excuses.
How long have you worked in CUC debt collection? Think you need a new job..
Agreed! This person needs to chill. (And to bring up Bulgarian resignations………..um, dude, you didnt pay your bill…………….and that is why you were cut off………pay it, and you wont be cut off next month!)