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Residents deserve repayment for broken appliances–Reyes
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Posted on Feb 08 2009
A local lawmaker says residents deserve tax credit or rebates for appliances broken by repeated power outages.
Rep. Joseph C. Reyes, in a letter to the Public Utilities Commission, said residents should also be given credit for the disruption of television broadcasting, either because of lack of power or because MCV’s studio was down.
Reyes earlier asked for consumers to call his office to report broken appliances caused by power outages. His office received 56 calls, with an estimated loss of more than $63,000, he said.
“I ask that your committee look into this matter and obligate the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. to compensate the victims for their losses before any lawsuit is initiated,” he said in the letter to PUC chair Viola Alepuyo.
Before any lawsuit is discussed, Reyes said it would behoove PUC to look into the matter.
“High rates and broken appliances do not add up to the expectations and standards of consumers,” he said.
PUC should also look into television broadcast downtime, the representative said.
“Our consumers deserve to receive credit adjustments or refunds on their cable television bills from both CUC and MCV for the hours that they were deprived of the service,” he said in the letter.
If there are no PUC regulations for such cases, Reyes urged the commission to think about creating some. Legislation could also be introduced for consumers.
