SUN CITY WEST, AZ (AZFamily) — A West Valley couple is demanding answers after their power was suddenly shut off on Monday, during the hottest part of the day.
They claim they were without air conditioning for over two hours as temperatures soared. The utility provider, Arizona Public Service, (APS) stated on Friday that it was a case of human error.
Jackie and Mike Hendricks have lived in their Sun City West home for more than 20 years. Monday was the first time they felt vulnerable there. “It was 78° in here, that’s where we have the thermostat set at. But as time went on, by the time we got the power back on, it was 92° in here,” Mike said.
After about 20 minutes of waiting and searching for outages, Jackie picked up her phone and called APS. What the electric company employee told her next left her stunned.
“Somebody turned your power off. And I says, well, who would do that? She says, well, I don’t know. We don’t keep track of that. Anybody can call,” Jackie shared.
She said APS couldn’t tell her who made the call or even what number it came from. “I was a little bit angry. I tried to be very nice. I said, that’s not very right. I says here we’re stuck with no power,” Jackie explained.
The power was restored after about two and a half hours, but Mike said APS offered little explanation. “Somebody called and had the power turned off. Well, that’s not a good answer. Somebody called. Who called? And you got both my wife’s phone number and my phone number and when you get a call that shows up on the screen, who called?” asked Mike.
In a statement, APS told Arizona’s Family: “While processing a request to shut off service due to the sale of a home, an error was made by an employee who inadvertently assigned the stop in service to an unrelated account. This resulted in the unintentional disconnection of another customer.”
Unfortunately, the Hendricks’ say the damage is already done, not to their home, but to their trust. “We’re old. Let’s face it,” said Jackie. “It hurts me to think that could happen to somebody else.”
APS also said their team is reviewing processes and providing additional coaching for care center employees.
“In the event a customer’s power goes out, APS encourages customers to visit aps.com/OutageCenter. If you haven’t received an outage alert and the outage is not shown on the map, please contact APS, as this customer did.APS also encourages customers to ensure their contact information is current so APS can communicate important information and updates.”
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