SUN CITY WEST, AZ (AZFamily)<\/b> \u2014 A West Valley couple is demanding answers after their power was suddenly shut off on Monday, during the hottest part of the day. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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. \u201cIt was 78\u00b0 in here, that\u2019s where we have the thermostat set at. But as time went on, by the time we got the power back on, it was 92\u00b0 in here,\u201d Mike said.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
\u201cSomebody turned your power off. And I says, well, who would do that? She says, well, I don\u2019t know. We don\u2019t keep track of that. Anybody can call,\u201d Jackie shared.<\/p>\n
She said APS couldn\u2019t tell her who made the call or even what number it came from. \u201cI was a little bit angry. I tried to be very nice. I said, that\u2019s not very right. I says here we\u2019re stuck with no power,\u201d Jackie explained.<\/p>\n
The power was restored after about two and a half hours, but Mike said APS offered little explanation. \u201cSomebody called and had the power turned off. Well, that\u2019s not a good answer. Somebody called. Who called? And you got both my wife\u2019s phone number and my phone number and when you get a call that shows up on the screen, who called?\u201d asked Mike.<\/p>\n
In a statement, APS told Arizona\u2019s Family: \u201cWhile 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the Hendricks\u2019 say the damage is already done, not to their home, but to their trust. \u201cWe\u2019re old. Let\u2019s face it,\u201d said Jackie. \u201cIt hurts me to think that could happen to somebody else.\u201d<\/p>\n
APS also said their team is reviewing processes and providing additional coaching for care center employees.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIn the event a customer\u2019s power goes out, APS encourages customers to visit aps.com\/OutageCenter.<\/a> If you haven\u2019t 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.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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