NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – Customers say it’s been frustrating getting through to PSEG Long Island amid widespread power outages caused by Isaias.
WCBS 880’s Sophia Hall spoke with customer after customer about the lack of communication with the utility. One woman said it took her five hours to speak with someone on the phone.
Hall tried to check on the status of her outage in Suffolk County. She said it was not an easy process.
At first, the automated system could not find her phone number and then the website would not load.
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Hall tried to get someone on a cell phone but was put on hold.
She then used a second cell phone and tried a different number but heard a busy signal at least a dozen times.
After 50 minutes on hold with the first cell phone, Hall finally reached a service representative on the second cell phone. It took more than an hour.
The rep, who Hall said was very nice, told her service would be restored Saturday. A text Hall previously received said Thursday, while the outage map on the website said Sunday.
Hall asked the president of PSEG Long Island, Dan Eichhorn, what is going on.
“We’re seeing a lot of customers want to be able to talk to the rep,” Eichhorn said. “Getting an estimated time of restoration is something that’s been pretty high.”
Eichhorn said the utility is receiving about 6,000 calls an hour.
“Many of the customers want to talk to a representative, wherein the past customers who were reporting outages, typically they would use our technology more, go through our automated phone system,” Eichhorn said.
PSEG Long Island said fewer than 108,000 customers were without power by Thursday night and that 85 percent of customers will be restored by end of day Friday and the rest on Saturday.