I have now lived in Arab for 7 years now and I can't begin to tell you how many people I have heard complain about Arab Electric Cooperative. With the exception of having outrageous electric bills, my real problem started with them about 2 years ago.
My husband and I were sitting in our living room watching t.V. When our lights got extremely bright and our ceiling fans looked like they were going to fly off our ceiling! We immediately shut off the main power to our house and I then called the Arab Cooperatives emergency number, because this was only affecting my home and my 2 neighbors on either side of me, and this is where the real problems with them started.
When I called it was already around 9 P.M. And the man that I finally got ahold of was very rude asking me if I was sure that it couldn't wait till tomorrow? I obviously told him no and after basically having to argue with him he said that he would send someone out to check it.
The crew arrived about an hour later and the first thing they did was check my meter to make sure it wasn't bad (even though my neighbors were also having the same problem), and of course my meter was fine. They then found that the problem was a faulty ground wire that was attached to the transformer was causing our electric to come straight through to my home. After they fixed the problem, they had me check to be sure everything inside my home was okay, and that's when I found out that do to the huge surge, our brand new t.V. And computer along with the surge protectors they had been on were all fried! The guys told me to file a claim with the cooperative and that their insurance should cover it since it wasn't due to the wiring in my home.
The next day I called them and filed my claim and then the waiting began, it took almost 2 months for them to get back to me! They told me that the insurance company denied the claim because it wasn't considered negligence on the part of Arab Electric Cooperative. Well then, whose negligence was it? Am I supposed to be the one to go out to the pole and make sure that the ground wire is connected to the transformer? I always thought that part of their job was to periodically check things like this, but I guess I was wrong! It makes me wonder what would have happened if I wasn't at home? Would my house have burned down? I guess if it would have that wouldn't have been due to negligence on their part either!
I have thought about suing over this'll but that would cost way more than the price of my t.V. And computer, and I don't have the money to do it. I just want to warn people that if you get your electricity from Arab Electric Cooperative, maybe you need to start checking your own lines, because they sure aren't going to make sure that the lines are safe!
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