DTE credit amount causes outrage with customers left in the dark
(CBS DETROIT) – DTE Energy is giving out $35 dollars credits for those without power for more than four days, but a lot of customers are disappointed with that amount.
"They had crews all over the neighborhood. But yet, there were none in this immediate area. None," Willford Craven, a resident in Detroit's Carbon Works neighborhood, said.
It wasn't until today Craven saw restoration crews on his block almost a week after an ice storm swept through, leaving hundreds of thousands of people in the dark.
"My children have been sick the whole time because how do you keep your house comfortable on a generator? I mean, it's not acceptable, it's not okay," Craven said.
DTE Energy has said they'll give out $35 in credit to those without power for more than four days by using its meter system to determine who is eligible.
Several customers told CBS News Detroit that amount is ridiculously low.
"What's $35 going to do? I lost 200 dollars in food. What's that going to do for me?" Carmen Barrera, another resident, said.
It doesn't even come close to covering the almost $1,200 Carolyn Bryant spent on a generator so she could salvage some of the food in the freezer and keep her family of eight warm.
"They need to do better by their customers. They [DTE] want to charge us top dollar. They need to start putting, new stuff in here," Bryant said.
That feeling is mutual at 'We The People Michigan.'
"So the way that we see like this past week is this is a failure of a monopoly, investor-owned utility entirely failing its customers not having a grid that's up to date," Kamau Jawara, the Detroit organizer for We The People Michigan, said.
Like some lawmakers, the group would like to see customers affected by the outages get reimbursed by the hour.
"So for the longer time that folks are out of power, they're receiving more money, more compensation, directly to them as customers that they can use for replacing groceries or reimbursing themselves for hotel costs, Jawara said.
In the meantime, frustrations are reaching a fever pitch.
"I don't know what to do no more. This is ridiculous," Barrera said.
CBS News Detroit did ask DTE Energy if there are any plans to increase the amount or provide another way to reimburse customers, in a statement via a spokesperson, DTE Energy wrote:
"We know that we cannot make up for the inconvenience caused by the February 22 ice storm, which was the second-worst storm in terms of outages in DTE's history. We have increased our outage credit to $35 and are automatically applying it to the accounts of customers who were without power for longer than 96 hours due to this storm, or if this was their sixth outage in the past 12 months. Customers will receive the credit twice if they meet both conditions. DTE is implementing this credit increase -- which is higher than required by the MPSC -- and our easier, automated process which removes the need for the customer to apply, in light of the severity of the February 22 storm. Those who qualify will receive communication notifying them they are receiving the credit. It may take up to 90 days for the credit to appear on their bill."