Allegheny Power

So why bother writing a review for the power company? Because anytime you have to deal with a semi-​monopolistic utility — phone company, power company, cable company — it’s just an outrageously miserable experience. Right? Just last week I spent hours going in circles with the phone company simply trying to change the checking account I pay my bill with.
5 stars to Allegheny for the pleasant surprise they delivered when our power went out last week.
Well, kind of went out. It was more of a brown out — some lights would come on, some would only flicker, air conditioning and well pump wouldn’t come on at all. We figured it was the storm the evening before. And we figured they’d be busy, and that it would be awhile before they got to us — since it was only us (our neighbors all had power).
Within an hour of the call, they had a guy at our house troubleshooting. He says «I’m gonna need some backup» … and in another hour or so, there’s 15 guys and half dozen trucks at our house. It turns out some tree had wrapped it roots all around the cable and it was a big mess. The crazy thing was — the tree had been dead and gone for at least 10 years. So who knows why, only now, it finally caused a problem? It certainly wasn’t Allegheny’s fault — yet they got all over it. Within a few hours, they had a temporary line run to restore power. The next day, they came back and put up a new pole so they could route the new line around some existing trees (my sister’s power company instead cut a bunch of trees down at their house). A few days later they came with a trencher and ran a whole new line. They cut the invisible dog fence while doing that … and said «just have it fixed and send us the bill» (not because we pestered them — THEY OFFERED). They called again to schedule a landscape guy to repair the lawn that they trenched.
Let me repeat: we lost power, IT WASN’T ALLEGHENY’S FAULT, and yet they’ve been timely, responsive, proactive, professional and EASY TO DEAL WITH in restoring everything. I might even say it was «painless.»
Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be? And yet when’s the last time you could describe your interaction with any utility as «painless»??
I have no idea if all of Allegheny works this well, or if it’s just our regional office … but someone deserves recognition for a providing a great experience.