It's pretty tough to do much of anything these days without electricity. So imagine trying to run a business, let alone a doctors office that does surgical procedures.
One doctor says he has been trying to open a new office since last year, but CPS Energy would not put on his service. When he reached the end of his line, he got on the line with Call KENS.
"Our move-in date went from Halloween to Thanksgiving, to Christmas, and now here we are in mid-February and we still don't have power," Dr. Dallas Homas said.
Homas says CPS Energy did a site visit in February of last year and told the contractor what they wouuld need to get power to the building. Since that time, Homas says they've had three different CPS Energy project managers and the requirements keep changing.
"The box is the wrong box, because the box is for a 350 amp service, not a 300 amp service. 'You need to change it.' And then weeks would go by. And then, you put the wrong conduit in the ground and it's because they never told what conduit to put it, you see. And it's like, 'look, what do we need to do so you can finish this for us?' And then no response," Homas said.
According to the doctor, crews did come out and put in a new pole and transformers, but he can't get them to run the 50-feet of wire to the box. Now, he says he can't even get a manager to return a call.
"How can a senior executive never return a phone call? If I did my business the way they're doing their business…I'd be out of business," Dr. Homas said.
The doctor is operating at his current location, but he says he is bleeding money...around $30,000 per month.
"It's lost revenue, I'm paying the bank. I'm paying rent at my current location. So it's double costs for everything we're doing because we can't occupy here. So it's significant," Homas said.
KENS 5 called and emailed CPS Energy and they sent a statement giving a different story. It said:
"The customer was not ready to safely receive power at his site until today. We recently received feedback from the customer's electrician that the proper work has been done to allow us to energize the customer. We intend on energizing the customer tomorrow."
Then Wednesday we received another email saying the contractor would not be finished with the work needed until the end of the week and the power would be turned on then.
Then late Thursday the Dr. texted me and said the work needed had been completed and CPS Energy turn on the power to the building.
The doctor said they just need six more weeks and they will be ready to receive customers by April.
If you have a problem like this, we want to help you fix it! In our new series, Call KENS, we do our best to solve problems for our viewers. The number is call is 210-470-KENS, or fill out the form on this page.