BOY DID THEY NAME THAT COMPANY RIGHT!
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The way that Clark Public Utilities has chosen to treat their customers stinks. About 18 years ago they talked us into buying a water heater replacement program. They told us that for only about $3.00 a month we could get a new water heater if our current one ever went bad. I don't like extended warranties and told them that. They assured both me and my wife that this was much better than extended warranty as this was not only a "lifetime" repair or replacement guaranty but it was backed by "CLARK COUNTY UTILITIES" and not some fly by night appliance or insurance company (that may not have been their exact words but that was the EXACT implication). I remember very distinctly that since I don't like extended warranties and also since our water was almost BRAND NEW but my wife wanted the coverage because the Clark PU (boy, did they name that company right!) kept reminding us that this was a very low minimal amount of money for a lifetime of protection.

WHAT HAPPENED?

  • Clark County Public Utilities sold a bunch of us lifetime guaranties on water heaters.

  • Many of us had new water heaters and did not need guaranties but they told us things like: "That's why the rate is so cheap. You may not have problems in the next few years but at some point you will. It's not "if" your water will fail but "when" it will fail and when it does we'll fix it or give you a brand new one. (not an exact quote but essentially what they told us when they talked us into buying this worthless guaranty).

  • Then after paying this monthly fee for about 18 years and now that our water heater is on it's last legs and they know that any day they'll have to give us a new one THEY END THE PROGRAM! HERE IS A COPY OF THE LETTER THEY SENT US:

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE ENTIRE LETTER

Here is what the Columbian Newspaper had to say about the event:

Repair service backers angry

Friday, March 21, 2008
By COURTNEY SHERWOOD, Columbian Staff Writer

After fighting for years to keep Clark Public Utilities’ guaranteed hot water and appliance repair services alive, dozens of people across the county say they feel betrayed by the utility’s decision Tuesday to end those programs.

“It stuns me that there wasn’t a public forum,” said Robert Freund, a Vancouver contractor. “It’s been a great service all these years, and maybe we could have found a way to keep it alive.”

Utility commissioners on Tuesday voted 2-1 to discontinue .................. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE STORY

This is what the Clark Public Utilities had to say on their website about this event:

News Release - March 18, 2008

For more information:
Mick Shutt, 360-992-3238

Utility repair service to close

March 18, 2008

After a lengthy discussion today, the Clark Public Utilities Board of Commissioners voted to close the utility’s Appliance Repair Service after more than 50 years of operation.

Once a popular service with customers, the service has suffered  .................. CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THEIR STORY

Please note that we have not received anything from the Columbian Newspaper stating that they have taken sides with Clark Public Utilities or us on this issue. The letter we are posting was just their coverage of the event. We have posted it without obtaining from the Columbian and will remove it if asked to do so. We are not trying to steal anyone's copyrighted materials. Rather we are trying to give Clark Citizens the truth about what is going on here. Thanks to the Columbian Newspaper for the informative article and if they choose to allow us to keep it posted here we appreciate that too.
COMMENT: Clark PU (boy, did they name that company right!) never sold us this marvelous plan as an insurance that was just meant to bring us some months of coverage. It was sold to us under no uncertain terms as a "lifetime guaranty" for our water heater. So we bought in to the plan knowing full well that our water was brand new and that they tend to last from 15 to 30 years (depending on who you ask) but knowing that sometime down the line it would go bad. WE KNEW IT WAS NOT GOING TO GO BAD THE FIRST 10 OR 15 YEARS. THEY NEVER GO BAD IN THE FIRST 10 OR 15 YEARS. But we paid every month anyway because we (mostly my wife) knew at some time down the road that we would recover all or part of our monthly investments. We were paying for a lifetime guaranty. We made payments every 30 days for 18 years (approximately) knowing that it was very likely that it would be during years 15 to 30 before we'd get any return. So in year 18 (approximately) they tell us now that the odds are in our favor that they don't want to cover the water heater any more. Because they didn't make enough money on the 18 years of payments we've been making.

If Costco or BEST BUY or Safeway or Ron Tonkin Motors or some business like that pulled something like this, everybody would just quit doing business with them. The attorney General would prosecute them, the Better Business Bureau would list their bad deeds and they would eventually go broke. But the electric company doesn't have any competition. You have to do business with them and they can do business as they please. If you don't like it too bad. They know that they are the only electric company in town and that's why they are so arrogant. They get together on things like this and they vote.  They don't let the public know they are having the meetings and they don't let the public have any say. And then they have the arrogance to make statements like " .... we apologize for any inconvenience this change may have caused you ... " as if losing a whole bunch of money was an "inconvenience." I got news for them. Losing a lot of money is not an "inconvenience." It's a hardship. What planet could these arrogant people be living on. I mean it's like a robber grabbing your purse on the street and as he runs away he yells "sorry for any inconvenience me taking your money has caused you!"

And to make things worse, I guess you could say to add insult to injury they are now trying to refer to this program as if it were a monthly protection plan like car insurance. They are trying to infer that we had coverage during a specified time so we did receive a value. Absolute BALONEY! That is a complete misrepresentation of what we were offered when we signed up for the program. We signed up for a lifetime program. It was represented to us as more of a "life insurance" and that maybe our water heater would last a long time and maybe it wouldn't but at some point they'd give us a new one. What they did to us would compare to buying life insurance for several years and just when you were getting to a point where you may need it, the company said "we are ending the program and we will not give you any refunds and we are sorry for the inconvenience."


We're The Clark Public Utilities and we do what we want, when we want. Nobody has any say and our motto is: "If you don't like it buy your electricity somewhere else!"

 WHY THEY THINK
WE CAN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT THIS
Clark PU (boy, did they name that company right!) runs the show and so they can make the rules and change the rules as they go along. They control everything and we cannot buy electricity from anyone so we have no alternatives.

WHY I KNOW
WE CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS
We have each other and the Internet. we can communicate by email and we don't even have to hold big meetings. If we can get enough of us together with a similar mindset we can then go into action. Once we get enough people we can start asking for everyone to submit ideas of the best actions to take. Actions could be a class action lawsuit, separate small claims court lawsuits. Contacting public officials in mass, utilities commissioner etc. and asking for attorneys help on contingency basis.
The bottom line is that we just need to get enough people together and then decide on the best course of action based on how many people we have and what resources we have available.

IF WHEN CLARK PU (boy, did they name that company right!) WAS SELLING US THIS LIFETIME GUARANTY THEY WOULD HAVE TOLD US "Well, let's see, you give us about $3.00 a month for the next 18 years and we'll keep it and invest it and earn interest on it and then we'll end the program and tell you to take a hike ..... errr make that we'll thank you for your participation and apologize for any inconvenience our taking your money may have caused you" I'd have told them to take a hike.

OK, what can we do to get our money back? Well, we can all write the appropriate depts. and call our senators and I will be listing some of that contact info on this website soon. But rather than everyone flying off in different directions, I feel it might be best to first unite and see how many people we can actually get together. Once we have some numbers we can then decide on the best course of action. Options could include:

  • Picketing the Clark PU (boy, did they name that company right!).

  • Contacting the Public Utilities Commissioner.

  • Contacting state or federal legal authorities.

  • Hiring a group attorney for a class action lawsuit. 

  • Going in mass and filing individual small claims law suits.

  • Flooding their phone lines with calls about how we feel they are treating customers.

  • Seeing that those responsible for the recent decisions to close these programs and not let anyone voice their opinions are fined or fired.

  • Obtain from Clark PU (boy, did they name that company right!) a list of all their customers who were involved in this program.

  • Obtain from Clark PU (boy, did they name that company right!) an actual accounting of what happened to all the money.

  • MORE .... I'm sure we can come up with more ideas if we get enough people to put their heads together.

And there are unlimited additional things we may be able to do if we can just get a few heads together, see how many people were affected by this and exchanging options. We can begin by exchanging ideas, maybe seeing what it takes to get a list of all the people who were on this program so we can contact them all.

NOTICE:
Do NOT send us donations! We have already received some donations and several offers to donate. We are not an established charity or non-profit organization and we have no ethical was to accept any donations. We don not have a lot of expenses and we will be looking for an attorney to handle this on a contingency basis sp PLEASE DO NOT SEND ANY MONEY. It will just be more work and postage returning your checks.

 

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