After weeks, dozens of phone calls, paperwork and fees, miscommunication, misunderstandings and mistakes, Xcel finally showed up to disconnect the power from my house and connect it to the temp pole that was erected in the back yard (and inspected by the city) in mid March. Hallelujah! I had all but given up hope.
What’s that? Oh yes, Xcel. Not the Q3, the company that Xcel had insisted was responsible for scheduling the appointment and doing the work. Can anyone say “back pedal” again?
To summarize:
Xcel was called in Feb and asked for the procedure for moving main power from house during construction. Ken was assured by an employee at Xcel that no paperwork was required for a little residence like mine, but just to erect the pole, have it inspected by the City and signed off. They would then send the work order from the inspection desk to Xcel and Xcel would send a person out to move the power. Easy peasy.
In reality, the pole was inspected and no work order was received by Xcel from the City. Xcel later blamed Ken for not filling out the appropriate paperwork and used that as an excuse for not being able to “see” the work order that the City had actually sent, at all. We were told on several occasions that once the work order was able to be seen (because it could be linked to an account that needed to be open, using the paperwork and a fee, of course) it would be passed to Q3, a subcontractor, because Xcel doesn’t do this type of work. A project manager at Q3 would assign the job to workman and at that time, more info on a timeline for getting the job done, would be forthcoming – if you called back again and asked! How many people did this work order have to go through? I believe it was 6, actually.
Time passed and while the house continued to be demo’d around the existing jerry-rigged power main, we were fast approaching the time when framing would have to be delayed to accommodate the now dodgy looking, power supply. As my grandfather used to say “too many chiefs and not enough indians!” Lots of people delegating the power relocation to others, no-one actually doing it.
March 15th: Temp pole erected, inspected and ready for Xcel to move power from house.
March 30th: The job must go on, so the brick and frame wall of the back room came down and the power took up residence on a 2 x 4 at corner of original house.
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April 6th: The 2 x 4 had to be shored up as the ground under it was excavated and foundation poured around it.
April 15th: With crawlspace now complete, work began to frame for flooring and walls. Power meter still affixed to 2 x 4 and stabilized with construction leftovers!
April 17th: BINGO! Xcel arrives to move power to temp pole!
And so it is with great pleasure I announce… The ability to proceed! With that will come pics of framing and roof removal and all sorts of exciting milestones. 🙂
In the meantime, I’d like to award Gold Stars to my team; Ken for his patience and persistence in the face of changing information and frustrating delays. Joe and Aaron, for McGyver-style genius in safely working around a very dodgy looking power supply. Good job chaps!
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