Palm Desert man threatens class action lawsuit against So Cal Edison
Ray Russo says he is ready and willing to file a class action lawsuit against So Cal Edison.
“I’m angry. i don’t like being inconveninced like this every summer,” said Russo.
It all comes in response to a power outage, which happened in Russo’s Palm Desert neighborhood the weekend of August 18th and 19th.
He contends he and his neighbors have endured similar outages in recent years.
“That weekend was 111 degrees, north of 110,” said Russo.
During the August outage, Russo says he saw So Cal Edison crews working on equipment at the corner of Highway 74 and Shadow Mountain Drive.
“We were two days without power, two and a half,” said Russo.
Russo says an Edison manager at the site told him the frequent outages in the neighborhood were because of aging Edison infrastructure that needed to be replaced.
Russo says he was also told Edison has money set aside to upgrade old equipment. but in this case, wasn’t doing it.
“Mainly what comes to mind is So Cal Edison’s complete disregard for its clients,” said Russo.
Fueled by frustration, Russo says he wrote complaint letters to Congressman Ruiz and to the California Public Utilities Commission.
The PUC wrote back saying it would take 45 days for an investigation.
He also wrote a letter to Edision, saying he “won’t pay” his bill until he gets a “satisfactory response”.
“I just want this fixed. We should not have to to go though this every single year,” said Russo.
We contacted Edison to get their response, and a media relations represenative was not availalble to comment on camera, but did provide a detailed written response.
The email read, in part:.
“This neighborhood has not had repeated emergency outages and our inspectors have not identified any significant problems so no replacement work or upgrade is planned at this time.”
“The company … has undertaken a major maintenance program, spending $4 billion system-wide this year doing capital improvements, including 500 maintenance outages for upgrades in the palm springs area.”
“You know, we pay good money for our utility rates,” said Russo.
Not getting the answer he hoped for, Russo says he will follow through with a class action lawsuit against the utility.
“I’m going to go after them if they won’t fix it,” said Russo.
We will continue to follow Russo in his efforts to find resolution to his complaint.
Anyone interested in contacting Russo, can do so using his emai address: rrusso.moneymaestro@virtuosocm.com
For anyone who might have a complaint against an electrical provider, or other utility, the complaint can be filed that with the California Public Utilties commission.
Click here to contact the PUC.
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