SILVER SPRING, Md. (7News) — As the days get colder with the winter months approaching, you would expect to rely on your home being adequately heated. However, one Silver Spring woman went five days without heat after Washington Gas had to shut off her gas for a repair.
7News is On Your Side pressing the company for answers.
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Etoy Hylton, who is a family member of a 7News employee, had to get her gas shut off last week because of a leak in the furnace, meaning her home's heater was also shut off.
It was replaced last Friday, November 17, and Washington Gas told her to be home between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. to wait for a service technician to come over and turn the gas back on.
A Washington Gas employee never came that day. She waited another day, and another day and another day.
"All of a sudden I didn't have any heat and any gas, nothing," Hylton said. "It was very hard because I would be here half the day and [my son] would be here the other half of the day. Nothing was happening. It was cold, and no word from them, so it was very frustrating."
She kept waiting until Tuesday, November 21, before a service technician was able to turn the gas -- and heat -- back on in her home.
In that time, Hylton said Washington Gas never gave her a specific time they would be able to send a technician to her home and they just told her to be home over a long period of time each day.
"I kept calling them and kept saying, 'Okay, give me a timeframe, please, so I know what to do.' They didn't have any timeframe. They just said, 'Sometime today,'" Hylton said.
It got so cold in her home, that she couldn't stay there waiting for Washington Gas to arrive, and couldn't even sleep in her own home.
"I stayed over at a neighbor's house and just looked out because it was a long time," Hylton said. "[I stayed] A couple days with my son and a couple days with my friend who lives near here."
7News On Your Side held Washington Gas' feet to the fire for Hylton's cold week, and asked them the following questions:
- Why can’t you guarantee time frames for techs to service a home?
- How long has this policy been in place?
- Where are all the technicians? Are all of them on gas leak calls?
- How many gas leaks are reported daily?
- What are customers supposed to do to have the company make a priority to not just cut service off, but restore service in a timely manner?
- What are company executives doing to change the issue? Are they even aware?
- Is there a time limit for the company to service customers?
A spokesperson provided the following statement:
Washington Gas does in fact provide timeframes when reconnects are scheduled. They are between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. within 24-48 hours of the appointment, per our regulatory mandates in DC and MD.
Also keep in mind that as we are now entering heating season, customers are turning on their furnaces for the first time in a while which triggers an influx of “no gas” and potential leak calls; each prioritized from a safety standpoint. So in addition to routine maintenance, our personnel respond to those calls on a daily basis.
However, Hylton said she did not get her gas reconnected until five days after she made the request - well beyond the 24-48 hour timeframe referenced in the statement - and she was told to wait longer than the 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. timeframe mentioned.
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She said she thinks Washington Gas needs to update its policies.
"They should have said, 'We'll schedule an appointment for 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock,' or whatever. But they don't do that," Hylton said. "It was cold, and suppose I didn't have family or friends in the area I could have stayed with, then what would I do? I'd have to get money out and stay at a hotel?"
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