I hate AT&T. Which is not a fresh sentiment but I have a new reason to detest it. Its workers were laying cable in my street and somehow made the transformer explode. Now we have no electricity. It’s below freezing, so that’s bad news. The AT&T guy who blew the transformer told me they had no idea how to fix it and just kept digging.
The neighbors next door are having a huge brunch party. The neighbors across the street have a house full of visiting relatives from out of town. They are all very unhappy. Everybody has a fridge full of food for the holidays.
AT&T are dumb fucks.
Clarissa's Blog 
So AT&T workers laying telephone cable somehow blew out a transformer belonging to the power company (perhaps ConEd in your Illinois town) that supplies electricity?? That’s rather bizarre! Somebody will have hell to pay.
LikeLike
Exactly. I have no idea how they did it but the transformer went out with a loud boom. They confessed it was their fault.
LikeLike
First, the location of cables should have been marked. By law, there’s a number for anyone who will be digging (including homeowners) to call and the power company will come out with a spray paint can and mark cable locations. Second, the power company usually can have a crew out and repair a transformer in 2 hours. Has anyone called them? Your cells still work. Third, this has been fairly standard practice here. Verizon, Comcast and PSEG all send crews, and the crews take turns screwing up the other companies’ lines. I’m not sure if that’s intentional, but I’m also not sure that its not. It keeps the contract workers on the clock.
LikeLike
It was repaired eventually. But not after spoiling the neighbors’ party.
The power company wasn’t answer the phone, including the emergency line for almost two hours.
LikeLike
They should simply fire all these contractors and let them go out of business
…and let the professionals take over once again. Let things return to how they were in the past, when those with the aptitude and passion for the trades were the ones hired to perform specialized tasks, instead of all these money-hungry make-shift contractor outfits with their poorly-trained-but-wiling-to-accept-less-pay temporary worker hacks.
LikeLike