The Tribune

By RIEL MAJOR

Tribune Staff Reporter

rmajor@tribunemedia.net

AS many New Providence residents criticised Bahamas Power and Light for load shedding, one man claimed power failures left him without electricity for more than eight hours on Tuesday.

The resident, who did not want to be named, said: “I got home after 6pm and it came on after 3am for about an hour then went back off again. That heat in the night is no joke. The only thing BPL saying is load shedding...they need to do better man. I think we deserve some kind of compensation because this is ridiculous.”

Other customers took to Facebook to complain and called for compensation.

One person complained: “Don’t just apologise, cut people light bill in half this month as compensation for what you call ‘unacceptable power conditions.’ This is grossly unacceptable.”

Another customer said: “Firstly, you didn’t even apologise for totally not keeping to your fool-hardy promise of no load shedding this summer so secondly, everything in this long-winded empty missive is moot.”

Another added: “Ok so you apologised, now what? No form of deduction or compensation offered? Nothing? So y’all just expect us to accept y’all meaningless apology?

“I need compensation for cruel and unfair treatment. I don’t owe (BPL) a penny and to get this type of treatment is unacceptable.”

Earlier this week, BPL executives urged consumers to submit claims in instances where they believe frequent disruptions might have damaged appliances. And as load shedding is expected to continue for several more days, the company is also making an appeal for consumers to save energy.

Acting chief operating officer Ian Pratt said consumers may find the claims process tedious but said it must be followed in order to determine whether appliances can be fixed or replaced.

BPL chairman Donovan Moxey further apologised for such occurrences.