phone company negligence

[Dcscanner]

West Virginia - The other day the phone company brought in a backhoe to find a buried cable and hit an underground power line. This caused a power surge which fried several circuit breakers, my microwave, range and a cordless phone. I’m upset because they didn’t call in utility locators to mark out surrounding utilities prior to digging. The phone company is giving me the runaround and keeps transferring me to different people who say that only this one guy could help me. He is always unavailable. This is a brand new house and everything damaged is new. My question is since the phone company is avoiding me, what can I do to get this rectified???

 

[stephenk]

total up the amount of your losses and make an official claim with the company. Are they privately owned or a state/city/county facility? If the latter, you may need to make a written claim for damages before you can sue them.

 

[mandy7181]

I agree with the above post. I am going to tell you something that works. When u get a surge protector get CyberPower, If your equipment is damaged by a surge while plugged in to the surgeprotector, they will replace it(up to $100,000). It is a great surgeprotector and even has a place for phone lines too.

 

[BennyDi]

You can put in a claim under your homeowners or renters insurance (hopefully you have it) and let your insurance company go after the telephone company to be reimbursed (if the loss is covered by your insurance).

 

[blameshifting]

I agree with the above post. I am going to tell you something that works. When u get a surge protector get CyberPower, If your equipment is damaged by a surge while plugged in to the surgeprotector, they will replace it(up to $100,000). It is a great surgeprotector and even has a place for phone lines too.

Be careful with these surge suppressors warranties, they often require you to register the surge suppressor and identify the equipment to be protected within a short period of time after purchase for the warranty to be valid.

In other words, they don't offer automatic protection.

Read the terms of the warranty carefully or you'll likely end up with nothing if your surge suppressor fails to do it's job.