How to deal with PECO Energy in Philadelphia ?

[Eli M.]

Hey there,

so after reading so many articles on BP about investing in real estate, i decided to invest in Philly and bought a one family house to renovate and rent it out to a section 8 tenant.

Evidently, there's a law in Philadelphia that if the electricity was turned off for more than 6 months, one has to reapply again and have a third party underwriter report, and only then PECO will connect the service. So, i did all of that and they were supposed to turn on my service remotely but later they found out they can't do remotely, they will have to send a technician in to change the meter and connect the electricity. sure enough,on that day no one showed up, they told me they will send another one within 72 hours..... no one showed up... i spoke with the senior supervisor he told me he will send someone, a technician came but he couldn't connect the service because the electric wire were cut. PECO told me they will send an emergency team to connect the wires but guess what ???? no one came.....

I lost few weeks already and each day cost me $150 to have a person at the property waiting for PECO technician.....

what can i do? whom do i have to talk to? where can i complain ?  

thank you all in advance, would really appreciate any advice and input 

[Ethan Giller]

Request that the technician calls you when he's on his way, and put the property on a lockbox.  Sometimes the phone operators will take the lockbox code from you when you schedule the appointment, sometimes they will tell you that you have to have someone meet the technician.  Regardless, when the technician calls you, just give him the lockbox code and he will usually go in anyway despite what they told you over the phone.

You should be able to have a contractor there anyway, working off a generator if necessary.  The contractor can let in the technician.