Poor service ORMECO

ORMECO’s management always boast of the awards they get, besting other electric cooperatives in the country, but such accolade is a blatant lie especially to residents of Puerto Galera.

Yes they have an efficient billing and collection system; we, consumers, pay our bills on time which make ORMECO a top earner among its rank. But ORMECO fails miserably in providing the very reason why it exists, in providing reliable, stable power supply.

It is a given that if one establishes a business in Puerto Galera, he or she needs a backup generator for the business to survive. Such unreliable, erratic service is more evident during the summer peak tourist season with not only frequent brownouts but also voltage fluctuations occuring and affecting all business establishments.

This summer is no exception as brownouts plague Puerto Galera throughout the season. Many also report that either power surges or the low power voltage as the main culprit in damaging expensive electric devices and equipment which no one has dared ORMECO to pay for, at least officially. In social media, ORMECO is the most hated, most complained about service in the entire Puerto Galera.

The reason for such distaste is that ORMECO never improves its customer service relations to Puerto Galera consumers, its second biggest source of income in the province. Calling the ORMECO hotline is not reliable; sometimes they answer, most of the time they don’t. And when the brownout happens late night or early morning, one can only expect the repair after many hours of no electricity.

It is never a 24/7 service, not enough repair and maintenance crews, over-all, very poor service.

ORMECO’s excuses are varied. They blame the power supplier but most of the time the brownouts occur because a tree branch fell on their distribution line which could be avoided if they regularly do clearing and preventive maintenance operations. The excuses could be acceptable if ORMECO do not have the funds to run a better, efficient, service-oriented electric cooperative, but the thing is, they got millions of pesos of income and yet their service plainly sucks.

It is apparent that the voice of Puerto Galera is not heard in the board meeting of ORMECO. The feeling of helplessness must end.

And it will end if the numerous complaining consumers will act instead of just talk. But who will lead us. The guy who is supposed to represent Puerto Galera in the ORMECO board is from Baco and he seems nonchalant amidst all the consternation.

Even if the local government has nothing to do with ORMECO, yet they get blamed also, we ask the Mayor to spearhead a dialogue with the management of ORMECO to improve their service in Puerto Galera – better customer relations, a working hotline, 24/7 repair crews and effective communication system, announcing as much as possible a brownout before it occurs.