Scheduled SDG&E Outage Leaves a Bad Taste at Riviera Supper Club

Sam Chammas was planning a good night of business last Friday at his Riviera Supper Club on University Avenue. But then the lights went out.

“It was a full bar and restaurant, and the bar was set to go past midnight, which it does when the Baja Bugs play (BTW, they are real popular in La Mesa, and do early Liverpool/Cavern-era Beatles),” he said Tuesday via email.

But a planned outage by San Diego Gas & Electric Co. to 2,800 customers caught him and his staff off guard.

“Neighbors came in earlier and asked if we knew about a planned outage, and it was the first we had heard about it,” he said in an initial note to Patch last Saturday.  “I have my managers looking for any letters, or phone messages and we have found nothing so far.”

By Tuesday, he still couldn’t find a warning letter from SDG&E.

“This action by SDG&E cost us over $1,000 in lost sales and damaged customer goodwill,” he said. “Yes, it was awful.  Riviera was having a great night.  I hope the customers that had to cut their night short will return.”

Chammas said he’s spoken with Karen Bennett, SDG&E’s planned outage coordinator, and filed a claim for losses from the outage. 

“A claims person will contact me in a few days,” he said.

SDG&E spokeswoman Allison Zaragoza said all 2,800 customers in the area of University and Baltimore Drive had received letters dated Feb. 14 about the planned outage, starting at 10 p.m. and expected to end to 8 a.m.

In fact, work to repair and replace switching equipment and cables was finished early. Power was restored about 5 a.m., she said.

“He should have received something,” Zaragoza said Tuesday of the warning letter (attached).

However, Chammas said: “According to SDG&E's records, notices were mailed out Feb 14th. Some of our neighbors received them, but we at Riviera did not.”

He also wasn’t happy with how he was treated four days after the outage.

“I spoke on [the] phone for about 20 minutes [Tuesday] with Karen Bennett, the outage coordinator,” he said. “She was a stone wall when it came to getting information.  Her boss is supervisor Michael Lavas, but I did not talk with him.”

Chammas said his bookkeeper and manager are estimating their loss.

He said a first outage occurred at 10 p.m. and lasted a minute.

“Then we were told 11 p.m. would be the long-term outage, but that meant we had to start closing tabs and putting food away at 10:30 p.m.,” he said.
 
Chammas said he also is contacting Don Parent, the SDG&E liaison with the city of La Mesa, who helped Riviera last year when SDG&E scheduled a similar outage on another Friday—Dec. 10, 2010.

“On that date, a 10 p.m. cutoff was scheduled, but  [La Mesa Mayor] Art Madrid and Don Parent were able to negotiate us [a delay] till midnight, which saved the night.”

He said this leads to another complaint: “If shutting us down at 10 p.m. a year ago was not a good idea and hurt a small business, then why would SDG&E do it again?”

Zaragoza, the utility spokeswoman, said Tuesday afternoon: “As far as I’m aware, we haven’t received any complaints about the outage,” but indicated SDG&E would look into the Riviera complaint.

She said SDG&E does planned outages “all the time,” and called Friday and Saturday’s work “routine.”

Maintenance done during these outages aims to keep customers from experiencing unplanned outages, Zaragoza said in a phone interview.
 
The letter to customers began:

“As part of our commitment to working every day to deliver the energy our customers need, we perform regular maintenance and make improvements to our power lines and related equipment.”

The letter, signed by Bennett, concluded:

“Thank you for understanding and we apologize for any inconvenience this planned outage may cause. Please call me if you have any questions or concerns.”