muliaga again!

No becuase I'm not sure we still know all the relevant background.

It was heartbreaking to hear that poor man obviously struggling with his english trying to get the message across and then also a neighbour calling just after the power had been cut off. It sounds like they just couldn't make it clear how desperate thesituation was and a lot of it was due to lack of English skills.

aak yourselves this...whose name is your power, phone sky etc account in???? now - what would happen if that person got sick or was in an accident....have you planned for that???

Unfortunately mercury were doing what all such companies do and cannot release info due to privacy act - to anyone other than the account holder....they were correct in doing that

theres a lesson in that...now go check out whose name your home accounts are in

I remember my grandfather had his own business and some ludicriously expensive cell phone. anyway, he died and Nan rang to cancel it and they wouldn't let her! they said they had to speak to the account holder. nana said "well, he's dead", and they refused to cancel it and said she would be charged everyday until a death certificate was shown. she said, well if the account isn't in my name, and you won't let me cancel it, I suppose I don't have to pay it either..." they then made arrangements.

as for the not allowing people to settle with limited english skills - quite often it is the nervousness with dealing with authority, coupled with the phone (VERY hard to speak a foreign language on the phone - much harder than face-to-face) - so I think his english is probably adequate on a day-to-day basis and the circumstances made it hard to communicate. On the langugae note, being at a high school for six weeks, teaching English - the best girl in the class of kiwi kids was the Thai girl for whom English is a second languae - these kids can barely form full sentences and they were born in this country.

will get off soap box now....

lizzle wrote: On the langugae note, being at a high school for six weeks, teaching English - the best girl in the class of kiwi kids was the Thai girl for whom English is a second languae - these kids can barely form full sentences and they were born in this country. will get off soap box now....

I'm with you there liz, I had actually written (but deleted ) that it's often bad enough trying to understand alot of people for whom english is a first language.

Has anyone seen the new ads on TV with Jonah Lomu 'On behalf of the NZ electricity industry' ?

emz wrote: I feel no compassion for the 'new' information brought to light - no company can, by LAW, release information or let someone act under another's instructions unless the person who's name the account is under has given prior permission. It's as simple as that. It is NOT the power company's fault that these people couldn't understand that. And he was told that was the reason for not being able to do it. It still comes back to the fact that if she was that sick that she couldn't make a simple phone call, then she shouldn't have been at home anyway. They should've taken her to hospital.

i completely agree with you emz, i used to work in the call center for genesis and we CAN NOT give out any information to anyone else other than those listed on the account, for the privacy issue. we also had a system inplace where, if there was a medically dependant person at the home, we requested a med cert to show electricity was needed from a medical point of view, we would then go to extra measures to get in touch with them prior to disconnection.

The family waited for three hours, during that time they could have called an ambulance, asked a neighbour if she could stay at their place to use her machine just until she could call mercury.

i think the whole thing has been truely blown out of proportion, and i have to say i think all parties involved need to move on.