The week before Christmas, we get an unexpected knock on the door. It's DTE, here to change our electricity meter. So, we had to power down 6 computers and accommodate their very busy schedule according to the not so friendly DTE employee.
About two minutes later, they left without a word and we went on with our day. Keep in mind, we produce video and when shutting down and powering up computers, we lost about 15 to 20 minutes. Multiply that by hourly pay lost and it’s a fair sum of money. Oh well, on with the show. I did not think anything of it and it soon left my consciousness, until today.
We got a customer service follow up call asking for feedback. I told them it would have been nice to receive a call in advance letting us know about the meter swap. Then it occurred to me to ask what an automatic meter was. “It allows us to read your meter without having to send somebody to your home,” replied the lady from Minnesota.
I asked how many jobs DTE cut as a result of this automatic meter swap. Her voice changed from business to concerned, she said “I am from Minnesota and here they cut 300 jobs!” Then I had to really express my opinion and ask what was wrong with the old equipment that required changing. She said nothing was wrong, but rather it was a technology update.
As a business owner of a video production company in Detroit Michigan, I know all about technology updates and the cost they have to businesses. What happened to the concept of ‘don’t fix it if it ain’t broke’?
Of course she was only the messenger. I asked her to write down my comments and she kept asking me to hold every time she had to type. Don't you think DTE would record the darn phone calls so they had a better handle on how their customer service teams were operating?
Now I am all about saving money, but let’s multiply how many DTE customers are in our square mile and tally the amount of money DTE generates each month. In a down economy, you would think one of the largest utility companies in Detroit would not want to jeopardize Michigan jobs and lay off 300 Minnesota workers! What’s next? The post office switching to electronic mail delivery to avoid employing mail carriers?
Large companies like DTE need to be supporting the city rather than taking it down by layoffs. Changes like this are not about solving a problem of not making enough money, but rather about how they can earn even more. I would have been quite happy keeping my old meter and watching the reader walk through our fenceless property once a month knowing that DTE Energy was supporting Detroit Michigan jobs instead of installing automatic machines that could take jobs away. So what does a small business owner do to voice his opinion? Write about it in a blog post and hope that everyone who reads it will use social media to voice their opinion.
