We certainly needed patience last Monday at 3am when I reported a power failure.

We waited 15 minutes to get through, but at 9 am our postcode was still listed as having no outages.

The recorded message was no longer “we are experiencing long delays” but “we are in an emergency situation. Unless it is a life-threatening situation, hang up now.”

A neighbour phoned Powercor at 9am, explaining powerlines were lying across the road.

The recorded message promised 15 minutes, but it took an hour to get through. She also phoned the police and SES.

Powercor’s messages didn’t change. At 11.30am, council workers blocked the road with a fallen tree and left. At 3pm Powercor arrived to repair the damage.

As usual, the crew did a fine job.

The storm was forecast days in advance, yet the Powercor call centre in Bendigo had only three staff on duty at 3am.

Recorded information for our postcode was invariably wrong.

The waiting times given had no relation to reality. If and when you did get through, no accurate information was available.

All people want to know is roughly when the outage will be fixed.

Powercor’s communication simply doesn’t work.

It was overwhelmed with calls precisely because it didn’t give basic information.

FRANK CAMPBELL,

Elmhurst