Consumers Energy is the worst power firm in the United States

Incompetence thy name is Consumers Powers/Consumers Energy! Since moving back to Michigan I have lost power so many times that I have stopped setting clocks until the power has been on for 24 hours or more.
I was born in Flint, Michigan in 1969 and during the first 18 years of my life the local power utility was called Consumers Powers and they were tolerably competent. Over the years they have changed their name and lost their ability to maintain a steady power supply to their customers. The only other change since 1969 has been an insane increase in price. If the price is increasing due to energy costs, there is no justification for also dropping service standards.
Let's address their failings point by point. The most important things for a utility firm is to provide;
1. Safety
2. The Utility Service itself
3. Consumer needs
and from the perspective of this consumer let's rate them for their performance since February 2003 when I came back to Michigan.
1. Fail – Line maintenance is infrequent to non-existent
2. Fail – Frequent outages, lack of personnel to handle outages.
3. Fail – Not responsive to consumer needs

First, let's address the safety issues. The weather in Michigan represents a unique challenge for anyone providing power and I recognize this fact. But that makes the failure to provide adequate preventative maintenance even more appalling. Consumers Energy can talk about dimes spent in maintaining right of ways and lines but the fact is that they are not spending enough. If they spent some of their PR budget on fixing lines instead of reporting on how great they are doing, perhaps they could perform to needed levels. Talking loudly and working less is not the solution. I do have to admit, their problem discovery plan seems to be effective; they wait for the cold or the winds and when a line fails then they respond. If the trees cause problems in an area THEN they fix them. This causes numerous safety related problems, from the live lines on the ground to freeze hazards, danger to hospitals having to go to backup power, loss of home medical equipment, etc. The hazards of waiting for a failure to fix things cannot be understated.
This leads to the second point because while I am sure it appears to be smart on one level, it probably involves yet another MBA who thinks about nothing except bottom lines. However they make the problem worse by (most likely) another MBA making poor choices and as such they do not staff adequate repair crews leading to extended safety hazards and hardships on their customers. My city has even began to bill them for the countless hours our fire and police personnel spend guarding the problems that Consumers Energy has caused.
When my power went out recently it was due to damage to the transformer behind my house that was struck by a tree limb that has needed for trimming for years. I listed specifically what the damage was, the area of effect, and what was visibly damaged. For anyone with the knowledge this will require the standard truck with a lift and about 30 minutes to repair. I waited patiently until the 12th hour of the outage (not having even seen a truck at that point, and being fully aware that the fix could not happen without a truck showing up) and called them back. The woman who answered their customer support line gave me nothing but excuses and poorly scripted lies. It was clear the scope of any problem is beyond their capacity to handle and she even tried to note hospitals and nursing homes are first priority over the 48 homes without power on my street. She tossed out excuses stating that they had to do it in order of number of customers effected, this means to me that multiple families can go without power without even an attempt being made to examine the problem. The fact is that 24 hours later they still have not had a single tech look into the issue. I fully understand priorities but this is inexcusable in light of 40 degree temps last night (if it had happened in December it could have been -20 below in Michigan) and points to negligence that nears criminal in both fact and intent.
Which leads to my last point, their failure to respond to consumer needs. My house has two separate meters outside, both ugly and unsightly, both located where they have to enter my backyard to read the meter. This is because it is a legacy system and there is no clear plan to upgrade these. Even the third world level of technology at City Hall manages to have wireless water meters. The electric company has had a profit last year of over $10 million; even when you weight that with prior years profits, they are still running in the black by millions of dollars. Financial Data” for Consumers Energy from public record clearly shows that they're making their shareholders happy while causing their customers to suffer. This is inexcusable! A lack of regular equipment upgrades and adequate staffing means that their goal is purely profit related and while this may be acceptable for some businesses, monopolies should not be allowed to operate this way. Our wonderfully ignorant and corrupt politicians sponsored by the UAW have been so inept over the last 50 years collectively that we have no free choice for power, water, natural gas, phone service or cable providers. I have to wonder how many jobs after office, jobs for the Billy Carter types, and pure cash payments have been involved in letting the power grid in my area decline to its current level. A level that makes me envy many second and third world nations along with all of Europe and Asia.
But there are no choices, and the true consumers are the only ones suffering. What makes this even more clear to me is that after serving 8 years in the military, and living 8 years in Cincinnati, is that the local residents do not understand just how pathetic of a service they receive from Consumers Energy. I never experienced more than one outage in 8 years living in Cincinnati ( and that lasted 15 minutes during a F4 tornado) I never lost power in Italy, Germany, Colorado Springs, Indianapolis, Huntsville, or even at Fort Dix New Jersey, but here it is a fact of life. We managed to do better with field generators in areas without any power infrastructure than Consumers does with decades of infrastructure work.
I hereby curse the board, managers, and even the shareholders of Consumers Energy! I hope they have nothing but a miserable year, faithless spouses, pregnant daughters who cannot name the father, worthless sons who wreck their lives and impregnate others daughters, increasing debt, high interest rates, and the lives they deserve. I also express the same curse on the past and present Governor, legislative reps both federal and state, the county commissioners, the mayor and the city council of Flint, Michigan. I may forgive them when they decide to actually serve the public good.