LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — An NV Power buyer hopes the corporate adjustments its notification insurance policies after it despatched her a letter earlier than mistakenly slicing her energy. Then it nearly occurred once more.
LaShanna Butler returned house from trip final fall to search out her energy off.
“At 1 a.m., I flipped the switch over here — no power,” she mentioned, including she needed to substitute practically every part in her fridge and freezer. “Pretty much all this stuff here had to be replaced.”
She referred to as NV Power and realized the outage was not her fault.
“Their response was someone called and said someone was moving in,” Butler mentioned. “I said, ‘You never talked to me.’”
A consultant then informed Butler they despatched her a letter saying one other buyer requested for service on the identical tackle. Butler confirmed the 8 Information Now Investigators the letter, dated Oct. 6, which mentioned energy can be minimize the next day, Oct. 7.
“Their response to that was, ‘We got a new move-in request in your unit, and we can’t deny service,’” Butler mentioned.
“You didn’t talk directly to me,” Butler mentioned she informed the consultant, she mentioned.
Just a few months later, one other letter arrived. The second letter, dated Jan. 18, mentioned energy can be shut off sooner or later earlier on Jan. 17. The postmark on the letter reveals it was mailed on Jan. 21.
“So, you’re going to cut my power off on the 17th, but you don’t even mail it until the 21st — that’s four days later,” Butler mentioned.
“How much of an inconvenience was this?” 8 Information Now Investigator David Charns requested Butler.
“Constantly having to call and take time out of my day,” she mentioned. “If you can send a bill through email and if you can text me when my bill is paid, certainly a letter is not sufficient in 2025.”
The Nevada Public Utilities Fee doesn’t monitor electrical energy startups and shutoffs, however complaints about them. Knowledge the 8 Information Now Investigators obtained by way of a information request reveals the PUC acquired 224 disconnection complaints from 2018 to 2024. Every grievance doesn’t essentially imply the disconnection was improper, and never all contain NV Power.
“I want change to be implemented with how they contact their current customers and how they let them know, ‘Hey, I just wanted to reach out to you, Ms. Butler. Did you happen to vacate your address?’ That’s all it takes,” Butler mentioned. “If I don’t answer the phone call, leave a voicemail. I guarantee you, if you call me and say your power is going to be shut off in three days, I’m calling you.”
NV Power can solely deny new service requests in “very limited circumstances,” a spokesperson mentioned citing Nevada Administrative Code.
“Sometimes, new residents will request to set up service and will use the wrong address or unit number,” the spokesperson mentioned. “If someone requests new service when there’s a customer still on record with existing service at that address, we do issue a letter to the existing customer, advising them of the request for new service at the address and asking them to call us if they feel that is happening in error.”
After the 8 Information Now Investigators acquired concerned, the corporate supplied Butler a credit score attributable to her inconvenience. Butler hopes her story adjustments the state code and the corporate’s notification insurance policies.
8 Information Now Investigator David Charns could be reached at [email protected].
