Certain Pacific Gas & Electric customers were pleased to be gifted a $200 gift card — from either Visa or Safeway — as a consolation for having been without power for an extended period of time Sunday at the Rood Government Center in Nevada City.
“We looked at ways to offer support for customers on the longest outage,” said Paul Moreno, spokesman for PG&E. “These customers were contacted on Saturday; we did not expect them to have power restored by Saturday. We thought it would be for a longer period.”
However, power was restored to these customers, who were notified by phone that the giveaway would be taking place.
Moreno couldn’t say how many cards were handed out, only that the gas and electric company handed out as many cards as they had. The cards were distributed from a blue Sprinter van in the lot of the building with the words “mobile command” on it.
“The decision to offer gift cards was based on them being without power for the longest period,” Moreno said. “We only notified customers who were eligible for the program. There were people who showed up hoping to get a gift card, and we had people show up from out of county. We did decline people.”
Nevada City councilman Adam Kline heard of the giveaway from a friend.
“My colleague found out from a neighbor and posted something to Instagram,” Kline said. “It sounded unusual. As soon as I confirmed it I posted in Instagram about it. About 20 or 30 minutes after I got there they shut it down because they had a limited supply. It seemed like they were relying on word-of-mouth. A lot of people have brought up: wouldn’t it make more sense to credit (their) accounts?”
The gift card distribution came less than a week after PG&E representatives said they would not be providing assistance to folks experiencing hardships from service interruptions, partly due to logistical challenges.
“It’s not really our role,” PG&E Government Affairs Representative Brandon Sanders said during a March 6 press conference. “As a company, we’re focused on providing dual commodity utility services to customers. Logistically it was very challenging to manage.”
During PG&E’s 2021-2022 snow storm response, bundles of firewood were offered to customers without power.
“The answer is no we’re not going to be doing that. For a number of reasons,” Sanders said. “People would be coming to pick up firewood and then selling it on Craigslist. People were using it for their own personal benefit.”
Despite the logistical challenges, Kline was grateful for PG&E’s efforts and said he wished there had been more disbursement as so many were affected by the series of storms that have plagued the county.
“Had I known it was real,” Kline said, “I would have sent it out, but I felt it prudent to confirm before (making any announcements).”
Moreno said the gesture was by all accounts appreciated.
“A lot of people expressed appreciation and shared their stories,” he said. “We have another storm coming. I don’t believe it will be low-elevation snow but we do have more rains. Be aware we are tracking that storm and allocating resources.”
Jennifer Nobles is a staff writer for The Union. She can be reached at jnobles@theunion.com or by calling 530-477-4232. Managing Editor Elias Funez contributed to this article.
