Veco launches SMS service for outage info

CEBU, Philippines - In response to the need of convenience and efficiency in reporting emergency power outages, Visayan Electric Company has taken advantage of the advanced technology through Short Message service (SMS).

VECO customers need not call the electric company hotline or access a landline since they can simply send out the ASKVECO OUTAGE text message anytime, 24 hours a day.

Within a minute, VECO will instantly reply with the information stating the cause of such outage and the restoration time. Upon receiving the text from the customer, VECO dispatches its crew to the customer’s site to check the cause and attend to it after.

Armil Logarta, VECO Distribution Services Department Manager, admitted that since they cannot accommodate a lot of people during power interruptions through phone calls, this new innovation ensures to provide the reason and the restoration time during outages through text messages in a timely manner.

To report an outage, customers have three ways to text. It’s either through ASKVECO (space)OUTAGE (space) VECO ACCOUNT ID that will allow the electric company to easily identify customers’ names and addresses, or ASKVECO(space)OUTAGE(space)VECO POLE NO. that can be used when the customer is not within the premises of his/her residence or could not retrieve the electric account ID, or if these two information cannot be accessed by the concerned resident, one can just text ASKVECO (space) OUTAGE (space) COMPLETE ADDRESS that must include house number, name of street, name of subdivision or village, name of barangay and city.

The ASKVECO OUTAGE text must be sent to 391-8326 for Smart/Talk ‘n Text/Red Mobile users and 0922-999-8326 for Sun Cellular subscribers and for other networks.

Logarta noted that the most recommended and accurate information is the account ID or the pole number since the address system in Cebu is not very efficient. The account ID can be seen at the upper left side of their electric bill while the pole no. can also be found on the bill or get to the pole itself and see its pole sticker.

Furthermore, Executive Vice-President and Chief Operations Officer Jaime Jose Aboitiz said that since SMS has been a daily part of people’s lives, they thought of expanding its usage and leverage it appropriately for their customers.

He added that it is difficult for them to cope with all the calls received simultaneously during an outage due to a busy signal, thus finding an alternative to have an effective communication with their customers.

“We realized we do not communicate through landline as much as we do through SMS. It has been a challenge for VECO to let the people know that the service is here and is constantly made available to them,” Aboitiz stated. (FREEMAN)