Power cut off, woman dies

**Dave Lobster** · 18th June 2007, 11:54

Originally Posted by deanohit

I think this whole story stunk from the beginning and I can't believe how much the media pumped this story up.

Why does the media do this? Aren't they afraid of ethnic minorities suing them for making them look thick?

**caesius** · 18th June 2007, 12:29

Why does the media do this? Aren't they afraid of ethnic minorities suing them for making them look thick?

Ignorant masses of Aotearoa prefer an evil company being evil and their victims being non-white rather than the other way around. No story in the latter.

I doubt this would have been covered for more than a day in Australia.

**Hitcher** · 18th June 2007, 12:55

Hopefully an enlightened case study writer will give this saga its due so that its learnings can be captured for others to benefit from.

**MSTRS:Me** · 18th June 2007, 12:58

Originally Posted by Hitcher

Hopefully an enlightened case study writer will give this saga its due so that its learnings can be captured for others to benefit from.

What's with all the hoity-toity stuff?
Just print the truth...

**Beemer** · 18th June 2007, 13:05

Originally Posted by Hitcher

Hopefully an enlightened case study writer will give this saga its due so that its learnings can be captured for others to benefit from.

Bags not me! I'll still to writing for NZ Trucking thanks!

**Hitcher** · 18th June 2007, 13:07

Originally Posted by Beemer

I'll still to writing for NZ Trucking thanks!

Stick, perhaps? Now pay suitable homage to Araldite, the goddess of adhesion.

**avgas** · 18th June 2007, 13:20

fuck it im not paying my power bill anymore. i need my fridge/tv/computer to live

**Sanx** · 18th June 2007, 15:57

I've only just found this thread. The whole situation makes me f'ing mad. No-one in the family took any form of responsibility or showed any intelligence. Somehow, it's an evil faceless corporation that's to blame for the woman eating far too many pies, for the woman stopping taking her medication and relying on 'traditional Samoan healing practices' and prayer, for the family not calling an ambulance, for the family not paying the bills, for the family not responding to warnings they were going to be cut off, for the family not getting off their fat arses and doing something about getting power for the oxygen machine and - lastly - for the extended family not being aware of the situation and helping out.

No - it's always someone else's fault.

For reference, the pic that LilSel posted up of some terminally fat protester trying to kick a motorbike features my (slim and well-toned, even if I do say it myself) arse and the back end of my Blade. The protestors didn't appreciate hearing 11,000 rpm from a 'race use only' Scorpion when they were blocking the car-park exit. During the whole incident, I got a lecture from some bearded hippy with a megaphone about how some protestor had been killed on a picket line by a company representative.

Considering this was meant to be a protest about some woman's death and not a strike, I failed to see how that was relevant, but considering the number of 'Socialist Worker' and 'Solidarity Union' banners about, it was fairly obvious that half of the bunch were slightly to the left of Mao Tse Tung, politically-speaking.

Amusingly, they obviously thought I worked for Mighty River Power. The car park they were protesting outside belongs to an office park containing not only Mercury Energy, but Genesis Energy, Toyota Financial Services, TNS, a cafe, a software company, and a risk management company. As the car-park has two exits, it's also used as a rat run between Ellerslie Highway and Gt South Road, especially by parents of small children who attend the pre-school and play-school in the area.

I'm looking forward to the inquest findings, and live in hope that one of the media outlets has the balls to ask Komrade Helen to retract her statements about Mercury Energy in line wit the inquest findings that absolved the company completely. Fat chance that's going to happen though - the media in this country is as gutless as a Ginny.

**Patrick** · 18th June 2007, 16:41

Good post Sanx. The family spokesman is a Trade Union man from way back apparently, which is why the "rent a mob" descended" onto that site. he makes a few calls to his comrades and "game on..."

He has pushed it along the whole way, feeding the media further crap to further thier cause (and subsequent settlements, no doubt...) and got the family going with it. But by the looks of them, they needed something to get them moving...

The new PC version of Teletubbies, me thinks...

Tinkywinky is the spokesman and handbag carrier...
Dipsy and Lala are the dopey kids...
Po is the..... mum?

**Delerium** · 18th June 2007, 16:55

I thought that family rep got to the point of pushing wet shit up a hill with a pointed stick. He really appeared to be grasping at straws towards the end in an attempt to strengthen his position and weaken the power company. But I was sick of hearing it by that stage so pretty much anything he did would annoy me by then.

**Beemer** · 18th June 2007, 17:22

Originally Posted by Hitcher

Stick, perhaps? Now pay suitable homage to Araldite, the goddess of adhesion.

I'd give you rep for noticing my error but I've given you too much lately! Don't worry, I DO proofread my articles before sending them in and in fact I was praised for my accuracy in a technical article yesterday! I must have been in a hurry ... or you went in and changed my post ... I wouldn't put it past you!

**kro** · 18th June 2007, 18:05

Originally Posted by terbang

Dumb arguement, working people have cars and cellphones.

So you would, if you lost all or part of your income due illness, sell your car or other family members cars and cellphones to pay the power bill? Or are you trying to imply that these people were bludgers that had cars and cellphones in lieu of paying their power bill?

His argument was sound imo. It has nothing to do with selling anything, it has to do with wise distribution of funds. You see these "poor" families on TV, who are "hard up", and in need of "welfare", but the TV segment catches the edge of the Sky TV aerial/dish on the house, or the 18 inch chromes on the mitsi in the drive, or the project V8 car in the back yard.

I don't know if this is what has occurred here, but hells bells, the power company don't just cut you off 2 days after the first late payment, you get warnings, you get calls, you get opportunities to come clean on the deal, and this can drag out over months if you need it to. This family had opportunities to fix the issue.

**Delerium** · 18th June 2007, 22:14

Financial planning played a significant part in this outcome... but if you look at the figures this applies to many more households in NZ. We spend more than we earn.

**Sanx** · 19th June 2007, 15:20

This isn't public knowledge, but I have it on very good authority that the family also had two large finance accounts on two different cars; and the finance companies involved were going through the process of legally enforcing the default clauses in the contract.

As I said, this never hit the media, but according to the debt collection manager of the finance company involved, the family owed them a fair bit of money.