3 ms·

I've lived all over the US. Why are utility company websites SO BAD? All of them are terrible.

by whalesalad 3y ago

hollerith 3y ago
The good news is that it is rare for any of us to need to visit them.
- bragr 3y ago
  Except that when you need to visit them, you almost always REALLY need it.
silent_cal 3y ago
Very low competition I'd guess. It's a little better with internet providers because we have a few options, at least in my area.
pengaru 3y ago
> I've lived all over the US. Why are utility company websites SO BAD? All of them are terrible. Utility companies are deliberately regional monopolies, without the threat of competition there's no incentive to do better. That's presumably reflected in but not limited to the quality of their web sites.
- mistrial9 3y ago
  In California, PG&E refused to hand over legally-required documents, in addition to refusing to hand over ordinary information that they were not required to hand over. Subsequently, a pipeline in San Bruno (updt) area exploded, a dozen houses burned to the ground, and several people died. They established new legal precedent by being convicted of Murder One. investigations subsequently determined that PG&E had falsified reports, and failed to conduct testing that was required by law. Next, the Tubbs fires. "do better" ??
  - pengaru 3y ago
    > Subsequently, a pipeline in San Mateo area exploded, a dozen houses burned to the ground, and several people died. I recall the San Bruno gas explosion[0] you're referring to. It happened at a time when I regularly drove down that leg of Skyline to access Pacifica and Ocean Beach coming from south bay via the peninsula/280. We clearly need better solutions for how such utilities are delivered and their businesses operated. Though in the case of residential gas lines, we should probably just stop the practice, especially in seismically active regions like the bay area... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Bruno_pipeline_explosion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Bruno_pipeline_explosion [00] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNSjRKY7Ha8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNSjRKY7Ha8
    - mistrial9 3y ago
      also https://www.sanbrunokiosk.com/introduction https://www.sanbrunokiosk.com/introduction
FredPret 3y ago
It doesn't reduce their income to have a bad website, and might save them a bit in dev costs (maybe not though? if not, there's an opportunity to sell them on better sites)
NoPedantsThanks 3y ago
Because they overpay hacks to build them, and pass the cost onto consumers.

I've lived all over the US. Why are utility company websites SO BAD? All of them are terrible.

hollerith 3y ago

The good news is that it is rare for any of us to need to visit them.

bragr 3y ago
Except that when you need to visit them, you almost always REALLY need it.

silent_cal 3y ago

Very low competition I'd guess. It's a little better with internet providers because we have a few options, at least in my area.

pengaru 3y ago

> I've lived all over the US. Why are utility company websites SO BAD? All of them are terrible. Utility companies are deliberately regional monopolies, without the threat of competition there's no incentive to do better. That's presumably reflected in but not limited to the quality of their web sites.

mistrial9 3y ago
In California, PG&E refused to hand over legally-required documents, in addition to refusing to hand over ordinary information that they were not required to hand over. Subsequently, a pipeline in San Bruno (updt) area exploded, a dozen houses burned to the ground, and several people died. They established new legal precedent by being convicted of Murder One. investigations subsequently determined that PG&E had falsified reports, and failed to conduct testing that was required by law. Next, the Tubbs fires. "do better" ??
- pengaru 3y ago
  > Subsequently, a pipeline in San Mateo area exploded, a dozen houses burned to the ground, and several people died. I recall the San Bruno gas explosion[0] you're referring to. It happened at a time when I regularly drove down that leg of Skyline to access Pacifica and Ocean Beach coming from south bay via the peninsula/280. We clearly need better solutions for how such utilities are delivered and their businesses operated. Though in the case of residential gas lines, we should probably just stop the practice, especially in seismically active regions like the bay area... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Bruno_pipeline_explosion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Bruno_pipeline_explosion [00] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNSjRKY7Ha8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNSjRKY7Ha8
  - mistrial9 3y ago
    also https://www.sanbrunokiosk.com/introduction https://www.sanbrunokiosk.com/introduction

FredPret 3y ago

It doesn't reduce their income to have a bad website, and might save them a bit in dev costs (maybe not though? if not, there's an opportunity to sell them on better sites)

NoPedantsThanks 3y ago

Because they overpay hacks to build them, and pass the cost onto consumers.