For a week, tens of thousands of homes were without electricity, in the context of social unrest within the EDF-PEI company. They are responsible for many breakdowns of household appliances. An inconvenience that bodes well for specialist shops, stormed by customers looking for replacement equipment. Several stores also offered occasional additional products, such as fans and solar lamps.
Guadeloupean homes returned to normal living conditions at the end of last week, as power cuts were halted. With the engines at the Pointe-Jarry power station having been shut down, energy suppliers could no longer meet local demand.
As part of the strike at EDF-PEI, at the initiative of the FE-CGTG, negotiations are suspended until the arrival of a national representative of the company’s management; in any case, it is such an interlocutor that the mobilized employees are waiting for.
But the numerous power cuts caused damage. Particularly to the household appliances of the affected residents: mainly refrigerators and freezers, but also air conditioners, washing machines, ovens, televisions… many devices gave up the ghost, to the great displeasure of their owners.
Many customers go to specialist stores to replace them; a real parade.
After a day at work, Tatiana had the unpleasant surprise of finding her refrigerator broken. She has no doubt: it is a direct consequence of the power cuts of the last few days.
Her idea is to turn to her home insurance, or EDF. But she has little hope of receiving compensation.
I’m doing a bit of shopping around to see the prices of refrigerators; an expense that wasn’t at all planned for this month. I got home, the refrigerator wasn’t working. It’s a bit annoying, because insurance doesn’t cover the causes of power cuts. Now, I’m going to check with EDF; but it’ll be difficult. I know this because my mother had this problem with her air conditioner. Neither the insurance nor the company covered it.
Tatiana, Guadeloupean victim of power cuts
EDF Archipel Guadeloupe, the company that organized the power cuts, could provide him with proof of the outage, to be presented to his insurer.
Tatiana is not against the strike, but she believes that the parties must show more respect to the population, which is suffering from a situation that is beyond its control.
Sellers understand the customers’ dismay, but they cannot compensate for the negative effects of a strike that do not concern them. Replacement of devices is only possible if an extended warranty is purchased.
We are selling a lot of devices at the moment, due to the outages. We are doing what is necessary for our customers who have an extended warranty on their device; so, we are taking care of it. For the others, we are giving a commercial discount, so that they can have a new product, as soon as possible.
Shirdy, salesman in a household appliance store
In this period of intense heat, auxiliary devices have sold like hotcakes: solar fans for sleeping without air conditioning, portable or hand-held mini fans, anti-cut bulbs, camping lamps, misters, etc. Generators have also been selling like hotcakes.
The stores had plenty of choice in stock; they jumped at the chance to put the products of the moment at the head of the aisle. Why deprive yourself of such a bargain!
