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5:53 p.m. • 2-12-12

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Progress Energy crews leave Pittsboro woman's yard a mess


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pittsboro woman yard
pittsboro woman yard

Lyanne Spangler has put up with deep tire tracks, ripped up grass and lots of mud in the yard of her Pittsboro home for the past three months.

“It's a muddy mess,” Spangler said. “Every time it rains, the ruts – they're about a foot deep – they fill up with water and it runs into my driveway and the gravel in the my driveway runs out into the highway.”

A Progress Energy contractor ripped up the yard while working nearby.

“Of course, I got angry,” Spangler said. “I called Progress Energy that night and they said, like every time, ‘We'll have someone give you a call. We'll send someone out to take a look.’”

But no one came out or called. Spangler said two weeks later a big rain storm made an even bigger mess.

“Mud and my gravel were going out into the highway. Cars were running over my gravel. So I got really angry that morning and I called (Progress Energy),” she said.

Spangler said that time she was promised that someone would come that day to look at it.

“I haven’t seen anybody or heard anything since,” she said.

So, Spangler called 5 on Your Side for help.

“We have a commitment to the customers that any damage that we create in that process we will come back or our contractor will come back and fix that,” Progress Energy spokesman Mike Hughes told WRAL News.

Hughes blamed the delay on the weather and ground that was saturated but said they didn't let Spangler know the cause for the delays.

“Making no excuses, our expectation for ourselves is to communicate better with our customers, and clearly we did not communicate clearly with the customer. She had frustrations and did not have an avenue to address them,” Hughes said.

A few days later, Spangler’s yard was fixed. It has been leveled and re-seeded. Workers also replaced the washed away gravel in the driveway.

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9 Comments


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Latest Comments
Careful complaining too loudly to Progress Energy!.. When they limbed trees over my property last year, the limbs were dropped on the ground and left. After complaining, my account was "reviewed" and it was determined that after 15 years of service, I needed to pay a $386 deposit.

The reason Energy Progress repaired the lady's yard was because of the negative publicity they got other wise they wouldn't have done anything.

I would have taken pictures then gone to the small claims court and sued for the maximum the small claims court allowed.

JAT - I do understand your point, however why should she have to spend any time or money fixing a problem that she did not create?

I wish WRAL would expand the 5 on Your Side program. It is alot better than the negative news (murders, robbery, politician mumbo jumbo). Why not have an entire show detailing how consumers getting help fighting back against big corporations like Progress Engergy. I love how the big corporations quickly comply when the threat of negative press rears its head. That would be a show or column I would pay attention to.

Sucks for the homeowner but at least Progress Energy did ultimately do the right thing. Too bad it took the issue to become public news before they took corrective action though.

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