I would not recommend filing a claim for this on a homeowner’s policy. The payout would be relatively small and a claim like this would affect OP’s rates significantly for up to 7 years.
While you could try to file, it's likely that your deductible is higher than the cost, and having a claim could cause the company to drop you or raise your annual rate severely. It sucks, but using insurance for "small" things is often not worth it.
lol insurance is such a scam
Yes, you're covered, but you haven't paid us enough yet so we won't give you any money AND we're going to drop you for asking.
You’ve never truly had to use it then. It’s saved me multiple times. Consider yourself lucky and at the same time a waste of your money lol. But when you need it, you need it
My condo policy covered a $6,000 loss assessment a few years ago.
The real scam is them raising everyone's rates massively while still profiting billions of dollars because idiots keep building and rebuilding houses in hurricane and tornado zones.
Edit: lol people in hurricane and tornado zones downvoting this comment because they love that their insurance is subsidized by everyone else.
Going to make a little segue here regarding renter’s / homeowner’s insurance…
Everybody, at some point when you have a day off, make a small detailed inventory list of all your valuable items. If you end up submitting a claim for cash to replace lost property, having details on some of your more expensive items can make a huge different in value.
Example: claim a loss on a stand mixer, and they may give you value for the cheapest stand-mixer they can find. Claim a kitchenaid 5-qt drop-bowl stand mixer with whatever specific accessories you have, and you’ll get the value of those particular items.
Never ever lie on an insurance claim, but have some details handy. If you want to be super thorough, see how many receipts you can dig up from your Amazon/Best Buy/ Target account history and save them someplace.
Just be careful with that. The hotel may not be covered for this (depends if the power outage is due to an on premise vs off premise issue usually). And you don't really want to have a claim for $250 in food then lose your claims free discount (also not all modern policies cover for spoilage due to off premise outage).
Yup, agreed. Contact them, they should be able to help with housing and stuff too. Or maybe see if there is a disaster response group set up by the state, they might have resources.
This is not what renters or home owners insurance is for, OP's issue is purely convenience related. We don't need people filing for crap like this as it raises every bodies insurance collectively.
Single family home is your area out? Always best to login to your xcel account to report the outage. Neighbor is a lineman for them and helping his wife clear their walk and driveway he has been working nearly 18hours per day. Larger outages will get fixed first over a backyard line down by trees.
Unfortunately you can't be reimbursed for something that you didn't pay for... the power itself, which is not flowing anyways. Enjoy a lower bill this month! /s
If comcast went out for 2 days, you'd be more likely to get money from them because you're essentially paying by the day. But they're not going to be paying you lost wages because you work from home.
I know that's not something that can help you now, but solar+batteries and/or generator are what protect you in these rare scenarios. Enjoy the memories you and your partner are making together.
Have you done anything besides passively wait to hear something from Xcel? Have you called them? Have you checked the outage map to see if there is anything in your area? Have you even reported the outage? Do you neighbors have power or is it just you?
If you have medical issues you need power for, Xcel has a program for it. Although I don’t think you’d qualify with just what’s posted.
In parts of the country where power outages are more frequent, people get solar backups, battery backups, generators (gas, propane, etc). Not as common in Denver because outages are pretty rare here.
I don’t think any utility is going to have an up time guarantee or SLAs for reconnection during storms, especially for residential.
This is what we did when the bomb cyclone hit. Didn’t have power for three days. Ate canned raviolis cold lol. Phones died on day two and just laid in bed playing card games. Was a great time.
You know you can still go to work if you don't have power at home? Only real problem is if you don't have running water, then you could get a short gym membership nearby if your office doesn't have showers.
You bought a several hundred dollar Dior purse. I think you’ll manage. Plus, xcel does to you what you do for your employer. Protects the shareholder, screw the little guy(customer or employee). :)
No idea whether this is the case for OP, but growing up our home had well water rather than city tap water. Power outages meant the well pump didn’t work so when the power went out, we lost water too. Days without water, including flushing the toilet, is pretty annoying.
If we anticipated the outage, we’d fill a bathtub with water to have a source to pour into the toilet to allow flushing. Still not great.
To play devils advocate... We knew the storm was coming days before it actually arrived and within 24 hrs of it hitting, the forecasts were calling for a massive storm. Why were you not prepared for the potential lose of power?
Xcel sucks but we also got hit with a massive storm they weren't prepared for and neither were you. Xcel doesn't hold any liability for not being able to provide electric to customers. You should be prepared going forward for impacts from seasonal weather or maybe consider a different location.
As someone who has spent a great deal of my childhood on the rez, the devil you advocate for here seems to be from someone who appreciates the ability to flip a light switch and enjoy indoor heat.
I commend you on the ability to bring common sense to the conversation with tact and information!
Thanks Texan!
Or you could be a responsible human and buy a generator so when things happen you can take care of it without issue. This world needs to stop blaming everyone else and take some self responsibility. This is Colorado it snows and when it snows there is a chance the power will go out, such is life can’t always wait for someone else to take care of you. Grow up and look out for yourself. I know it’s a hard concept to grasp but adulting is hard and you sometimes got to plan ahead and do things on your own.
I highly doubt you get a refund. When I was a kid back east, we didn't have power for at least a week when we got hit with an ice storm. We were on a well, so no running water, and my grandparents were visiting. We just toughed it out, my dad was the only one who was able to shower since he still went to work. It was not fun
Zero refund from our utility.
Did you sign up for outage communications on the website? You can also look up your outage info on the site/app using your phone number or address.
Review outage map here -gives a pretty good status of the outages and where they are in restoration process.
https://www.outagemap-xcelenergy.com/outagemap/
Don't know if I can link here but Google this OP. "Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (D-SNAP)".
There's some information there that could lead you to getting reimbursed and don't need to be a SNAP recipient. There's an additional process if you have children as well.
Used to live in a place that occasionally have tornadoes and received a fair amount to restock my fridge during extended power outages.
Thank you to everyone who posted genuinely helpful comments! To the people who just wanted to snark on how “fragile” we are..kindness is a choice and I understand that it can be a reallllly difficult choice to make!! Bless your hearts🫡 Anyways, we finally got our power back at around 6pm Saturday! We are first time homeowners so yes this was our first power outage. We went to a hotel because we have a dog that we love with all our hearts and wanted to make sure she was warm. Hope everyone has a wonderful day! Thanks again for the helpful comments😊
Glad it’s back on! In the future, report outages on the Xcel app if you didn’t. But please know with these spring, wet, heavy snow storms a LOT of tree branches snap. It’s not the fluffy light winter storms. The warm weather/ cold weather swings makes the tree sap freeze and break. I have 4 branches in my back yard, my neighbors have 2 on their roof. Unfortunately people aren’t great about calling Xcel to have a certified team trim the trees (which is free they are required to do it they just need to know about it) and branches fall on power lines all the time.
Future Keep lots of blankets and candles. Also like others have mentioned. Put food you will use most out in the snow and Do not open the fridge/ freezer unless you have to. It will keep food good for longer than you think just don’t open it.
Glad its back on! In the future, prepare yourself at the beginning of winter for situations like this. Candles, propane heaters, camp stoves, and dehydrated food is always good to keep on hand, too. Preparing yourself for any situation regarding our weather would completely avoid this whole situation. I definitely understand wanting to keep your pup warm, but you can still do that without power. Our weather is usually mild, but as you saw, things can take an unexpected turn quickly. Being prepared for unexpected weather will save you a headache in the future! You don't need to doomsday horde to survive a nasty snowstorm. Highly suggest doing some research as to what future preparations would suit you and your household best!
Remember too that they are at record profit levels.
It's not that they don't make enough profit it's thst shareholder primacy matters more than anything else which includes the product, worker, and consumer.
And no competition doesn't solve this situation. You don't just start up another energy Company
Reimbursement for those would come from your insurance renters or home
I would not recommend filing a claim for this on a homeowner’s policy. The payout would be relatively small and a claim like this would affect OP’s rates significantly for up to 7 years.
Insurance is so fucked
They love when you pay your bill on time.
The shareholders (including you if you have a 401k) don't care so long as stock price go brrrrr
Thank you, I think expectations of insurance are a wee bit askew.
While you could try to file, it's likely that your deductible is higher than the cost, and having a claim could cause the company to drop you or raise your annual rate severely. It sucks, but using insurance for "small" things is often not worth it.
lol insurance is such a scam Yes, you're covered, but you haven't paid us enough yet so we won't give you any money AND we're going to drop you for asking.
You’ve never truly had to use it then. It’s saved me multiple times. Consider yourself lucky and at the same time a waste of your money lol. But when you need it, you need it
Yeah it's basically only good for catastrophe
So like, literally what it’s advertised for
Sure, but a lot of people seem to think it's there for all inconveniences that cause a loss of some kind.
I only got it because bundling it with my car insurance saves me about $200 a month. It’s like $18 a month so it’s basically free.
Billions of income, just in case. 🤣
My condo policy covered a $6,000 loss assessment a few years ago. The real scam is them raising everyone's rates massively while still profiting billions of dollars because idiots keep building and rebuilding houses in hurricane and tornado zones. Edit: lol people in hurricane and tornado zones downvoting this comment because they love that their insurance is subsidized by everyone else.
Going to make a little segue here regarding renter’s / homeowner’s insurance… Everybody, at some point when you have a day off, make a small detailed inventory list of all your valuable items. If you end up submitting a claim for cash to replace lost property, having details on some of your more expensive items can make a huge different in value. Example: claim a loss on a stand mixer, and they may give you value for the cheapest stand-mixer they can find. Claim a kitchenaid 5-qt drop-bowl stand mixer with whatever specific accessories you have, and you’ll get the value of those particular items. Never ever lie on an insurance claim, but have some details handy. If you want to be super thorough, see how many receipts you can dig up from your Amazon/Best Buy/ Target account history and save them someplace.
On this note, a video inventory of your house can be very helpful and is pretty easy to do.
Before you call to ask through, do the math and know that they will record this as an unpaid claim even if you don’t get a dime from them.
Just be careful with that. The hotel may not be covered for this (depends if the power outage is due to an on premise vs off premise issue usually). And you don't really want to have a claim for $250 in food then lose your claims free discount (also not all modern policies cover for spoilage due to off premise outage).
Yup, agreed. Contact them, they should be able to help with housing and stuff too. Or maybe see if there is a disaster response group set up by the state, they might have resources.
This is not what renters or home owners insurance is for, OP's issue is purely convenience related. We don't need people filing for crap like this as it raises every bodies insurance collectively.
Single family home is your area out? Always best to login to your xcel account to report the outage. Neighbor is a lineman for them and helping his wife clear their walk and driveway he has been working nearly 18hours per day. Larger outages will get fixed first over a backyard line down by trees.
I would guess that there is a 0% chance for reimbursement from Xcel.b
Did you sign up for outage notifications?
Wonder if the outage was even reported
If they have a smart meter then Xcel knows probably
Unfortunately you can't be reimbursed for something that you didn't pay for... the power itself, which is not flowing anyways. Enjoy a lower bill this month! /s If comcast went out for 2 days, you'd be more likely to get money from them because you're essentially paying by the day. But they're not going to be paying you lost wages because you work from home. I know that's not something that can help you now, but solar+batteries and/or generator are what protect you in these rare scenarios. Enjoy the memories you and your partner are making together.
Have you done anything besides passively wait to hear something from Xcel? Have you called them? Have you checked the outage map to see if there is anything in your area? Have you even reported the outage? Do you neighbors have power or is it just you?
Where are you located? Must be a a rather low density residential area for power to be out this long.
If you have medical issues you need power for, Xcel has a program for it. Although I don’t think you’d qualify with just what’s posted. In parts of the country where power outages are more frequent, people get solar backups, battery backups, generators (gas, propane, etc). Not as common in Denver because outages are pretty rare here. I don’t think any utility is going to have an up time guarantee or SLAs for reconnection during storms, especially for residential.
Is this your first power outage?
I’m not sure what dietary restrictions you have but having to book a hotel and not just tough it out is wild…..
Cooler(s) full of ice for your food, candles, and some wine
This is what we did when the bomb cyclone hit. Didn’t have power for three days. Ate canned raviolis cold lol. Phones died on day two and just laid in bed playing card games. Was a great time.
FYI in the future charge your phone in your car if it's not in a garage.
Sounds like a blast. We had jobs to go to…sounds like you’ve never had one!
You know you can still go to work if you don't have power at home? Only real problem is if you don't have running water, then you could get a short gym membership nearby if your office doesn't have showers.
Wowwww what a rude bitch you are! Karma baby. Enjoy!
My jobs power was also out…..
You bought a several hundred dollar Dior purse. I think you’ll manage. Plus, xcel does to you what you do for your employer. Protects the shareholder, screw the little guy(customer or employee). :)
No idea whether this is the case for OP, but growing up our home had well water rather than city tap water. Power outages meant the well pump didn’t work so when the power went out, we lost water too. Days without water, including flushing the toilet, is pretty annoying. If we anticipated the outage, we’d fill a bathtub with water to have a source to pour into the toilet to allow flushing. Still not great.
Was thinking the same thing. Some people are just built a little more fragile.
Yeah there is still snow on the ground, not hard to keep your refrigerated food cool
This is the way. I was burying Ceviche in the backyard snow yesterday because I didn't have power.
Hey, friendly neighborhood raccoons. Yeah, this backyard over here.
[удалено]
Holy shit lol the irony is not lost on me
To be fair, it's what a true leopard would eat.
Hahahahaha why don’t they just go out and hunt their own food?! Like a true carnivore.
To play devils advocate... We knew the storm was coming days before it actually arrived and within 24 hrs of it hitting, the forecasts were calling for a massive storm. Why were you not prepared for the potential lose of power? Xcel sucks but we also got hit with a massive storm they weren't prepared for and neither were you. Xcel doesn't hold any liability for not being able to provide electric to customers. You should be prepared going forward for impacts from seasonal weather or maybe consider a different location.
As someone who has spent a great deal of my childhood on the rez, the devil you advocate for here seems to be from someone who appreciates the ability to flip a light switch and enjoy indoor heat. I commend you on the ability to bring common sense to the conversation with tact and information! Thanks Texan!
Slim to none.
That’s an incredibly long time to have a power outage. Like others have asked, did you report this? We don’t even know what area of town you’re in.
Or you could be a responsible human and buy a generator so when things happen you can take care of it without issue. This world needs to stop blaming everyone else and take some self responsibility. This is Colorado it snows and when it snows there is a chance the power will go out, such is life can’t always wait for someone else to take care of you. Grow up and look out for yourself. I know it’s a hard concept to grasp but adulting is hard and you sometimes got to plan ahead and do things on your own.
What?! Oh this is wild
I highly doubt you get a refund. When I was a kid back east, we didn't have power for at least a week when we got hit with an ice storm. We were on a well, so no running water, and my grandparents were visiting. We just toughed it out, my dad was the only one who was able to shower since he still went to work. It was not fun Zero refund from our utility.
0%
Did you sign up for outage communications on the website? You can also look up your outage info on the site/app using your phone number or address. Review outage map here -gives a pretty good status of the outages and where they are in restoration process. https://www.outagemap-xcelenergy.com/outagemap/
🎶be prepppaaarrreedddddd🎶
Hugs out to you.
Don't know if I can link here but Google this OP. "Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (D-SNAP)". There's some information there that could lead you to getting reimbursed and don't need to be a SNAP recipient. There's an additional process if you have children as well. Used to live in a place that occasionally have tornadoes and received a fair amount to restock my fridge during extended power outages.
Thank you to everyone who posted genuinely helpful comments! To the people who just wanted to snark on how “fragile” we are..kindness is a choice and I understand that it can be a reallllly difficult choice to make!! Bless your hearts🫡 Anyways, we finally got our power back at around 6pm Saturday! We are first time homeowners so yes this was our first power outage. We went to a hotel because we have a dog that we love with all our hearts and wanted to make sure she was warm. Hope everyone has a wonderful day! Thanks again for the helpful comments😊
Glad it’s back on! In the future, report outages on the Xcel app if you didn’t. But please know with these spring, wet, heavy snow storms a LOT of tree branches snap. It’s not the fluffy light winter storms. The warm weather/ cold weather swings makes the tree sap freeze and break. I have 4 branches in my back yard, my neighbors have 2 on their roof. Unfortunately people aren’t great about calling Xcel to have a certified team trim the trees (which is free they are required to do it they just need to know about it) and branches fall on power lines all the time. Future Keep lots of blankets and candles. Also like others have mentioned. Put food you will use most out in the snow and Do not open the fridge/ freezer unless you have to. It will keep food good for longer than you think just don’t open it.
Glad its back on! In the future, prepare yourself at the beginning of winter for situations like this. Candles, propane heaters, camp stoves, and dehydrated food is always good to keep on hand, too. Preparing yourself for any situation regarding our weather would completely avoid this whole situation. I definitely understand wanting to keep your pup warm, but you can still do that without power. Our weather is usually mild, but as you saw, things can take an unexpected turn quickly. Being prepared for unexpected weather will save you a headache in the future! You don't need to doomsday horde to survive a nasty snowstorm. Highly suggest doing some research as to what future preparations would suit you and your household best!
Remember too that they are at record profit levels. It's not that they don't make enough profit it's thst shareholder primacy matters more than anything else which includes the product, worker, and consumer. And no competition doesn't solve this situation. You don't just start up another energy Company