The Region : Be Patient, Hard-Pressed Gas Firm Asks

Southern California Gas Co. is asking customers to be patient, because its phone lines are being overloaded by calls. “The cold weather has prompted a near-record number of phone calls to many of our service bureaus, primarily from customers wanting us to relight their furnace pilots,” said Al Russell, the utility’s manager of customer services. Russell is asking people to stay on the phone, and not hang up and call back, because calls are answered in the order received. “Our service personnel are working overtime to answer phones and make calls on customers’ homes,” Russell said. He explained that the first cold snap each fall usually triggers a high volume of customer service requests.