Tuesday 22 February 2011

Meridian Energy’s Christchurch-based call centre has been closed today following this afternoon’s 6.3 quake that severely damaged parts of the city.

All Meridian staff were evacuated from its offices in Manchester Street and Sir William Pickering Drive.

Meridian is working hard to restore all essential services for customers. It is hoped that the call centre will be up and running from other parts of the country as soon as possible.

Meridian Chief Executive Tim Lusk said the company still had to ascertain the state of Meridian’s Christchurch offices but Meridian staff were evacuated safely and were with their families.

“The safety of our Meridian staff is paramount and is behind our decision to close our Manchester Street office and relocate important services like our call centre. We do not know how long our Christchurch offices will be closed.

“Our main priority in the next few days is to help people affected by the earthquake as well as to support Orion as they work to reconnect and repair the network,” says Tim Lusk.

“We’re committed to maintaining a sound basic level of service for our customers and aim to have our call centre up and running from tomorrow morning.

“We ask customers from outside Canterbury to be patient as we work through the issues caused by the earthquake and attempt to offer a basic service for the rest of the week.”

For Christchurch customers with emergencies, please contact emergency services. For safety issues with respect to your electricity lines, please call Orion on 0800 363 9898.

Meridian is the largest electricity supplier in Christchurch.

ENDS

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