A group of Sunset District businesses are filing a lawsuit against PG&E seeking compensation for lost business during the December 20 power outage, which for some lasted multiple days.

Not satisfied with being given a claim form to fill out and letting PG&E decide if they'll be compensated for lost business and lost product during last month's power outage, several Sunset District business owners are now taking the utility to court.

As KRON4 reports, led by attorney and former SF supervisor Quentin Kopp, some Sunset business owners are filing a lawsuit seeking unspecified damages from the outage, and they held a press conference on Tuesday.

"The longer that PG&E delays appropriate reimbursement for those business losses it caused, the higher the cost to the utility company," Kopp said, per KRON4.

And speaking for the merchants, Sunset District homeowner David Lee explained that adequately compensating some of these mom-and-pop businesses is more complicated than PG&E is making it out to be. And Lee points to subsequent outages that have only impacted the west side.

"Their margins are very, very tight, so the losses they suffered a month ago and subsequent blackouts since — remember, we’ve had now seven blackouts in the Sunset District — have really caused a financial hardship going into the new year," Lee said.

He added, "Many of the merchants are immigrants. They have to download this form, print it out, fill it out by hand, and send in receipts... and there are not enough spaces on the form to list all their items. So there’s some confusion. Oftentimes, the merchants just give up."

PG&E initially announced that all residential customers impacted by the outage would be given a $200 bill credit, and businesses would get a $2,500 bill credit. The company quickly amended that, saying it was willing to pay out more than $2,500The  to businesses, but required filling out the claim form.

PG&E now claims that they have already processed 2,439 such claims, and "approximately 70 percent have been resolved within 13 days." PG&E adds, in a statement, "We’re actively meeting with and supporting our customers, and we continue to process claims related to this outage as quickly as possible."

The blackout, which PG&E has blamed on a fire at a substation in SoMa, occurred on the last Saturday before Christmas, a major shopping day for many. It also coincided with winter solstice celebrations in the Chinese community — for which restaurants and fishmongers had stocked up on highly perishable seafood, much of which went to waste due to the outage.

Tina Zheng, the owner of Irving Seafood Market, was one of those business owners who had to toss thousands of dollars worth of product. As she tells NBC Bay Area, her claim still hasn't been processed by PG&E, and she says, "A couple days ago, maybe three or four days ago, they just replied to my email saying, 'Oh, can you give me more detailed information?'"

PG&E has not commented on the planned lawsuit.

Previously: SF Businesses Still Fuming Over PG&E Outages, PG&E Vaguely Indicates They Might Reimburse Businesses More