......Storm clouds............
I hate having a bad day, it has been a stormy day for me. I don't have many and I'm not sure if it has to do with my attitude about life in general or I am lucky and don't have many bad days.
Yesterday, we received a letter from our electric company that our meter has been replaced and the old one has be "off" since April. They have estimated our usage consumption to be similar as last year and have assigned us an amount to pay, in addition to what was already paid. Of course, they give us an easy schedule of installment to pay over the next twelve months. It is outrageous the bill they have given us!
I proceed to get my bills together, for this year and last year and call the company! There is no way to get to customer service directly, you have to listen to the options and push buttons and long minutes stretch into more long minutes. Finally a live person! I hand the phone off to my wonderful husband to talk, I am already too mad to focus on numbers. He asks for the person responsible for "figuring" our bill and he is suppose to call back, this has been three hours ago. He must be out to lunch. Richard is gone and when this guy calls back, I will have to get it all figured out!
I am still mad at our electric company for the tree incident. A couple months ago a guy came to us and said they were cleaning up the electric lines of tree branches. We have trees growing around the lines in our barnyard driveway. I told them they COULD NOT cut my trees if I wasn't home. It was agreed. I left for the weekend for a show and they waited until I got down the road and then came in and cut those trees! They look terrible! I was sick when I saw them, I almost cried. Don't they understand that we live here and this is our home and what they do effects our space? I don't imagine any one of those workers would do the same kind trimming in their personal yards!
Meanwhile, I tried to do business (calling our electric company) on our land line phone, the one I replaced two days ago because the storm damaged to our other home phone. Guess what, it isn't working. I'm suppose to figure out if it is the new phone or something about that phone line. Of course, that is another call to our phone company and pushing more buttons. I put in a request for service. The recording tells me they will be out sometime Saturday before 4PM. That is four days from now. I want to talk to a representative, but no real person comes on and they end my call. An hour later I finally figure out a way to get a breathing person to talk to me, it did little good still I have a Saturday before 4PM appointment. It seems Ohio is in a phone crisis due to all the bad weather.
Since I'm complaining I will also tell you that I am not happy with our insurance company either. We had roof damage to our house because of the falling branches. We talked to insurance company, to let them know we had damage. Okay, then we call someone to repair the roof, our temporary fix didn't keep the water out and now we have water damage to the ceiling of our living room. The repair people made it out on Saturday, three days after the storm. They fixed our roof and there is no further leaking. I called the insurance company to report that the roof was fixed, she said, "Oh, you were only to temporarily fix it so we can come look at the damage and approve having it fixed." Really????? We have had off and on storms since and we aren't suppose get it fixed? Too late, it's fixed and I'm wondering if the bill will be paid by insurance now. Why do I pay for insurance? Things are out of control!
Having had numerous experiences with several different electric companies I can give you some advice. First, think back and try to remember if anyone from the electric company had been out in the last year to even look at your meter. They would have had to identify themselves and probably ask where your meter was. If no one has been out, there is no way they could have replaced your meter and shut the other one off! AEP was replacing meters in the Columbus area about a year ago with "test" meters that allowed remote access in order to read them. That may be what your company was talking about. Again, they would have had to physically come out, turned off electric to your house, replaced the meter and turned electric back on. If that do not happen, then the first question should be how they could have done that without your knowledge. AEP tried that with us while we were still in our house and after I made the supervisor come out and look at our meter, he realized a big mistake had been made on our bills. Didn't have a single problem after that especially since I was doing the meter reading and calling it in on the appropriate day. Good luck with your electric company!
ReplyDeleteWow Kathy, that is good to know. They of course did not call today.... glad they didn't after reading your comments. I will be ready with a few more questions now! :D Thanks
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