A knight in shining armor
My ex (my son's father) spent a good portion of last evening listening to me bitch about the gas company problem...
He offered to call them and to give them a 'true' meter reading. He managed to get a sane person on the phone and she adjusted my gas bill down almost $200 but not the budget amount. Instead she gave him some advice. She told him to have me pay the 'new bill' amount in full ($258) then call (after I know that the check has cleared) and ask to be taken off the budget. She explained this would then 'wipe the slate clean'. Then I should wait a couple of weeks and call and ask to be put back on the budget and the amount would end up being $250/month.
I could have kissed him...and her too!
What kills me about this is the randomness of the whole situation. Obviously someone who is staring down the barrel of a bill for $421 and a budget cost increase of $156/month is going to obviously be upset. I did not start off the conversation by being defensive I was pointing out I could not afford the amount and that the 'estimate' had to be incorrect (which it OBVIOUSLY was since once the new person got the meter reading the amount went down almost $200!!!! However, the bitch I talked to never even bothered to ask me for a current meter reading - or offered to adjust the cost when I explained that we weren't even using the same amount of gas as we were last year - I was not trying to 'pull a fast one' it is seriously cold in my house now). This is rather off-putting for I am sure a lot of people who are either too intimidated to call, end up getting angry (like me) and/or don't have a good person in their lives to help them probably just give up. I am lucky - but it still makes me worry about all the others out there who seriously can't afford heat - people with little ones in their house or the elderly who fall sick easily etc. It's crap and the gas company does need to be more consumer friendly and offer up helpful advice - not fight with their customers.
And Max (my sweet cheri/ami) you are totally correct we absolutely have to (on a world-wide basis) come up with alternate energy sources - but in this country I am pretty sure that anything that might empty the pockets of the oil companies and the utility companies is being squashed by congressmen who count on them for money for their campaigns and we all know that's a load of manure.
I say we all try to do something about this RIGHT NOW - I mean they can't ignore us if we band together - I've been saying this for a couple of years now on here about all sorts of issues. We need to get in touch with our congressmen and tell them we've had it - we need to demand that this country (and your country if you can protest where ever you are) - begin in earnest to stop our dependency on foreign oil and other limited/ecology-harming/finite/expensive forms of energy and find pollutant-free, cheap sources for our energy consumption (like hydrogen, like wind, like solar energy). It's time to fix this problem and stop whining about it....
He offered to call them and to give them a 'true' meter reading. He managed to get a sane person on the phone and she adjusted my gas bill down almost $200 but not the budget amount. Instead she gave him some advice. She told him to have me pay the 'new bill' amount in full ($258) then call (after I know that the check has cleared) and ask to be taken off the budget. She explained this would then 'wipe the slate clean'. Then I should wait a couple of weeks and call and ask to be put back on the budget and the amount would end up being $250/month.
I could have kissed him...and her too!
What kills me about this is the randomness of the whole situation. Obviously someone who is staring down the barrel of a bill for $421 and a budget cost increase of $156/month is going to obviously be upset. I did not start off the conversation by being defensive I was pointing out I could not afford the amount and that the 'estimate' had to be incorrect (which it OBVIOUSLY was since once the new person got the meter reading the amount went down almost $200!!!! However, the bitch I talked to never even bothered to ask me for a current meter reading - or offered to adjust the cost when I explained that we weren't even using the same amount of gas as we were last year - I was not trying to 'pull a fast one' it is seriously cold in my house now). This is rather off-putting for I am sure a lot of people who are either too intimidated to call, end up getting angry (like me) and/or don't have a good person in their lives to help them probably just give up. I am lucky - but it still makes me worry about all the others out there who seriously can't afford heat - people with little ones in their house or the elderly who fall sick easily etc. It's crap and the gas company does need to be more consumer friendly and offer up helpful advice - not fight with their customers.
And Max (my sweet cheri/ami) you are totally correct we absolutely have to (on a world-wide basis) come up with alternate energy sources - but in this country I am pretty sure that anything that might empty the pockets of the oil companies and the utility companies is being squashed by congressmen who count on them for money for their campaigns and we all know that's a load of manure.
I say we all try to do something about this RIGHT NOW - I mean they can't ignore us if we band together - I've been saying this for a couple of years now on here about all sorts of issues. We need to get in touch with our congressmen and tell them we've had it - we need to demand that this country (and your country if you can protest where ever you are) - begin in earnest to stop our dependency on foreign oil and other limited/ecology-harming/finite/expensive forms of energy and find pollutant-free, cheap sources for our energy consumption (like hydrogen, like wind, like solar energy). It's time to fix this problem and stop whining about it....
posted by Colette at 9:24 PM
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