Was I a sucky customer?

[protege]

I went off on a few people at the gas company recently.

Some of you know that I bought a house. One of the things I had to do was get the various utlities transferred into my name. The seller's realtor was nice enough to fax over a list of contacts. However, she'd put down the wrong gas company. By the time we'd figured that out, the service had been shut off. Keep in mind that means no heat, no hot water, no stove.

Soooooo I called up the right company, set up the appointment, and all was good. However, because I work full-time across town, and since the house is only 2 blocks from where I was living, my currently-unemployed brother offered to stay home to help me out. However, there was nothing (no 'puter, no TV, etc.) at my place to keep him amused. So, he stayed at my parents' place, and I gave that number as the contact number. While I was at it, I even put a note on *my* door with the contact info. I thought I had it all covered.

...or so I thought. Appointment day came around...and nobody called. Nobody called my parents' house or my cell number. At about 5:30, my dad went down there to cut the grass.

When he came back he was *not* happy!

Why? Well, it seems our gassmonkey decided he simply didn't want to do the job. He simply put a note reading that "nobody was home at the number" directly under *my* note and left. To put his note there, he had to *open* the screen door, so there's no way in hell he couldn't have seen it!

Let's just say I was more than pissed. I was furious. I called up the gas company, and found out it was up to the *driver's* discretion if they call or not. Uh, let me get this straight--you have a *choice* whether or not you want to work...but still get paid if you don't? It must be nice to have a monopoly like that...

I got rude with the gas company...and leaned on them a bit. I simply said that I was pissed and that we couldn't have people staying home all day, and how I was upset that nobody called....only to schedule another appointment for the next week.

I admit that I was rude, but oh well. I didn't appreciate getting jerked around. Besides, there wasn't too much they could do about it--if they tried, the state utility board is only a phonecall away...

[skeptic53]

This is why I changed the billing address of one of my credit cards to my work address. UPS/FedEx/USPS would randomly, but more often than not, refuse to leave a package without someone to sign for it. They would leave a printed sticky note on the door. It is very windy at my house, the note would blow off, and we'd have no idea they tried to deliver. I tried the note-taped-to-the-door technique and had the same results you did. Stuff would go back to the seller, or I would have to go down to the UPS/FedEx/USPS package pickup area miles away, also open only during business hours.

Now if I order something it ships to my office, where there is always someone to sign for it (we're open 7 days a week).

[friendofjimmyk]

Wow, I started to wonder if I could sit here and decide which calls to dispatch to drivers and which ones I didn't want to bother with. I wonder how well that would fly here.

I also wonder if my drivers, who arrive at locations where they are up front and the veh is in the rear, have a choice to sit there for a minute and then leave rather than trying to look around back?

Hmmm...would we still get paid the same?

I don't think you were an SC in this matter, I would've been livid myself.

[friendofjimmyk]

I was furious. I called up the gas company, and found out it was up to the *driver's* discretion if they call or not. ...

My exact response to this would have been "Are you f***ing kidding me?" exactly.

[trunks2k]

That's really strange that it's up to the drivers discretion. A couple years back when I was moving into a new apartment I was renting, I had ordered the phone to be turned on. In previous places, they didn't need to come out and install anything, they could activate it from the office or wherever so I didn't need to be around. So when I set up the day to have the phone turned on, I assumed I didn't need to be at the new place. So I was at my old place packing for the move when the phone guy calls me asking me where I was. He was nice about it, he waited the 15 minutes it took me to hop on my bike and bike across town. He was even better when I couldn't get the back door open so he could access what he needed to, and waited while I disassembled the lock.

[protege]

That's why I was pissed. If I tried to pull a stunt like that, I'd get fired.

I should have mentioned, that many older houses in my neighborhood have the utility meters inside--the newer ones do not.

[MadMike]

I should have mentioned, that many older houses in my neighborhood have the utility meters inside--the newer ones do not.

Yeah, I had that same problem with the last place I rented. They always came during the day, and I work during the day. Office job, Monday thru Friday, 8-5. Why so many of these places only do visits and appointments when most people work is beyond me.

They used to send me a postcard with diagrams of dials and numbers, and all I had to do was draw in where the hands were on the dials and send it back. Then they sent me a bill, and all was cool. But after a few months, they decided they needed to actually read the meter, so at their request, I called them to try to set something up.

They asked if I'd be home at 10 a.m. on a certain day. I told them no, I work during the day. So then they asked me if I'd be there at 11 a.m. the same day. Uhh, what part of "I work during the day" did you not understand? Eventually, I think I was able to work out something where I left work a few hours early so they could read the meter.

My experience with the gas company is that they're idiots. Another incident were when they were supposed to turn on the gas to an apartment I was getting ready to move into, but showed up several hours earlier than we agreed to, before I had even moved in. They just left a note on the door, despite the fact that the landlord lived onsite and could have let them in if they had just asked.

And then there was the time when I moved into my house where I live now, and after two months, realized I never got a bill from them. Come to find out they had somehow taken it out of the previous owner's name, but never put it into mine, and yet never shut it off either.

At least this house has all the meters outside (electric and gas), or hooked up to a phone line (water.)