if you recall, steve and i are in texas at a church planting conference. we are here until tomorrow, and have had a friend of ours watching the girls all week. because she had to head back to athens this morning, we had another sitter arriving this afternoon to stay tonight. she could not get in the garage because the garage door opener wasn't working. and the top secret code on the outside of the house wasn't working either. come to find out our power was off. when i called the power company i was informed that our power had intentionally been cut off. NICE. apparently our last bill was due on october 20th and hadn't been paid. and apparently if you are 3 WEEKS LATE on a payment they cut off your power and charge you a 300 dollar deposit and a 45 dollar reconnect fee. UGH. i'm surprised they didn't insist on my firstborn. they were quick to inform me this 300 dollar deposit will graciously be refunded after NINETEEN months of on-time payments. no grace, people. none. to be perfectly honest, i never recall getting a bill due in october. (i'd admit it to you if i did.) of course i shared my opinion about this atrocious policy with the power company woman, but it got me nowhere. so she charged over 500 bucks to my american express and they finally cut the power back on.
am i the only one who thinks this is a bit ridiculous? no grace at all? even with a flawless payment record up until this point? please make me feel better by telling me you've screwed up like this before also...
10 comments:
Wow, I can't believe that! That really IS no grace. In my opinion, they should send you a warning and give you a chance to pay. I guess it's an easy way for them to make more money. How awful!! Don't feel bad - things like this have happened to me.
oh. allow me to make you feel better about yourself. i wrote the checks for bills when i worked as an admin for an insurance agent - one month i totally screwed up the decimal point and paid $110,000 to the cell phone company. amazing that i didn't lose my job, because that little check emptied out my boss' business checking account! (truth be told, HE signed the erroneous check and neither the phone company nor the bank caught the ginormous credit to the cell phone account. duh.) we got it reversed and all was eventually well. but my old boss likes to tease me about it from time to time, 5 years later. ha freaking ha.
glad you got your power on, but really - that power company is a racket! 3 weeks?!
It seems a bit extreme for first time error. Not very understanding! I really dislike the "you should have known to pay it even if you didn't get the bill" excuse. We have heard this once or twice.
because i'm a 'work in progress' and part of the 'work' is my, um, procratination then i won't admit how MANY times this has happened to me....i even once chased after the energy truck as i was on the phone paying the bill so he wouldn't leave my neighborhood. no grace....no $, no power, period.
Been there. Never had a utility be that anal about a late payment though.
I guess you have more stories to tell about the trip to Waco. Steve should love the anecdotes for future messages. "... God causes all things to work together for good ...."
That is crazy strict. I've definitely been way later on payments. Never had anything shut off. But if I had this power company, I probably would have.
I just today uncovered on my piled up desk a past due utility bill for a church that shall remain nameless.
Stick with me kid. I forget to pay my bills all the time. They always give you a courtesy call. ;)
Here's a new one though:
Atmos energy came over yesterday to shut off my gas.
Me: Sir, why are you shutting off my gas? I have not even gotten a bill.
Gas guy: I am here to shut it off for non-payment.
Me: I have only lived in this house for 3 weeks.
Gas guy: Oh, then who has been paying for your gas?
Me: I don't know. I guess I need to find out!
So it turns out that I never got gas hooked up in the first place - even though I thought I had done all the utilities.
Apparently, the gas bill was still in the name of the bank that owned the house.
Who knew?
I won't laugh at you now. Keep in mind I will later. At least I'm sure you had rather have to pay a $300.00 fine than to make a mistake writing a check for several thousand as somebody just quoted. LOL !!!!
sadly,
I am a member of the same club.
It happens to the best of us ;)
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