Nice Try

 This morning, with my first cup of coffee in front of me, I called the electric company--again. When we moved here, I did the usual stuff to start the account here. Because bills are sent every other month, I wasn't expecting one until mid/late August. Imagine my surprise then, when a week ago I found a bill in my email. That surprise turned to shock when I saw the amount. The shock turned to annoyance when I downloaded the bill and saw the problem. The billing period was supposed to start on June 5. They started it on February 5. This means that they stuffed lots of fees and taxes on those fees onto this bill. In addition to that, they had the wrong starting meter reading. And they had the postal address wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I called, pressing all the required buttons and answering the security questions. The woman went to investigate. She came back, thanked me for waiting, and the call got cut off. I called again. I pressed all the buttons. I listened to the screeching trumpet they have for their 'on hold' music--an insanely bad choice, because it does grate on the nerves and people are already not in a good mood when they're trying to contact this company. When the person answered, we went through all the security questions again. Rather than repeat myself, I told him I'd just been cut off. He looked at my account and could see what was going on. He told me that it sometimes happens that when people move out of a property and close their account, no one takes responsibility for it as they should. So I should send pictures of the lease pages with dates on showing the move-in date and the correct meter reading. He said he fixed the postal address. I sent the relevant lease pages, including the signature page which has a date on it. I first got an automated reply saying it would take 24 hours for someone to reply. In less than an hour, I had a reply saying that my email had been forwarded to the billing department and I should allow 5 working days for them to send a correct bill. No real surprise that the 5 days came and went without any further communication, other than an automated email asking me to rate my experience with customer service. Um, I don't really think you want me to do that right now, people.

So this morning, I did the whole thing again. The customer service person I was speaking to asked if I'd received any further communication. I said I had not. She told me that when she looked at my account, she saw a message saying they'd been unable to approve the change because what I sent wasn't proof enough. I needed to send the entire tenancy agreement. I told her that to do that, I would have to take a picture of each individual page and send it. 'Do you really want me to send you 10 pages of this stuff?' We went back and forth. At some points she seemed to indicate that I should send the 10 attachments and at others that I should send any page with a date. I asked her if it would work to have the letting agent who manages the place call and correct the issue. At first she said no. Later I said that since the problem seems to be that no one is on record for the four months between 5 February and 5 June, if he calls and sorts that out, that should solve the problem. 'Yeeeas, maybe,' she squeaked. She said she could extend the lock on the bill, which means they won't request the money from the bank for an extra week. She reiterated that I should send the lease today to the same email address that I sent things before. 

There were several things that irritated me about this whole thing. One of them was that when they decided they weren't going to correct the bill without further proof, they didn't bother to tell me. It seems like they were just hoping I'd let it go and they'd be able to stick us with the bill. We're not talking a small amount here, either. They are overcharging us by more than 100 euro.

I got off the phone, took a picture of each page of the lease, attached them all to an email and sent it. I contacted the letting agent and said he needs to contact them and sort out the 4 month gap. I have gotten no reply to my email--not even the automated one. Once again, I have no idea what is going on. I checked the account and the debit date is not showing that it's been extended. I have no way of knowing if they fixed the postal address because all I have access to is the mess of a bill with everything wrong in it. I suppose I'm going to have to start off tomorrow with another phone call to some poor person somewhere who is going to have to converse with a very unhappy woman who does not enjoy starting off her day with these conversations. If nothing else, maybe they'll get tired of me calling them. It wouldn't bother me at all if they are as sick of dealing with me as I am dealing with them! 

This whole gap problem seems to be increasing. We've experienced it before, but it was flagged before the new account was opened, so the landlord could pay what he owed. I noticed that they've started to ask who will be responsible for the account of the property we're moving from, which never used to happen. When we were leaving our apartment for the last time a few weeks ago, I knew the question would be asked, so I asked the letting agent who managed the place what name I should give. He said it didn't matter and I didn't have to tell them anything. I gave them the name of the management company anyway. They seem quite nonchalant about it, but for the sake of the person who moves in there next, I hope it's been taken care of. People have enough to deal with when moving--they don't need this kind of crap on top of everything else!

Late in the afternoon, we caught the bus for a nice ride to get some groceries. I do enjoy the ride and it was just what I needed--a dose of beautiful scenery.

this makes me think of those old signs that say 'if you lived here, you'd be home now' we had a little further to go

This landscape always fills me with a sense of quiet joy and peace.

And then, this wee Dublin doggy made me laugh--he always does. The person who does the video doesn't allow it to be played outside of youtube, so the link should take you there--it's a minute and a half of adorableness.

I had two audiobooks come in today--one was 2 weeks early--so I have a nice evening of listening and crochet ahead. I'll enjoy that.

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