Curses and Naughty Words!!!! (or something to that effect!)
Have you ever had to deal with one of those customer service types, who's idea of 'customer service' was to basically irritate you to the point that grinding your forehead up against a cheese grater would be preferable to dealing with them any further?
Case in point... last Saturday.
After returning home from the Dragon Boat races on Darling Harbour, Sydney... (which was soooo completely fabulous, it's getting it's own post complete with pix!)... and having just made it indoors before the heavens opened, I was thinking to myself that a nice sit down complete with DVD (Under The Tuscan Sun) and a cuppa would be just the ticket.
Alas however this was not to be.. for half an hour, one sonic boom of thunder and an extraordinary crack of lightening later and 'poof', our wee cottage was sans electricity!
Luckily for me.. although possibly unluckily for them!.. L & B messaged and I was off to their lovely (and fully powered!) home for dinner.. (Thai Chicken yummo!..see L & B's Burnt Offerings for the recipe... just click on 'kitchen').
Getting back home again at half after midnight I kinda figured the power would be back on. Nuh uh!!
And so begins my experience with the joys of my power company's graveyard shift customer service team and while the contents of this blog have always been a miracle cure for insomnia for you dear listener.. I won't bore you with all the details except for a few priceless gems...
Me: I've been without power for 8 hours already.
Her: There's been no report of power outage in your area.
Me: That's what I'm doing now.. reporting that I have a power outage.
Her: If only you could've called and reported it earlier.
Me: Would that have made any difference?
Her: Probably not .. we weren't taking calls earlier due to alot of power outages
Her: Can I have your address please?
Me: yes (gives address)
Her: I have no record of a house being at that address.
Me: Well I've been a customer with you for 16 years.. you bill me here so a meter reader has to have been here so you can bill me and I have an account number with you
Her: Having an account number with us doesn't necessarily mean anything. Are you sure that's a house?
Me: Well it's kinda dark now being blacked out but yes I'm pretty sure it's a house and that I live in it!
Her: Ummm do you have a torch?
Me: Why?
Her: Well, I'd just like you to go outside and read me your house number.. and if you could read your street sign from there that would be good too
Me: What on earth for?
Her: So you can tell me your address because I don't think you know what it is
Me: I told you what it is and as it's shown on the account you people send me so I have to be in your system somewhere
Her: And I told you you're not in a house!
Her: Ok, looks like you ARE on our system
Me: Which is what I've been trying to tell you for the last 3 hours!
Her: Well, I've organised for an electrician to come out and fix whichever of your appliances blew the fuses in your house
Me: Nothing blew the fuses. The power is out due to the storm!
Her: Well whatever. Just pay him $85 when he gets there, plus whatever he charges to fix your toaster or whatever
Me: I'm not paying that so he can tell me the storm took out the power!
Her: Well no one reported power outages in your area
Me: Except me of course
Her: Well except you but you didn't call earlier
Me: You said yourself you weren't taking calls earlier
Her: That's not my fault.. alot of people were reporting power outages from the storm and it overloaded our system
Me: Exactly.
Now.. all of that (and more) took place between the hours of 12:45am and 5:30am.. the time it took for them to accept that our little cottage does exist, to discover that wow what do you know..we ARE customers with them and to get me back my power!!!
At 5:30am the power came back on by itself so I called back...
Me: Just calling to say my power came back on by itself. I've been talking to one of your customer service reps all night trying to get it fixed.
Him: Oh who did you talk to?
Me: I talked to (name)
Him: Oh she's lovely. Glad she was able to help you.
Me: Oh I am too. I especially liked the part where she told me that having an account with you doesn't necessarily mean I'm a customer with you, that the house I'm calling from isn't really here and asking me to go out into the street at 3:45am and check my address because I obviously didn't know it!!
Him: Oh dear... well.... ummmmmm... glad the power is back on now and thanks for calling (power company name) Click!
Good grief!!!!
Case in point... last Saturday.
After returning home from the Dragon Boat races on Darling Harbour, Sydney... (which was soooo completely fabulous, it's getting it's own post complete with pix!)... and having just made it indoors before the heavens opened, I was thinking to myself that a nice sit down complete with DVD (Under The Tuscan Sun) and a cuppa would be just the ticket.
Alas however this was not to be.. for half an hour, one sonic boom of thunder and an extraordinary crack of lightening later and 'poof', our wee cottage was sans electricity!
Luckily for me.. although possibly unluckily for them!.. L & B messaged and I was off to their lovely (and fully powered!) home for dinner.. (Thai Chicken yummo!..see L & B's Burnt Offerings for the recipe... just click on 'kitchen').
Getting back home again at half after midnight I kinda figured the power would be back on. Nuh uh!!
And so begins my experience with the joys of my power company's graveyard shift customer service team and while the contents of this blog have always been a miracle cure for insomnia for you dear listener.. I won't bore you with all the details except for a few priceless gems...
Me: I've been without power for 8 hours already.
Her: There's been no report of power outage in your area.
Me: That's what I'm doing now.. reporting that I have a power outage.
Her: If only you could've called and reported it earlier.
Me: Would that have made any difference?
Her: Probably not .. we weren't taking calls earlier due to alot of power outages
Her: Can I have your address please?
Me: yes (gives address)
Her: I have no record of a house being at that address.
Me: Well I've been a customer with you for 16 years.. you bill me here so a meter reader has to have been here so you can bill me and I have an account number with you
Her: Having an account number with us doesn't necessarily mean anything. Are you sure that's a house?
Me: Well it's kinda dark now being blacked out but yes I'm pretty sure it's a house and that I live in it!
Her: Ummm do you have a torch?
Me: Why?
Her: Well, I'd just like you to go outside and read me your house number.. and if you could read your street sign from there that would be good too
Me: What on earth for?
Her: So you can tell me your address because I don't think you know what it is
Me: I told you what it is and as it's shown on the account you people send me so I have to be in your system somewhere
Her: And I told you you're not in a house!
Her: Ok, looks like you ARE on our system
Me: Which is what I've been trying to tell you for the last 3 hours!
Her: Well, I've organised for an electrician to come out and fix whichever of your appliances blew the fuses in your house
Me: Nothing blew the fuses. The power is out due to the storm!
Her: Well whatever. Just pay him $85 when he gets there, plus whatever he charges to fix your toaster or whatever
Me: I'm not paying that so he can tell me the storm took out the power!
Her: Well no one reported power outages in your area
Me: Except me of course
Her: Well except you but you didn't call earlier
Me: You said yourself you weren't taking calls earlier
Her: That's not my fault.. alot of people were reporting power outages from the storm and it overloaded our system
Me: Exactly.
Now.. all of that (and more) took place between the hours of 12:45am and 5:30am.. the time it took for them to accept that our little cottage does exist, to discover that wow what do you know..we ARE customers with them and to get me back my power!!!
At 5:30am the power came back on by itself so I called back...
Me: Just calling to say my power came back on by itself. I've been talking to one of your customer service reps all night trying to get it fixed.
Him: Oh who did you talk to?
Me: I talked to (name)
Him: Oh she's lovely. Glad she was able to help you.
Me: Oh I am too. I especially liked the part where she told me that having an account with you doesn't necessarily mean I'm a customer with you, that the house I'm calling from isn't really here and asking me to go out into the street at 3:45am and check my address because I obviously didn't know it!!
Him: Oh dear... well.... ummmmmm... glad the power is back on now and thanks for calling (power company name) Click!
Good grief!!!!
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