Where Credit Is Due

Since my entire last post was a massive bitch-tacular, I feel I should bring a note of Happy into the mix.

The People's Energy thing was really weighing on my mind, especially since once all the other bills were paid, I had about $5 more for the next two weeks than the gas company was demanding. Now, I can live frugally, but I haven't yet figured out how to eat and get to work for fourteen days on $0.36 a day. (If anyone has, please let me know--I'd be profoundly interested!) What's worse--they were refusing to put me on a payment arrangement, claiming that I'd defaulted on one back in January. (For all I know, I may have--I do know that I didn't pay them in January, much to my surprise--but I've also paid more than half of the balance in the past month, so they should see that at least I'm TRYING to pay them!)

The part that was scaring me worst, though, was that they were threatening to disconnect me this coming Monday, the 20th. Now, I'd faced this threat once before, and I'd been assured by Eric Zorn that a higher-up from the gas company had said they CAN'T disconnect anyone between October 31 and March 31st--but the collections representative clearly said "There is an order for disconnection scheduled for the 20th of this month." That's a direct quote; pretty unambiguous, wouldn't you say?

So I e-mailed Eric Zorn and asked for the name of the woman he'd talked to, the one who'd said "no winter disconnections". When he sent me the info, I was reluctant to call her--what right did an insignificant little customer have to take up the time of a major People's Energy official?--but thankfully I got over it.

She was VERY surprised to hear what the collections agent had told me about disconnection, and she assured me that no, they do NOT disconnect gas for non-payment before April 1st, EVER, no matter how "cooperative" the weather has been. She promised to get to the bottom of THAT, and from her demeanor, I got the impression that some heads were gonna roll.

Then I told her that the collections people wouldn't let me on a payment plan, because they said I'd defaulted on one in January. She promised to work something out for me, and a couple of phone calls later, that's just exactly what she did. I was given til the 31st to pay $200, and then they spread the remaining balance out over 6 months. It was like "No problem..."--like there was nothing to it.

So here's my question: Why can't all the employees be as helpful and polite as Elizabeth Castro?? Why do so many of them act as though any minor request on the customer's part is an insurmountable hurdle, an affront, an interruption and a nuisance?? What's so hard about "Sure, no problem, let me help you?" Or even "I'll see what I can do and get back to you?" Why do you have to go to the top of the hierarchy and pull rank on people, just to get something as simple as an accurate statement of company policy? Why is that so hard?

Needless to say, at least SOME of my animosity towards the gas company has abated. But again--why does it have to be so complicated in the first place?

Regardless: Thank you, Elizabeth Castro. I'm grateful for your help.