Electric Company billing headache

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

Y2K related? Maybe sorta... Maybe not sorta....

Our elec utility just told us our power bill hasn't been paid since Feb. We normally pay by phone (1-2-3 done and no stamp or filling out forms).

Back in Feb they moved to a new billing system so they could be Y2K compliant. Even had an ad in paper "don't bother calling for a few days because we won't be able to help you".

They said we have to cough up mega bucks or our power will be cut off. In reply I mentioned I recalled their computer upgrade right about the last time they say we last paid our bill, and "If we haven't paid in six months WHY haven't you guys cut off our power???"

To which the lady said: "ah...ah...ah...well... You better pay or the power will be turned off".

I said "I don't think so lady" and I hung up on her. I didn't bother mentioning we have copies of our utility bills noting payments made. Why make it easy on them when they are trying to dump on and screw us over?

Next we called PUC and lodged a complaint. We were told to pay only current bill and they would investigate, and we are to get copies of our bank statements that show bills paid. I have not been happy with PP+L since I found out how they were dealing with Y2K. No way we're going to make this easy for them. They have a LOT of explaining to do as publicly as we can force them to. Frankly, I was REAL tempted to let them cut off power then I could call newspaper and make a big deal out of it. Fact is we really don't need them as much as they think we do.

-- Art (artw@lancnews.infi.net), August 11, 1999

Answers

Welcome to the Brave New World.......

Got paper records......

-- helium (heliumavid@yahoo.com), August 11, 1999.


Great story Art, thanks for sharing it...I have seen numerous examples of buggy software coming from y2k upgrades. In some cases the "fix" is worse than the minor y2k bugs in the old programs (sometimes they even go back to the old). Y2K is real, it just happened in 1999...Jan.1 2000 should be much, much better.

Regards,

-- FactFinder (FactFinder@bzn.com), August 11, 1999.


believe me, I have ALL my paper records!

-- ed (edrider007@aol.com), August 12, 1999.

Make sure you keep your BANK records. You may need them if you didn't buy enough TP. They will be good for little else.

"But look, right here, it says i HAD $1500 in your bank". "Yes sir, i know what you had but unfortunately we must go by OUR records and they aren't currently available. Here's a cherry sucker, sucker!"

br14

-- br14 (br14@bout.done), August 12, 1999.


Y2K is real, it just happened in 1999...Jan.1 2000 should be much, much better.

Unfortunately, if the only Y2K problems are Y2K fixes, then there wasn't anything that needed to be fixed in the first place.

Nice try, though.

-- Lane Core Jr. (elcore@sgi.net), August 12, 1999.



Moderation questions? read the FAQ