A Christchurch resident has done
what probably many people have
wanted to do for a long time and
started billing his power company for
wasting his time.

Mike Van Lokven, a Christchurch
TransAlta customer, has begun billing
the company $100.00 an hour for the
time he has spent trying to sort out
incorrect billing and trying to swap
to another retailer.

He said he has become frustrated dealing
with incorrect bill statements
and has been trying to change retailers
since the end of June.

newsroom

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), August 22, 2000

Answers

I do that to all business.

It is really fun to do it to the doctor and the dentist, unless they are taking care of an emergency case. I inform the staff that I expect to be taken care of promptly and will not tolerate waiting more than 5 minutes, unless and emergency occurs. I got a real snippy anwers once, that was corrected when I saw the doc and handed him a bill for $25 for waiting 20 minutes - first five were free. I paid the bill less $25 dollars - I told the doctor I was early and advised the staff of the conditions of doing business with me, they had accepted the appointment therefore we had contracted to do business as arranged. The doc laughed and said very good, needless to say they he was actually happy with me because I paid upfront not in the 60-180 that the insurance does and no additional chain yanking- like improperly filled out forms.

The cable company and the phone company hate it when I call and wiat on the line, I ask for the public affairs folks and tell them to adjust my bill for lost service -- it gets done you just have to remember that "No" is no the correct answer and you won't take it as one either.

I send registered letters to the CEO when stuff does not get resolved promptly and properly -- it happens magically then. It is really fun to start quoting the SEC filings about current problems. http://www.sec.gov/edaux/fo rmlynx.htm

Remember to ALWAYS be polite, and NEVER accept "No we can't do that" as an answer.

Best-o-luck

-- (perry@ofuzzy1.com), August 22, 2000.