Thursday, June 16, 2011

Faces To Greet Me

Morning at Follywoods

Since nothing much is happening of note here with the Boys, I decided to appreciate the small moments.

If the Boys are at the barn when I go out to feed in the morning. 
First to greet me is a sleepy Toby.  His stall is closest to the feed room door.
Tucker looks contemplative as he waits for breakfast.
And Chance? Well, he looks as if he just got out of bed. *lol*

The barn swallows are getting really agitated when I go into the barn. I haven't really looked at the nests but I thought the fledglings were learning to fly--or about to. I guess the moms and dads are about as worried as parents letting their teenagers take the car out alone for the first time. Tried to get a picture, but they are too fast on the  wing.

Side note here. I opted for a second party energy supplier for my electric power. The other day, when my April/May bill came, I had a charge for electricity. But, my solar panels had been in full operation and according to the meter reading, I was actually producing more power than I used, so I should have had a credit. At that point, I went back and reviewed all the bills I'd gotten before switching over, to discover I'd been wrongly charged on all but one of them.

So, I called the second party energy company. The promised to look into it.  Then I called my primary service provider, PSEG.  As soon as I told them what had happened, they said, "Uh oh." Apparently, they had been having a lot of trouble with second party providers and solar energy systems.  They gave me a special number to call, which I did.

I then had to call back the second party company to explain to them what had happened. The rep there told me he needed to see all my past bills in order to straighten things out, as they "never actually get to see the bills."  Huh?  He wanted me to either email or fax over any bills I felt were in dispute.

Now, I am not a math genius, nor am I an accountant. Figuring out kilowatt charges and tax is not exactly my area of expertise. I told him that I was rather annoyed they I was going to have to spend my time calculating their errors when they were the ones who had made the mistakes. He proceeded to blame PSEG and the meter readings that somehow resulted in a "glitch" in their system.

I ask you.--how can you mistake a -432 kwh (yes, that's negative energy use), or charge for both energy produced and energy used on another bill?. The "mistakes" were not even consistent.  

Then, when I again said that it was going to be a pain to review all my bills dating back to November, he said, "Well, it's going to be extra work for us to examine them too and make the adjustments."

HEY!! You are the "service" provider, remember? YOU are the ones who promised me that there would be no problem if I had solar energy. YOU are the ones who guaranteed me that my energy costs would be lower with your company. The extra work is YOUR fault, not mine. I don't care if you have to work to clear up the mess. You owe me money and I want it back. (Well, I didn't say that, but I surely did think it--shouting and all.)

The solution is that this poor beleaguered employee will have to look over the bills I faxed over--after using my printer and ink to make copies off the Internet since I wasn't able to download the PDF files. And he will have to do the math which I will have to check. And they are going to have to pay me back.  And, at their suggestion--which was my plan all along--I am ending my business with them.

I have my calculator ready. I can do the math, even though it's not my strongest skill.

Meanwhile, it's one more lesson on the sorry state of some US businesses who seem to have forgotten just what it means to provide customer service.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:07 PM

    Like the pictures of the sleepy Boyz. Hoping to get over to see my three this afternoon. I think utility companies are often among the worst of the "service" providers - good luck getting that sorted out.

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  2. Great pictures of the kids. They look so cute.

    I'm thinking service providers these days don't know what that really entails do they? Good luck, hope you get lots of money back and splurge on something.

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  3. Ugh - I recently had a very unsatisfactory conversation with my electric utility, where they were too busy (and much too stupid) to explain the math they used to calculate a recent credit issued. I asked the question seven ways from Sunday but no dice.

    I hope you enjoy your credit, and love the sleepy horse pictures :)

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  4. It is usually productive to request a conversation with a supervisor. Mentioning the term "Public Utilities Commissioner" has also worked for me in the past.

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  5. Good for you to catch the error and then insist, in the face of resistance, that they fix it. Clearly they don't hire rocket scientists for either customer relations or billing.

    Chance, well, you know how boys need their sleep.

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