Public works vent

[Scarlett]

So I go to the public works for this town.  They supply electric, water and trash pick up. 

Scarlett— hello, I called a few days ago and I understand I can’t put the bill in my name until I close and have a copy of the deed.. 

Employee- correct

Scarlett—ok, well, may I go ahead and fill out the application so we can have that out of the way.

Employee - yes ( she then shoves a 3 page application at me and asked me who all we be on the deed and then tells me Dh will have to sign as well and she needs our drivers license, too). And has anyone given you a deposit quote yet? 

Scarlett ( who hasn’t paid a deposit in 35 years) noooo.

Employee— (after I give her new address— clicks on her computer) $400.

Scarlett— (blinks). Why do I have to pay a deposit

Employee— everyone has to pay a deposit.  

Scarlett-  (blinks). Really?

Employee— yes well unless—-well where did you move from?  

Scarlett -  North of town

Employee-  oh so you had xyz electric?

Scarlett yes

Employee well if you can get them to write you a letter of credit saying you were never late.  

Scarlett ( thinking that is not what a letter of credit is, but not sure). Ok, so I have them send it to you?

Employee —. Sure.  ( offers no details of where, how, to whom exactly. )

Scarlett— do you want it faxed to you?

Employee— sure.  

 

Scarlett leaves banging her head figuratively in frustration at the entire exchange.  

 

[Scarlett]

Just now, happysmileylady said:

Utility companies, and especially those run by the municipality, can be weird.

When we moved here, I confirmed twice that because we had previously had an account with the electric company, we would NOT have to pay a deposit unless that account was late or delinquent.

Well then we get it all set up and yep, $150 deposit.  *sigh*  Call them back and they were like well, the previous account is over 2 yrs old.  Um, yes, that's what I told everyone.  No one said that would be a problem!  We did get the money back in the form of a credit, but still, stupid.  

And one would think that she would lead with ‘if you can supply proof of on time payments from your former service we can waive the deposit’.  Instead of telling me ‘ everyone has to pay a deposit’.  Which is obviously not true.  

[alisoncooks]

Yeah. I had a similarly frustrating interaction today. After taking DD to an appointment at the university hospital, I return to my car in the deck to find a parking citation. I later called them up to explain.

Employee: well, you're not allowed to park there because your DH is a university employee. That deck is for hospital patients and visitors. 

me:  he's not an employee. And I was taking my kid to a doctor's appointment.

employee: well he's in our system as an employee.

me: he's NEVER been an employee!

them: well it's probably because he purchased this handicapped parking pass for campus. His parking pass expires 12-20. 

Me: so I can park in the deck after that?

them: no. your car is attached to the citation and his pass now. You have to get a special extra pass each time you come to show that you're an employee but here as an actual patient.

me: wha..?!?! We're not employees!

*sigh* It makes no sense whatsoever. Anyone can buy the parking pass they're referring to, not just employees. (Sorry for the rant. I'm still ticked over it. I told DH he had to go figure it out in person tomorrow...)

[TheReader]

oh, ugh. 

We had something like that once; moved into a rental on a Friday. We'd called and arranged the utilities to be turned on. The landlord had arranged them to be turned off. The utility companies didn't, apparently, keep turn off and turn on info by address or date or anything that made sense, and so, when we showed up at the house with nothing on, and went to check on it (water, in particular, through the city) we were told since it had already been turned off, we had to wait until the next business day to turn it on. Which meant Monday. With a pregnant me and 2 small kids. 

Somehow, they'd not coordinated our request to turn on, and the owner's request to turn off, and all of it being one address and all on the same date, and so we ended up in some odd thing where it was no longer just pushing a button or something. 

We spent the weekend in a hotel (and luckily we did, as the electric ended up being the same problem, because of course they didn't coordinate their off/on business either).

[TheReader]

oh, and then, last time we got cell phones, they did some kind of monster credit check where they called a number and had us answer verification questions. Only, it was things like "which of these three addresses did you once live at" and a person with an accent was asking them, and we've moved like 15 times in 22 yrs of marriage, and DH got some of them wrong so they decided he wasn't actually himself. Ha! 

He kept having the person repeat herself, still couldn't understand the questions/wording, some of the info actually *was* wrong (but they had it down as correct, so....) and ended up having to start all over with me as the name on the account and hope I could answer the questions correctly. All just to get cell phones.