Lilly Sway

This week I was overtaken by an outrageous bill from my electric company. I was robbed and stripped of my dignity in less than a moment. (Once I had actually been allowed to speak to a real person) The company that I have employed to provide our home with electricity for the last thirty years has become a money mongrel: a pig of enormous, insatiable, glutinous, inconsiderate pomposity. This proposed reliable company has the audacity to profess to give you, the people that it feeds on, customer care. I have been thwarted in that respect. Left, shall we say: holding the bag and up the creek without a paddle. This company can only blindly consume its dues and more without ever conceding to the fact that they are capable of making gross errors. I say this only because they have made five mistakes, that’s right (5) in a row. Now, after I’ve paid my electric bills for four months, and they were quite high, I am left to comprehend that they are charging me a $1,600.00 bill that includes errors THEY made in August to September, then September to October, then October to November. They’ve told me that they found our bill to be incorrect and that we were not charged properly. In response, I asked them to come out and read the meter again. They said that this is after the fact and that they could do no adjustments for me. So, if I am to understand that if they can do no adjustments for me, now, after the fact. Then; how is it that they can do after the fact adjustments for themselves, FOUR MONTHS LATER? I think that I have the answer, and it’s not pretty. It is that they, the big, all-powerful company has simply decided that I have to pay what they are charging me simply because they are the big, all-powerful company. I propose, that they are clearly in possession of everything: computers, employees, and access to all of my electricity usage for the last 30 years. They flaunt this capability by professing to be efficient. Then why aren’t they also efficient in sending me a bill that is accurate in the first place and issued in a concise manner. If they can just say that they found a $1,600.00 error and I’m expected to believe they are founded, then that would mean that I also have to believe that all of my bills from August all the way to November and the past thirty years were correct. There, as clear as day, you have the problem that I am now faced with. If I went and purchased gasoline that was advertised on the sign as three dollars a gallon and stopped the pump on six dollars, for my lawn mower. When I get to the counter I fully expect to pay $6.00 and not a cent more. In a real business transaction the customer gets what he pays for in a timely, satisfying manner, fully aware of the cost and the method of pricing. I have to say that if the attendant had asked me for $ 6.00 and .20 cents, after the fact, I would have to challenge this reasoning. Which is just why I have burdened you, the people out there reading this, with a question. Fair is Fair but if you’re the little guy how fair is it? The unreliable, inconsistent, unfriendly energy company has now backed me into the corner and is trying to rob me as if I were being held up at gunpoint. No, they aren’t actually pointing a gun at me, but if I refuse to pay this outrageous bill than I will be left in “the dark”. This is what I am feeling, I’m completely at their mercy or lack of it. I have asked for help and there is no one that seems to want to help me. They just say:

“Oh, you mean that it is the electric company that you have a problem with? Well, if you are trying to fight them, you need an army of lawyers that would well exceed the amount of money that they are charging you. So, do the smart thing, just pay the bill, it would be the smartest thing to do.”

That’s right, the lawyer that I went to, said the smart thing is what I should do. Wow! Have any of you ever been in a situation that left you overcome by an overwhelming livid feeling, so profound that you could spit in someone’s eye? While he was stomping on all of my dignity, he had the impudence, along with his consultation fee, to say “Just DO the right thing”. I’m the little guy here, and I am being accosted while my stability is being threatened. Oh yeah, I am trying hard to do the right thing. I just can’t seem to find one single person who can help me do the right thing. Now beaten and robbed, I have to just adjust my thoughts of what is Fair and do without so that I can feed the monster that call itself Reliant Energy. What a crock…

Food for the Mind

Lilly Sway