Self-Sighting: MoonCat almost goes apesh*t (long)

[MoonCat]

The gas company. Oh don't get me started on the gas company..!!!

We still have meters inside the house that need to be read once a month. I can't wait until they finally put these damn things outside so I don't have to deal with this!

Every time they come to read the meter, this is what they do: Knock once, maybe twice. Not very loudly. Then they walk off, get back in the truck and drive away. All told, it takes them about, oh, maybe 10 seconds. If that.

Every. Damn. Time.

I have told them and told them, give whoever is at home a minute or two to get to the damn door! We don't know what time you're going to show up--it could be anytime from 8am until 4pm!--we're not camped out in the hallway!!

My one sister, R, has pretty bad arthritis and a wonky knee that feels like it's going to buckle sometimes. It takes her a couple minutes to get down the stairs. My other sister, M, emailed me today to tell me that they did it again: knocked and then beat it out of there so fast that even though she heard the knock and immediately got up and went to the door (she only had to go through the kitchen & down the hallway stairs), the guy was gone! At the window, she saw the truck driving off!

So I called them and went off a bit on the guy. He was very nice and very professional. Probably complained about me afterward to his co-workers. I did apologize and I didn't swear or even yell, I just got kinda snarky because I have to keep doing this. Made an appt. for next week.

And yes, they have an online thing but it never works. Last time I tried to report the reading online, it told me that the numbers couldn't possibly be right. I followed their directions exactly and it still wouldn't accept my reading. So we have to keep doing this dance for now.

[aniwahya]

Is your sister disabled? If so I would mention that to them, and add that you think a driver taking a few extra minutes to wait for your sibling to get to the door is a reasonable accommodation for her disability.

My mom had similar issues when she worked nights. They kept coming at around 9 in the morning, which meant that she had just fallen asleep. Despite numerous phone calls and promises to have them come later it kept happening. Until one day some unfortunate guy came and woke my mom up after a really hard night at work. She went to the door, opened it and just stood there in her raccoon eyed, wild-haired be-pjed glory. She didn't say anything, just stared at him and then slammed the door and went back to bed. After that they made sure to never arrive until after 1pm.

[MoonCat]

Is your sister disabled? If so I would mention that to them, and add that you think a driver taking a few extra minutes to wait for your sibling to get to the door is a reasonable accommodation for her disability.

My mom had similar issues when she worked nights. They kept coming at around 9 in the morning, which meant that she had just fallen asleep. Despite numerous phone calls and promises to have them come later it kept happening. Until one day some unfortunate guy came and woke my mom up after a really hard night at work. She went to the door, opened it and just stood there in her raccoon eyed, wild-haired be-pjed glory. She didn't say anything, just stared at him and then slammed the door and went back to bed. After that they made sure to never arrive until after 1pm.

Not exactly disabled, but there are days when it's hard for her to get around. I actually did tell them once about that, but I guess they didn't put a note on the account. I suspect that notes on the account only stay there for a short time, because we keep having this same conversation over and over.

Love the story about your mom!

Actually the gas company WANTS to move all the meters outside, but some neighborhood groups are holding things up because they're afraid the meters will be placed too close to people's driveways and someone will knock into one with their car and possibly cause an explosion. I understand their concern, but my neighbor had her meter moved when the gas co. had to fix an underground pipe leak, and the meter is not in a position to be hit.

I really hope they get this worked out soon.

[protege]

Don't even get me started on the gas company. They're *notorious* for doing things like that--locally, they're a monopoly, and don't have to care about "customer service." Before my meter was finally moved outside, I got quite a few letters threatening to shut my service off if they couldn't read the meter. Never mind that they never left the little cards, or even bother to show up on the days they were supposed to.

Of course, this is also the same company that thought it would be a good idea to replace all of the gas lines...during the middle of a very cold winter

[PentUpRage]

I would love to see the hiring qualifications for meter readers.

Thankfully my meters are outside and at the back of the house right outside my kitchen window. I'm home one incredibly snowy nasty day, the white stuff is piled high and the meter reader shows up.

In heels and skinny jeans. Seriously.

I was on the floor laughing my ass off after watching her tippy toe out in almost a foot of snow.

[Pagan]

I suspect that notes on the account only stay there for a short time, because we keep having this same conversation over and over.

Oh, I have no doubt that the notes are on the account. It's just a matter of the meter reader actually reading the damn things.

I discovered that apparently the Comcrap techs (and contractors) around here are reading phobic apparently.

Actually the gas company WANTS to move all the meters outside, but some neighborhood groups are holding things up because they're afraid the meters will be placed too close to people's driveways and someone will knock into one with their car and possibly cause an explosion. I understand their concern, but my neighbor had her meter moved when the gas co. had to fix an underground pipe leak, and the meter is not in a position to be hit.

I really hope they get this worked out soon.

That would make me worry about the driving skills of the neighbors. Around here, the meters are either right up next to the house or down kind of like a manhole in the sidewalk easement in front of the house.

[fma_fanatic]

I honestly don't blame you at all. I've had few experiences with utilities companies.

PG&E got the full wrath of my father when they'd come out and wouldn't wait for them because both of them were disabled.

Laclede gas got my wrath last year when they were doing work in our neighborhood and would leave hangers on our door because they needed to do work and had to get in to do gas line inspections. I called every freakin' time they'd leave one and tell them exactly when DDD had days off so they could come in. The final straw was when they shut off the gas because, according to the rep, we refused to cooperate. I read her the cell phone numbers of all the people who left the hangers and told her that if I'd refused to cooperate, why did I bother to call them back and tell them when they could come see us.

Add to that we don't know where the damned meters are since they're not attached to the townhomes. They send us notices to do a meter read for them. It's gotten to the point where I call an tell them to get off their collective asses and do it themselves.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I've had gas for about 20 years. When they installed it, they put in the meters that report by radio. I don't think anyone has ever stopped to physically read the meter.

[MoonCat]

I've had "fun" with the electric company, too. One year at our old house we got the nasty letter about "refusing to let them read the meter." This was a big, old-fashioned meter that you could see through the front door window. The regular guy used to read it right through the window. Apparently that was too hard for a new guy who took over the route.

I asked them to send me the mail-in DIY cards. She said they didn't have those anymore. I called the next day and a different girl told me they do have them & said she'd send me some. The first one had also told me they didn't do appointments to read meters in the city. The second one said they did, and set one up for me.

I'm sure these companies have their share of SC's, but some of them are pretty sucky too!

[RecoveringKinkoid]

The absolute best thing the gas company ever did for me was send this incredibly hot backhoe driver over here to dig up my tank when I got fed up and cancelled my service.

I'm tempted to open my account back up just so I can cancel it again.

[Legal Eagle]

banging a meter will not cause an explosion.

you would have to totally crash the car into the side of the house to have any chance of an explosion and even then it's only a possibility.

outside gas meters are safer than indoors, because in the unlikly event of a gas leak from a meter it's better to have it disperse into the air than linger in the house.

[MoonCat]

banging a meter will not cause an explosion.

you would have to totally crash the car into the side of the house to have any chance of an explosion and even then it's only a possibility.

outside gas meters are safer than indoors, because in the unlikly event of a gas leak from a meter it's better to have it disperse into the air than linger in the house.

I guess they're afraid that someone will hit it hard enough to loosen the connection.

Doesn't take much to screw up I guess. The nosy biddy next door had someone from a lawn service scrape up the top layer of ground on her front lawn so they could re-seed. They scraped off the cap of the gas pipe while they were at it, which jostled the pipe that was attached to it, causing a nice big leak.

They had to come and dig up her lawn and part of my driveway, which caused another long saga of poor-quality cement used when they repaired it...and so on.