It's a courtesy call as in we are being nice.

[jackfaire]

We as a gas utility will go out to look at a customer's equipment, not owned by us but rather by them, and see if we can fix it quickly or what the issue is so when we refer you to a contractor you can tell them what the problem is.

As we are a monopoly in this area we are legally forbidden from having a repair department.

As such we refer work out. People get upset and tell us that not only should we be coming out the same day but that we should be standing behind "our equipment" we neither sell furnaces or water heaters nor do we manufacture them.

Look people this is a courtesy that personally I don't think we should do at all because it creates a bad impression that we will repair your stuff.

I wonder if these people ever call the electric company and ask them to come out and fix their TVs. Anybody know?

[RootedPhoenix]

I wonder if these people ever call the electric company and ask them to come out and fix their TVs. Anybody know?

It just has to happen. Somehow, somewhere there is someone whining that <electric company> won't fix their TV.

I hope I'm wrong.

[Pinkie]

I work for a electric/gas utility company in the call center. The electric company is responsible for the electric lines to the top of the mast (the pipe that usually rises up from the meter box) and the meter itself. We get people all the time that expect us to make repairs to the breaker box, the mast, and the electrical wiring inside the home. Our techs are not trained to do this. They are NOT electricians!! If you turn off your breakers and the meter still spins, this does not mean the meter is broken, it means you have a problem with a ground wire and you need an electrician. If a storm knocked a tree into your power line and it ripped the mast and meter box off your home, you need to hire an electrician to do the repairs. It's amazing the number of people who think that we are supposed to do all this and more. On the gas side, if you smell gas in your home and you call us, we must (it's the law) arrive within 60 minutes and make the home safe. Sometimes this means we have to turn off the meter. We are not responsible for making any repairs unless they are on the line outside of the home up to the meter. Anything after the meter, is the homeowner's responsibility, yet the expect us to take care of it! And, if you are waiting for your gas to be turned on, we need access to the home to check for leaks, and as a courtesy, we will light pilot lights on working/accessible appliances. If it won't light, we don't have to fix it to make it work. AND.....if you're upset that we haven't arrived yet to turn on your gas, telling us that you smell gas won't get your gas on any faster. We'll come out and make sure you are safe, but we won't turn on your gas, and your order goes to the back of the line. In some cases, we can even fine customers for making false gas leak reports. Most of the time, the false reports come from drunks....

[jackfaire]

I wish we could fine people all we can do is make a note that they didn't like the scheduling and suddenly smell gas.

[Andara Bledin]

I like the idea of moving the impatient "I smell gas" people to the back of the queue. Serves them right.

^-.-^

[jackfaire]

I like the idea of moving the impatient "I smell gas" people to the back of the queue. Serves them right.

^-.-^

Unfortunatly we have to go out to deal with the odor call right away however our techs will usually if they see a note pointing out the odor call is after not liking the schedule will just check for an odor then not do the thing the customer really wants done.

We schedule to date for everything else if the tech leaves them till last I don't know about it but I agree would serve them right. My concern is always what if that tech could have gotten to a real emergency quicker than anyone but didn't and something bad happens.

[Shalom]

I think that if someone reports a phony gas leak because they want a faster response to their request for service, they should be told something like, "Well, if there's leaking gas, we need to shut off the gas supply and then wait for 24 hours" (or whatever suitable interval you please) "to allow the gas to vent so we can work on the equipment in safety." This ought to weed out the fakers right quick.

It's like someone at a pharmacy threatening to sue us when they're told something they don't want to hear: counterproductive, as far as they're concerned. As soon as I hear the word lawsuit, my attempts to help that customer cease absolutely, and I tell them that any further contact with the corporation must go through the legal department. So sorry, have a nice day.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

It just has to happen. Somehow, somewhere there is someone whining that <electric company> won't fix their TV.

I hope I'm wrong.

I think I've heard of that happening with cable and satellite providers, but not the electric company.

Maybe I'm just weird (actually I am but that's not the point at the moment) but it wouldn't occur to me to call my electric company to fix the tv or the gas company to fix the furnace.

There again, I could call up Duke Energy next time my Direct goes out during a storm and demand the fix it five minutes ago . . .

Or maybe I should stop overthinking it and just enjoy my wine and shut up.

[Ree]

I like the idea of moving the impatient "I smell gas" people to the back of the queue. Serves them right.

Yeah, as long as you are sure it's a ploy for faster service, but what if they genuinely do smell gas?

[Pinkie]

Yeah, as long as you are sure it's a ploy for faster service, but what if they genuinely do smell gas?

Oh, we go out and check for a gas leak, but we won't turn them on. By law, anytime someone says they have a gas leak or are smelling gas, we must come out and check it for them. And we must be out within 60 minutes.

[KitterCat]

I think that if someone reports a phony gas leak because they want a faster response to their request for service, they should be told something like, "Well, if there's leaking gas, we need to shut off the gas supply and then wait for 24 hours" (or whatever suitable interval you please) "to allow the gas to vent so we can work on the equipment in safety." This ought to weed out the fakers right quick.

That’s pretty much what I was told when I had my gas turned on at my current apartment. They had to install a meter since the apartment/upstairs part of the house hadn’t had one for over a year. Had to wait 24 hours after making sure all of the valves were turned off before they could turn on the gas, just to make sure there wasn’t any residue in the pipes. The technician said something about the house going up in flames if this wasn’t done and was even nice enough to show me where said valves were located since the landlord hadn‘t. Should be a reasonable excuse to say to the fakers.

[jackfaire]

We are heavily regulated and would have to convince a bunch of politicians to let us do that and they would say no because that would increase the amount of complaints they have to listen to.

[Andara Bledin]

Yeah, as long as you are sure it's a ploy for faster service, but what if they genuinely do smell gas?

Well, first off:

Oh, we go out and check for a gas leak, but we won't turn them on. By law, anytime someone says they have a gas leak or are smelling gas, we must come out and check it for them. And we must be out within 60 minutes.

So it's not like their complaint of smelling gas would be ignored.

And shifting them to the end of the line can happen after the person goes out to check and gets cheek from the customer about how they don't really smell anything, they just wanted someone out immediately and didn't want to wait their turn.

Because you know they won't be civil when they learn that their ploy to get someone out immediately was useless because the gas sniffers and the installers/repairers are different crews.

^-.-^

[jackfaire]

MUAWAHAHAHHHAAHAHAA!!!!

So Karma took out a woman that made a false gas leak report today. She wanted us out sooner so said she had a gas leak when we informed her that if no one is there when we get there we will turn the gas off and she will need to call us back to get us out there again.

Apparently she didn't realize that was our policy see she isn't even going to be home today she figured if she reported a gas leak we would bump her up to tomorrow.

Now she is threatening to sue us if we turn her gas off, which of course we will.

I almost hopes she does because I can see the judge having an easy time with that.

1) Your recorded falsely claiming a gas leak

2) We obey the law by shutting off your gas


Yeah good luck with that suit.