No I really am

[jackfaire]

Our company has installed a computer onto the meters so that readouts can be taken during drive bys. This decreases human error and lowers the amount of meter readers we need. Side note no one lost their jobs they were offered other positions within the company.

Well because of the restructuring it made sense to redo the routes which means different people's meters are being read at different dates. All well and good and within our operating parameters.

Except for one minor little itsy bitsy hiccup NO ONE TOLD THE FREAKING CUSTOMERS!!!! My call volume is through the freaking roof because customer's who use to get their bills two weeks ago are wondering if they are late paying.

Most of them are cool and understanding when I explain the situation. A couple of upset ones but not many.

Today however a customer told me how bad this sucks and when I genuinely said, "I know I am very sorry about this" She told me that I wasn't.

I am sorry ma'am but I don't say things I dont' mean. I know your expectation is that I will say whatever the company wants me to say but guess what no I won't. I will say the truth and if I feel sorry I say it otherwise I don't apologize.

I didn't say, "I am sorry you feel that way" which means "We did nothing wrong it was your mistake and you need to own up to it" I said I was sorry cuz guess what the situation sucks you should have been told so you could be prepared for it.

So ma'am yes I truly am sorry.

[bainsidhe]

Still, that's pretty nifty if you can get things on the drive-by. How does it work for apartment buildings? The same? I imagine this process saves a ton of labor hours.

And if it helps with the accuracy thing, even better. I once had a bill go from my standard $50/month to $176.00. Oops, they read the number wrong. In the meantime, I'm freaking out about whether I have a gas leak and how I'm gonna pay it.

[jackfaire]

How does it work for apart

In the year since we started putting them in I have seen out of hundreds of thousands of meters 1 literally just 1 misread and that was because we inputted the wrong initial read.

And yes the same for apartments in fact some apartment buildings had them years before our other customers because their meters were hard to get to.

The cost of putting them in totally covered by us. It keeps from having to worry about things like people putting their dogs inside the house. Cuts down on estimated reads of which we are only allowed to do two a year.

I love them and I am known at my company to be a major customer advocate I freaking bend over backwards to get my customers the best of the best in service.

I kept a log of every hi bill inquiry that involved one of these to see if I could see a pattern of them malfunctioning. Only found the one.

[SpyOne]

.... when I genuinely said, "I know I am very sorry about this" She told me that I wasn't.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but since you have decided to become personally insulting I am disinclined to continue this conversation."

Many people, if not most, when called on having become abusive to someone who was being polite, will realize they were taking their anger at the situation out on someone who is blameless and apologize. And those who won't, you simply are not being paid enough to deal with.

It's a shame that civility has degenerated to the point where you can only get people to behave decently after pointing out that they are being an ass, but at least that still works.

[Darkforge]

I'm personally loving the smart meter's they are installing in the UK for electric. they've got a built in satellite transmitter/reciever so that once a month the electricity company can press a button (or run a computer program) and each meter takes a reading and sends it to the company.

they say every meter will be replaced by 2012, but it can't happen soon enough for my liking

[jackfaire]

She was polite about it but it bugs the shit out of me when people try to tell me how it is I feel.

[skeptic53]

I'm personally loving the smart meter's they are installing in the UK for electric.

A long way from my grandmother's hollering [Heavy Glaswegian accent]"Put a shillin' in tha meterrr!"[/Heavy Glaswegian accent]

[prb]

I'm personally loving the smart meter's they are installing in the UK for electric. they've got a built in satellite transmitter/reciever so that once a month the electricity company can press a button (or run a computer program) and each meter takes a reading and sends it to the company.

they say every meter will be replaced by 2012, but it can't happen soon enough for my liking

Ontario is doing it by the end of 2010, but the primary purpose is for TOU pricing (time-of-use), although we have the radio receivers in them as well, and thats how they'll record usage (on a by-hour basis for TOU purposes)