I am a friend of God
I am a friend of God
I am a friend of God
He calls me friend.
I a friend of God
I a friend of God
I a friend of God
He calls me Fred!!!
This kind of reminds me of that old Billy Joel tune, "Uptown Girl":
Up-chuck, girl!
You've been eatin' stuff that makes you hurl.
It's best you never let those bad eats fly,
Until you're moaning, almost heavin' dry.
So you're gonna be an up-chuck girl.
You'll been lookin' at that water swirl
As long as any chunks of hot cud slam
into the water of that porce-lin can --
Green eggs and ham.
(on a side note...YEESH! I'm going to be a single parent in eight days!! This fact alone scares the bejeebers out of me!)
Okay, so about the TXU saga. I am afraid that maybe I was a little harsh in a recent post when discussing TXU. I also am afraid that I offended one of my favorite readers of all time (who doesn't have a blog but should really get one), let's call him "Bob." Don't get me wrong all (but one) of the "Customer Service Representatives" with whom SD & I spoke were more accurately described as "Big Fat Liars" and one in particular will always be known in my heart of hearts as the "Bitch from Hell."
HOWEVER one very pretty person, the lovely and angelic Von (that was her name), restored my faith in humanity and has kept me from cursing TXU altogether. I will explain more in a moment. For now, lets begin the saga of How TXU Ended Up on my Shit List:
Yes, I will admit that at first, we brought some of this on ourselves by waiting until the last minute to get our power connected. SD thought that I had taken care of that little formality and I thought that he had. So, Tuesday came and the power was turned off at our new home. Fortunately, we were still in our lovely two bedroom home as our household good would not arrive until Friday.
Tuesday afternoon, we called TXU and we were told that unless we payed $150, they could not get the power turned on until Friday. This was slightly inconvenient since SD was planning on fencing along the driveway to keep our Houdini-esque dogs in the backyard. But as we are now on a budget (you know, because we bought this great house...totally worth it), we decided that we could wait until Friday. SD was ensured that the power would be on between 8:00 and 5:00 (LOVE how they narrow it down).
So, as Friday approached, SD finished the fence and we discussed how we hoped, for the movers sake if nothing else, that the power would be on closer to 8:00 than 5:00. The temperatures had been in the upper 90s all week and then there was the whole darkness thing going on inside.
Friday morning, the movers arrived at about 8:30. No power. I took the kids to Vacation Bible School at 9:00, ran a couple of errands and then stopped by the house at about 10:00. Still no power. I went to get lunch, picked up the boys (SugarPlum stayed at the church for Sports Camp. Have I mentioned that I LOVE my church?) and took them back to the base house for naps. I called SD at about 2:30. The movers were sweating their asses off...still no power.
At this point, I called TXU's customer service line to verify that we were indeed on the schedule to have our power connected that day. The person with whom I was finally connected was obviously NOT from this country and I question whether she was in this country. She was very nice, although, I was irritated. She put me on hold (of course) and came back to tell me that "your power will be connected thees day. Yes, thees day by meednight." MIDNIGHT? I was less than pleased to receive this news. But...okay. Fine. We weren't planning to check out of our temporary house until Saturday morning anyway.
I called and gave SD this news. Needless to say, he was a little miffed. So, he decided to call TXU himself. And the person he spoke with confirmed that the power "would be turned on thees day by meednight." Heh.
SD got up early Saturday morning and went over to the house to start unpacking the kids rooms so that they could be somewhat oriented when they got there. Big surprise. No power. So....he calls TXU. He asks to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor tells him that it would likely be Monday and possibly Tuesday before the power is connected. She also says that he was informed of this fact.
Meanwhile, I am packing up everything from the base house to take to our new home. Just as I am about to load the food into the van, my phone rings. He shares his conversation with me and in a repeat of the previous Saturday, I said, "I don't fucking think so."
So, I got on the phone and I called TXU again. I spoke first with the Customer Service Representative. I explained apologetically that I was fairly certain that there was little he could tell me that I didn't already know and that I needed to speak with a supervisor (really, no need to shoot the messenger). A few minutes later, I was connected with the aforementioned "Bitch from Hell."
She informed me that we were told when we called that it could be as late as Tuesday before the power was turned on. I told her that no, when we called to set up service we were told that it would be turned on Friday by 5:00. I continued by saying that THEN, when I had called the day prior, that I was assured that it would be on by midnight. I said that it was obvious that somewhere along the line, I was lied to at least once. That pissed her off and she said that it was right there in the notes that we were told it could be Tuesday. When I tried to contradict her, she kept cutting in and being more and more rude. I told her I didn't give a damn what the notes said, that perhaps she should listen to the recording of the call (and you KNOW that there is one) and get the truth. (Let me just say that I was making every effort to be calm, nice and level-headed. The three Xanax I took were helping quite a bit) By the third time I was interrupted and all but told I was stupid, I thought to myself, "Oh, hell no!"
I told her to stop interrupting me and listen already. I told her that I had the notes that SD wrote while on the phone with the TXU rep on Tuesday. That we were told that it would be Friday between 8:00 and 5:00. I also said that if we had been told that it might be as late as Tuesday, I could assure her that we would have paid the $150 to expedite the connection. I then said that it was obvious that there was nothing that she could do to help me and that I needed to speak with HER supervisor. She then gave me a little "HM!" and said that she would need to put me on hold to connect me. And then she did. Put me on hold.
Forever.
I sat there for thirty minutes before I gave up. Fifteen minutes into the "hold" I realized that the same song was playing over & over on loop. The song? Famous Last Words of a Fool. Now that was just ugly. And mean. Someone at TXU thinks that they are really cute with that. I think that it is just in really bad taste. And now....I was beyond pissed.
I hung up and called again. And the phone went straight back to dial tone. So I tried again. And the same thing happened. That's when I realized, THAT BITCH BLOCKED MY NUMBER! No fucking way.
You can't get rid of me that easily. My parents came over to the temp house to stay with the kids while I went to the lodging office to use THEIR phones and the internet connection. On my way, I called our realtor. Who is absolutely the best realtor EVER. She said that she didn't know anyone off the top of her head, but that she knew people who knew people and that she would give me a call back. (Which she did. And she had contacted the publisher of the newspaper. Who knows everybody.)
I tried calling the TXU number in the phone book. But for some reason, I kept getting that weird "fast" busy signal. So I got online. I emailed "Bob," who works for TXU. I had no idea what he does at TXU, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask. I asked him that if there was anything he could do to please give me a call on my cell. I also found a different number on TXU's website and called that. Once again, I nicely told the person who picked up first a little about what was going on and that I would like to speak with a supervisor. The person with whom I was connected seemed somewhat sympathetic. (It didn't hurt that I cried and pulled the "my husband is leaving very soon for twelve months and we MUST get into our house so we can get settled before he goes" card.) He put me on hold (uh-oh), and then, suddenly, the call was disconnected. I sighed heavily and tried not to scream (too loudly).
I called again. I played the whole "you seem like a lovely person and I hate to trouble you but may I just go ahead and speak with a supervisor, please" game. He asked where I was calling from and when I told him, he said he would transfer me to someone in that area. Aha!!! How uncharacteristically logical!! This is when I was connected with the now revered (and very pretty) VON.
Von was horrified at the way I had been treated and said that of course I should be angry and dismayed. She asked if she could put me on hold so that she could see where the service guy was and find out what the hold up might be. I was understandably reluctant to be put on hold and explained my apprehensions. She assured me that she would be back but that if we were disconnected somehow, she said that she would call me back and read my number to me, I am assuming from her Caller ID. So I agreed to be put on hold.
Von checked back with me as she sought the answers and solution to my problem. She said that according to what her records said, our electricity should either be on already or that is should be soon. She said to check the meter and that there should be a tag on it. If the tag was blue or grey, the power should be on and if the tag was red or orange, the power was still off but assured me that it would be on very soon. I thanked her profusely and told her how wonderful she was.. Then I called SD and relayed this new information to him. He said that the tag on the meter was grey, but that the power was still off.
Damn.
I started to call Von again when SD called me back to tell me that the lights were on and we were now with power. YAAAAAY!!!!! The guy had just been to the house and switched the tags then went down the street to flip the switch...or whatever it is they do. All I know is that if I had been at the house, I would have kissed that guy on the mouth (no tongue, though. It's not like I won the lottery!).
Later, when I had loaded up the kids and all of our crap and was FINALLY headed to the house, "Bob" called. He was so nice. He really doesn't have much to do with the customer service side of TXU, but he was going to give me the names of people to call who had the power to make things happen. "Bob," you rock!!
I will share with you the disclaimer from all TXU advertising:
TXU Energy (REP Certificate No. 10004) is not the same company as TXU Electric
Delivery and is not regulated by the Public Utility Commission of Texas, and you
do not have to buy TXU Energy's products to continue to receive quality
regulated services from TXU Electric Delivery.
So, here we sit now in our fully lit, air conditioned (and still box-filled) home. All's well that ends well, right? But I can tell you for damn sure that we will be switching power companies. As much as I love Von (and "Bob") I can't abide being treated as I was by everyone else at at that company over the week.
Don't mess with SugarMommy.
Seriously.
