You "have to" do it online, and you get charged a $1 verification fee.
Hmm, maybe newspapers could steal a trick here?
Showing posts with label moving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label moving. Show all posts
August 29, 2009
September 05, 2007
Moving hassles part 2: electric service
As with phone service, I opted, after browsing online, to go with the company I had in Lancaster. Again, the company shall remain nameless, but once more, I will reveal initials: TXU.
TXU’s customer service rep said she could only start me off with its basic plan, not its floating rate plan based on natural gas prices. She said she would transfer me to another number where somebody else could then have me automatically switched to this plan.
(Sidebar: People of a certain political bent who talk about government bureaucracies have never done an apples-apples comparison to big business bureaucracy, I’ll wager.)
Well, after five minutes of hold time, I got a voice mail and left my info.
I tried, half an hour later, contacting the CSR main number. The first person tried to switch me over, but could not pull up my account info. The person he transferred me listened to my request, then transferred me back to the hang on and wait Gehenna I was in before.
(Sidebar two: Doorknob help us if KKR’s buyout of TXU finally goes through. They’ll probably fire 90 percent of TXU’s CSRs, in order to help pay down the massive debt from the acquisition, and you’ll never get a person to answer the phone.)
Makes you wonder if deregulated services really save you money after you pay for the post-installation call Aleve and Tagamet.
TXU’s customer service rep said she could only start me off with its basic plan, not its floating rate plan based on natural gas prices. She said she would transfer me to another number where somebody else could then have me automatically switched to this plan.
(Sidebar: People of a certain political bent who talk about government bureaucracies have never done an apples-apples comparison to big business bureaucracy, I’ll wager.)
Well, after five minutes of hold time, I got a voice mail and left my info.
I tried, half an hour later, contacting the CSR main number. The first person tried to switch me over, but could not pull up my account info. The person he transferred me listened to my request, then transferred me back to the hang on and wait Gehenna I was in before.
(Sidebar two: Doorknob help us if KKR’s buyout of TXU finally goes through. They’ll probably fire 90 percent of TXU’s CSRs, in order to help pay down the massive debt from the acquisition, and you’ll never get a person to answer the phone.)
Makes you wonder if deregulated services really save you money after you pay for the post-installation call Aleve and Tagamet.
Moving hassles part 1: phone service
I called to establish phone service with the company I had in Lancaster when I lived here before. That company shall remain nameless, but its initials are MCI.
MCI apparently cross-trains all of its customer service representatives as telemarketers. Every three minutes, the person on the other end of the phone was trying to get me to add something to the basic service package. McDonald’s supersizing front counter jockeys aren’t that persistent.
MCI apparently cross-trains all of its customer service representatives as telemarketers. Every three minutes, the person on the other end of the phone was trying to get me to add something to the basic service package. McDonald’s supersizing front counter jockeys aren’t that persistent.
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