February 11 – “The Case of the Account Supervisor”

I took on one of those much-despised, yet frustratingly required acts of home ownership yesterday.  I called the electric company.  No, we weren’t without service and the transformer pole in the back was still standing strong.  This was worse.  This was about a billing issue. 

See, about two weeks ago we switched from balanced billing to paying just whatever the actual charge was based on our meter reading each month.  And why did we do that, you may ask?  Oh, we liked the idea of knowing what the bill amount would be each month.  The problem came when we received notice that our balanced billing amount was going up again this month.  I did some checking and realized that they were holding almost eight hundred dollars of our money in that arrears account to pay for the high usage months.  And that amount had steadily increased over the last year.  It just seemed reasonable to me that if the arrears amount was increasing, then the monthly payment should be decreasing.  Am I crazy?  Well, don’t answer that.  Let’s change it to, isn’t that a little crazy?

So I called in two weeks ago to make the change and request a refund.  But no.  I wasn’t allowed to request a refund yet, because the amount of the money in the arrears account wouldn’t be “official” until after February 10^th.  So I had to pay the higher balanced amount and wait until yesterday to call for the refund.  Strange, but OK.  I followed proper procedure.

The first person I talked to was doing just fine until she heard the amount of money in question.  Above her pay grade.  I had to be transferred to an account supervisor.  I’m leaving out all the “please hold’s” and “give me a minute to check that out’s,” but here is a clip of the phone conversation.

Account Supervisor: “OK.  I have all that taken care of.  It will take 15 to 25 days to process the check.”

Me: “15 to 25 days?  Really?  It actually only takes about 15 minutes, doesn’t it?”

AC: “Um.  Well, no.  See, the request has to be sent back to “The Back” .  And then it gets approved there.”

Me: “But aren’t you the Account Supervisor?”

AC: “Um.  Yes sir, but the request still has to be approved and then it gets sent to the check writing department.”

Me: Seems a bit much for 15 minutes of work.

AC: “Um.  So if you haven’t received it after 21 days, give us a call and we will expedite the check.”

Me: “Why don’t you just expedite it now?”

AC: “Um.  What?”

Me: “Just pretend like it’s been 21 days and go ahead and expedite the check.”

AC: “Um.  Um.  Um.”

After the third “Um” I decided to let him off the hook.  I assured him that I would be watching for the check and would call in three weeks if I haven’t seen it by then.  Then I thanked him, called him by name , and said good bye.  And now the waiting game begins …

Colossians 4:2 says, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”

Father, give that account supervisor a really good weekend.  He deserves it.  Amen.