I moved to the "North Country" back at the end of December to a little one-bedroom apartment in Washington County. After a week of settling in, I tried calling the customer service line to change the gas and electric bill over from my land lord's name to my own. Should be no problem right? WRONG!
First off, it took a week to get through to a live person because of the snowstorm, which was understandable, never-the-less aggravating. So... I waited a week... Yet another snowstorm... Ok, more aggravation. Yes they are open 24 hours a day, but as I would soon find out, only sections of the company's customer service department are open 24/7.
Finally, I got through!
During my first phone call, I learned that the gas side of the bill could not be changed into my name because the previous address was listed as a business/commercial address and therefore would need to be verified that it has indeed, changed to a residence. Ok, no problem. I told them that I would have the landlord call them and speak with the Business Department the following day. And so I did, and David, my landlord, graciously spent a half hour on the phone with them converting the account, during the day, because the Business department is closes at 5 or 6 every day.
Fast-forward a weeks time. I call back to make sure that everything is ok and to enter my meter readings with a representative. But Wait!!! The rep can't because the accounts were not changed over properly. Hmmmmmmmm... I didn't think much of it, but instead went through a great big stink that night because apparently I didn't give the right information in order to complete the swap. Ok, fine... Call David again, he calls back, straightens things out, calls me back and says everything is fine. Ok... I am all set then after 2 weeks of haggling...
Fast forward another week... I get a phone call from a Niagara-Mohawk Customer Service agent. My application was rejected because I am trying to list a residential home under a commercial address... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, YOU NIM-WITS!!!
For the third time, I am a person, ONE person, living in a ONE-bedroom apartment that is NOT a Business, but a HOME, where I LIVE, EAT, and SLEEP!
Customer rep, "Oh... Well we will have to send someone out to take a look..."
I'm sorry, but at this point, three weeks after the initial phone call, numerous phone calls to my landlord and numerous calls to Niagara-Mohawk, one would think that if that were needed, it would have been done already.
So I told them, FINE, come over and take a look, I won't be home, but they could sure peek in my windows. The Rep's response was, Im sorry, that department is closed right now, you will have to call back before 5 tomorrow."
Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
So at this point, my landlord is livid about the situation and he calls and raises hell that next day and finally everything is resolved, no one had to come over and inspect my little one bedroom and I would get a bill the following week. GREAT! I was so relieved...
Fast forward a weeks time, I get my first bill...
Billed as a Business...
Arghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
Call em up again!
"Well we have no idea why that did that?"
Well, does anybody have any idea what is going on in that company???!?!?!?!?!?
The answer, apparently not, because when I spoke with them just a few days ago about this, the lady on the other end said, and I quote "There are a million people in a million different departments here and we cannot possibly know what each of the others is doing at the same time."
My god, if you can't track a customer account through a computer system in this day in age,
Why, what, and how do you stay in business?
As of February 11th, almost two full months since I moved in, I have yet to receive a modified bill from Niagara-Mohawk... And you know what, I may never because, they took the liberty of changing my address for me to a new address that doesn't even exist. Oh yes, you have seen correctly on this very report, they MADE UP A NEW ADDRESS FOR ME with out my permission or checking to see that it even existed.
Because I live on the corner of two streets, they decided to take one of the doors on the side of the building, and give it a number because they could not modify my account to make it correct under the old address that was cross-referenced with a business account. So now, I have a new address, that does not even exist...
Damn you Niagara-Mohawk, your consistent incompetence, and your extremely aggravating version of Customer Service.
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