You have no reason to believe I'm not a deadbeat. You don't know me at all, and I can be another bum who didn't pay his power bill, and is trying to get out of it.
But before you judge, let me illustrate a background. Several months prior to this incident, my girlfriend of two years broke up with me. We were equals in the relationship, but she was far superior with organization. So she kept me organized. It was incredible, the way I excelled with her on my back about the things I couldn't do alone.
As if I wasn't bad enough at paying bills, the utilities quickly slipped even further in my list of things to do, as partum-depression kicked in.
So, as I said, you have no reason to believe that I'm not a deadbeat, but at least you know my situation.
As you would assume, three months of not paying Duke Power's energy bills, my power was shut off. But that's not where the problem resided. The larger problem was: Nobody informed me that my power was cut off. Even the lights didn't inform me, as they stayed lit. My power was not obviously cut off, and I continued microwaving borritos, and using my washing machine as a hamper. While I continued to fall into a deeper resentment and desperation regarding my ex girlfriend, at least I had power. I had no idea my power was supposed to be off.
Four months after the breakup, my power shut off, and I was in the dark.
Had I not paid? Was I on automatic withdrawals and my credit card maxed out? I had no idea; my better half babied me. Now that the issue was obviously in the forefront of my mind, I logically called Duke Power's customer service. This is when I found out my power had been disconnected a month before. I asked how much it would cost to reconnect it, because at this point I would rather suck it up and pay the disconnect fee, then have another stress over my head. The customer service representative explained that I needed to talk to the security department -- or some other department that was very similarly named -- before my power could be restored. They transferred me, and a tired lady answered the phone. It sounded like she was ready for the day to be over, and sounded like she had dealt with obnoxious people all day.
"You are being charged with tampering with our equipment" she started. I wasn't being charged in the judicial sense, but rather being fined. "You are also paying a $60 fee for the investigation." bewildered, I asked her to restate what she had said, because I was...well, in the dark. In not so many words, she explained that a month ago, my power had been cut off, and I had tampered with the box that held my power. Whatever that means; I'm a decanted. Everything I know about technology I wrote in my previous sentence.
My power had been cut a month previous and I was not aware of it. I was not aware of it because my power was still running. The reasoning was that I must have hacked Duke Power's equipment somehow to turn my power back on. Okay, no problem yet, because they are going to launch an investigation.
"When the investigation is run, and I am found innocent of any wrong doing, will I be reimbursed?"
I could hear her smirk over the phone. "The investigation has already gone through
sir." She said "sir" with a dispassionate arrogance, as if saying "you're another bum who didn't pay his bill, and is trying to get out of it."
I was shocked. I tried to formulate a defense, but there was no point. The more I thought about words to use, the more I realized they would be useless. And more to the point, this is yet one more thing I did not want over my head while dealing with the issues that come with break ups. I was seeing this girl around town with other guys, and her friends were not being helpful in getting my to forget. So, I sucked it up, and paid the 60-someodd dollars that it took for some Duke power employee to find me guilty.
I sucked it up, like a good little consumer, and moved on.
Two years later was Saturday May 21st. I was over my ex girlfriend and onto a new life.
The new problem arised when I got a new credit card, and never updated Duke Power. I unknowingly stopped paying Duke Power. Coincidently, my deposit was being applied to my late fees, so for all intents and purposes, I was a good, paying customer. This continued until May 21st, when I got a letter explaining that my power had been cut off. I looked around. The lights were on, and my dishwasher was running. I reread the letter. "This letter is to inform you that your power was disconnected on May 13th. You have been found guilty of tampering with Duke Power equipment. Your power will remain off until you pay a reconnect fee."
One thing the breakup with my ex did for me was force me to realize how organized my life needed to be. So after the 12 steps off loss, I became very organized. To this end, I recorded every bit of information, including the time of day that I called Duke Power's customer service, and the names of the people I spoke with. This was May 21st, at 8:47 A.M. I spoke with Gary, regarding my electricity being cut off a few days prior, and the subsequent investigation that found me guilty of tampering.
"So is my power supposed to be off?" I asked Gary.
"Oh, it's off right now," he responded. I looked at my ceiling fan then at my computer monitor, where I was taking notes. "My power is still on," I said, almost implying a question.
"It shouldn't be," he protested. In another month, if I had not read the letter, an investigation would have been sent forth, and I would have been found guilty of tampering again; this is because my power was on, even though it was shut off.
After a few minutes of insuring him that my power was infact still on, we arranged payments. In a possible fit of being caught on the mistaking end, he waved the $60-something investigation fee. He assured me he would send someone to reinvestigate.
I will explain the cause of this mishap in a few short paragraphs. It took me, however, hours on the phone before I finally got an explanation for what happened.
Dukepower has a system called Automatic Turnon. If the client requests the power turned back on, then the power is immediately turned back on, should the previous account get closed. This is put in place in the event that an apartment tenant leaves, the property management has power they can use to clean, repair, or show the apparently, while nobody is living there.
So, I had been the victim of an Automatic Turnon. I had not paid my bill and my power was disconnected. The workers had switched the power to my apartment complex's name, and power resumed at my apartment. A month later, power was still on, and therefore, I had defrauded Duke Power.
A friend I hadn't spoken with in several years started to work customer service at another power utility company, after gradating college and parting ways. I described my situation, and he immediately recognized it as an Automatic Turnon, but said this should only happen in a case where the client requests the power is turned off.
There are two explanations. First, they are trying to defraud their customers. Knowing Dukepower's horrible record, this is a good choice. If they aren't trying to defraud, then they are incompetent.
This happens quite a bit, apparently. Just ask their customer service desk. I am sure they are flooded with people "claiming" they didn't turn their power back on. How many of these customers genuinely didn't? From the tone of voice from the customer service personnel, it seems like they lean towards Duke Power's side.
So what does an American do about this? The great thing about being in America, is we have the great economic vote. The one thing that separates our commerce from any other in the world, is that we do not allow price gouging or monopolies or anything else that forces consumers to be less than savvy. However, there is no power company anywhere in my city other than Duke Power. There was a small company that only operated thirty miles outside of town, but even if I moved there just to avoid Duke Power (yes, I debated that possibility), it was a Duke Power subsidiary. Like a franchise for the utility industry.
All in all, I have decided that Duke Power is an asshat of a company, and am copying this, minus the cusswords, to all potential investors, news papers, college radio stations, associated press I have access to, and all of my friends blogs. I imagine after several hours of work, I can inform thousands of resources that Duke Power is not a good place to invest.
