Seriously. This was said to me on a call today with my state's power company. I had called regarding a billing issue where they were charging me $300 for my deposit after forgetting to pay or else my power gets disconnected. (still not totally sure how this works). So of course, I go to the website to see what's up. Website is completely trash. It looks nice, but it is nearly impossible to navigate without getting lost. So I decided to just give them a call. Took me a solid 5 mins to find a phone number. Finally got a phone number. Took a solid 15 mins of navigating an automated menu to even get to a representative.
The first person I spoke to sounded defeated and tired. Told her that I'm not mad at her, and all of my frustration is with the company. She was just giving me the script. Told her that she probably was being recorded and couldn't say how she truly felt and that I was sorry that she had to deal with customers like me all day. Asked her if there was any way I could make a complaint against the company. She sent me over to her supervisor…
Told the supervisor the exact same thing, “Hey, I'm sorry if I come off as rude. I'm highly irritated with the company, not you. I just need to make a few complaints.” I laid out my complaints. IMMEDIATELY the guy starts defending the company. “It's not the company's fault you missed your payment.” OKAY.
So of course, I got upset. Obvs it's not the company's fault I missed a payment. However, it IS the company's fault that they are charging nearly $300 for a missed payment and calling it a contract clause – especially in regards to a NECESSARY UTILITY! I told him that there are people less fortunate than me who struggle, what were they to do if they forget to pay? He said they should just switch to Autopay…
My problem with Autopay with the power company is that it's not a fixed price. If I were getting power from a company that guaranteed that I will pay $100/month and no more, then fine! Autopay it is! But because I don't know if my power bill is going to be $200 or $300 a month, it's not a safe idea to put it on Autopay because who the hell knows what might happen. And I'm pretty sure it's not safe for a lot of people to put themselves on autopay either for that exact reason. So instead, we have to put a deposit down that gets forfeited if we forget to pay. Insane.
Anyways, guy is obliviously going to shill for this company who probably pays him the bare minimum. I say that life isn't that simple and that autopay is a predatory practice. He then proceeds to tell me, and I quote: “If a person can coupon to save a dollar, they can remember to pay their power bill. When I started working here, it was just a job. But now that I can see how a business works, there needs to be strict rules and policies to prevent people from cheating the system.” Whew. I was mad. I was so angry. I said, “Look. As a middle-manager at a power company, I'm not sure how much you're making, but I'm just going to go out on a limb and HOPE that they're paying you at least $60k a year.” I proceeded to look up the CEO's compensation…8.4 MILLION DOLLARS! Told the guy there was no need for him to shill for a company that's paying the CEO 8.4 million when there are people who are having to choose between eating and paying their electric bill.
We are so screwed. Thankfully I can pay the bill. I don't want to, but I can. I feel so much for all of those out there struggling to survive. This shouldn't be this way and I am sorry.