Juniper Green
Nov. 25th, 2011 05:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
todayiamadaisyMy mother's partner, John, is unwell, so he is in hospital for tests. My mother is with him. Because one of the potential things wrong with him is gastro, they have to wait in quarantine. Which is probably not much fun for either of them (more so John, I would imagine).
I'll spare you the long and boring explanation of why this is so, but they drove to John's initial doctor's appointment in my car, so that is currently in the hospital car park. My car keys and my wallet are in my mother's handbag. I took Percy to the vet for his operation this morning and am supposed to pick him up in an hour. I have called them and explained that I might not be able to get there by closing time on account of my transport and my money currently being held in quarantine, and the vet nurse said straight away that was okay, he could board there overnight and I could pick him up between nine and twelve tomorrow morning. Which won't be much fun for Percy but he'll live.
In between all that, I got my electricity bill. I haven't had an electricity bill since May, which seems odd. I have called them a couple of times and they have been quite breezy about it. My house had a smart meter installed in July and that sometimes affects the billing process. Apparently. I don't see why it should, but who am I to argue with the wisdom of the TruEnergy call centre?
Anyway, I rang them again on 7 November, and the woman I spoke to said that it was nothing to do with the smart meter and everything to do with TruEnergy having problems issuing bills. (TruEnergy also does my gas bill, and that has been coming on its usual schedule.) But! My electricity bill had been issued on 4 November so it should have been on its way to me as we spoke. 'How much?', I asked, thinking that a bill for five months was going to be a lot more than the normal two-monthly bill. Answer: $251.71, which is a little bit more than usual but not two-and-a-half times as much, so I was quite pleased. Smart meters are the ticket, I thought.
Weeks passed. My bill still hadn't arrived yesterday, so I rang them again. The woman I got this time said not to worry, it was probably something to do with their billing problems. Tell you what, she said, the due date is 8 December, so if it hasn't arrived by then, give us another call and we'll extend the due date. Excellent.
So, as I said, my bill arrived today. Issue date: 23 November. Due date: 9 December. Total: $500.35, of which $251.71 was in red and overdue and payable immediately. '!!!!!!!!!' I thought, and when I regained the power of speech, I rang them again. This time I got a man called Paris who straight away reduced my bill to $480.34 and made it all current, which makes me think I am not the first person who's called with this particular problem.
The vet closes in fifteen minutes and my car and wallet aren't back yet, so I think Percy is having an overnight stay. Poor lamb.
It's been a frustrating sort of day.
I'll spare you the long and boring explanation of why this is so, but they drove to John's initial doctor's appointment in my car, so that is currently in the hospital car park. My car keys and my wallet are in my mother's handbag. I took Percy to the vet for his operation this morning and am supposed to pick him up in an hour. I have called them and explained that I might not be able to get there by closing time on account of my transport and my money currently being held in quarantine, and the vet nurse said straight away that was okay, he could board there overnight and I could pick him up between nine and twelve tomorrow morning. Which won't be much fun for Percy but he'll live.
In between all that, I got my electricity bill. I haven't had an electricity bill since May, which seems odd. I have called them a couple of times and they have been quite breezy about it. My house had a smart meter installed in July and that sometimes affects the billing process. Apparently. I don't see why it should, but who am I to argue with the wisdom of the TruEnergy call centre?
Anyway, I rang them again on 7 November, and the woman I spoke to said that it was nothing to do with the smart meter and everything to do with TruEnergy having problems issuing bills. (TruEnergy also does my gas bill, and that has been coming on its usual schedule.) But! My electricity bill had been issued on 4 November so it should have been on its way to me as we spoke. 'How much?', I asked, thinking that a bill for five months was going to be a lot more than the normal two-monthly bill. Answer: $251.71, which is a little bit more than usual but not two-and-a-half times as much, so I was quite pleased. Smart meters are the ticket, I thought.
Weeks passed. My bill still hadn't arrived yesterday, so I rang them again. The woman I got this time said not to worry, it was probably something to do with their billing problems. Tell you what, she said, the due date is 8 December, so if it hasn't arrived by then, give us another call and we'll extend the due date. Excellent.
So, as I said, my bill arrived today. Issue date: 23 November. Due date: 9 December. Total: $500.35, of which $251.71 was in red and overdue and payable immediately. '!!!!!!!!!' I thought, and when I regained the power of speech, I rang them again. This time I got a man called Paris who straight away reduced my bill to $480.34 and made it all current, which makes me think I am not the first person who's called with this particular problem.
The vet closes in fifteen minutes and my car and wallet aren't back yet, so I think Percy is having an overnight stay. Poor lamb.
It's been a frustrating sort of day.