Which utility is messing with me now?

Did I ever start that blog label-- horrendous customer service? I have a new category-- The Nightmares of Home Ownership: utilities edition.

Well, you know about Verizon. They did send a technician out to fix the problem, and then some nice Indian helped restore my internet service from there. I've really had my share of talking to the Indians over the last few weeks. The whole experience brings out the protectionist in me.

Not having internet was difficult, but it didn't truly suck. What did truly suck was having my water cut off.

You see, when the water people were supposed to transfer the account for this house to my name, they came by to read the meter. But the meter was piled over with the previous resident's trash, so they couldn't.

Now, if you were the water people, you would probably do something innovative, like call me. But no. They just left the account in the previous resident's name, and then, a few days ago, cut it off for non-payment. And they never address these issues the same day, apparently by policy. They said on Friday they would restore my water. So imagine my surprise when I came home on Friday, all excited to experience modern plumbing at home, to discover no water. I called. They told me the water had been turned on. I begged to differ. They sent out an emergency technician, who turned on the water (and agreed that the water had not been turned on). Great stuff, I tell you.

For a while, ADT was off my shit list, and technically my gripe is with their authorized dealer rather than ADT itself. You see, they couldn't activate my monitoring until my phone was fixed, so although I had arranged for a technician to come out Friday, I called on Wednesday to postpone that appointment. But on Thursday, they called to confirm. I told them to cancel. Yet Friday, early afternoon, they called to confirm. I told them to cancel. So on Friday, late afternoon, they called to say the technician would be there in 15 minutes. I told them that I had canceled twice. They acknowledged that those phone calls had taken place, plead confusion.

It gets better. They waived my activation fee, but asked me to write a voided check nonetheless to show proof of account. The technician asked me to void it across the back, so I did. So imagine my surprise when my bank account showed an overdraft fee, because those jackasses tried to deposit a voided check, and the jackasses at the bank processed the transaction. Stellar.

Adding to the joys of this week is the incorrigible dumbass that is my cat. I moved her on Monday. She wasn't happy, whined even more than usual. On Tuesday, a cleaning crew came through. Second one-- the first one did a very poor job. This second one came highly recommended. And yet, things are still dirty. Is it too much to ask, when people are charging you $230 for 1,400 square feet, to clean the tops of cabinets and ceiling fans? I didn't ask them to make my bed hotel-style or consolidate my strategically separated piles of paper. I asked for them to clean the parts of the house I would have a hard time cleaning.

But I digress. The day they came, Gracie was nowhere to be found. I was really worried, to the point where I was actually relieved when the little bitch woke me up with her whining at 4:30am the following morning. So I wasn't worried when I heard but didn't see her the following evening. I looked around, but she was nowhere. Eventually, I deduced that she had climbed into a hole in the wall and was hiding under the stairs. She wanted to come out, but not enough to show her face. Until the next morning, when she'd apparently had enough and stuck her head out so she could be rescued. I had to lean over the filthy heating system and scoop her out by the scruff of her neck. Keep in mind this was one of the mornings that I had no water.

Which, by the way, should really be cause for reflection on how most people in this world lack water on a daily basis. And I acknowledge that. But it still sucked to be without it for two days, even though I had access to water (and even showers) at work.

***
Things are starting to look up. After all, my internet and water are restored, and my cat is not stuck inside the wall. I'm slowly making headway with all these boxes, although there's still stuff everywhere. Still, it's starting to look more and more like a house.

The kitchen is coming together, as is the dining room. You wouldn't realize how little I drink or how much I hate people based on how much decorative drinkware I have.

Oh, and I actually fixed something today. It wasn't complex, but it did require a minimal amount of critical thinking.

It's good to be back.