Horrible customer service....
What's that? Well, I've got an example for ya:
This one comes from the good folks at
BGE!
Back in July, I sold my enchanting little house in PA and moved back to MD. Selling the house was painful (we had the Realtor from Hell), but I hoped that since Eddie and I are Maryland natives, the journey back home would be a fairly smooth operation.
A couple of days before our BIG move, I began contacting all of the essentials in MD and got them set up for our new home. When I called BGE, I specifically remember the customer service rep. having a little trouble locating our new address in their system. I really didn't think much of it, since he eventually figured out we were located and told me that everything was fine. Everything appeared to be fine because when we moved in, we had electricity!
Well....
We still haven't received a bill from BGE. It's been a couple of months now. So I decided to give BGE a call. I didn't have my account number (I've never received a bill to find said account number) so I provided the 1st rep. that I spoke to with my name and address (it's amazing how having someone's name and address grants you access to all sorts of personal information).
I was informed that I have a ginormous bill (nearly 600 bucks!) and that if I didn't pay at least some of it before the start of the next business day, my services would be terminated!
Of course I freaked and paid the bill but not before inquiring as to why I hadn't received any information about my account from BGE. The customer service rep. also seemed a little concerned about the lack of communication and transfered me to another rep. so that I could verify the correct spelling of my name and address. I verified my information and she noted that instead of "Lane" my address said "Court". Neither of us thought much of this slight discrepancy (it's not like I lived on "Lane" and the next street over was the nearly same address only it said "Court").
The 2nd rep. informed me that notices were sent to my address but that the post office must be refusing to deliver the mail due to the error. The rep. happily accepted my payment and ensured me that I would receive my account information within the next couple of days....
While all of this was taking place, Eddie (unbeknown to me) had taken it upon himself to contact BGE. But a funny thing happened when Eddie called: he was told that there was NO account set up for our address and that was why we hadn't received a bill! The rep. (this was at least our 3rd) who spoke with Eddie offered to setup an account for him. Eddie set up the account and then proceeded to call me with the confusing news.
I called BGE again. I told yet another rep. (#4) about the new developments and was, once again, asked to verify my name and address. The rep. said that everything was fine but that they had no information about a "new" account being opened for the address in Eddie's name. Strange! I didn't know what was going on. The rep. told me that all of my account information was viewable online and that I would be receiving my bill shortly.
I decided to register my account online with the information that the reps. had provided. But when i tried to register I encountered an error. My name, address, and account number did not match. I was told to, once again, call customer service.
By this time, I was pretty annoyed! I called customer service and was once again asked for my account number (by rep. #5). I gave my account number, but this time I asked the rep. to read my address back to me. The address was wrong! Apparently if you change the end of my address to "Court," there is an identical location in Sparks Glencoe, Md!
So this is what happened....
When I called from PA to set up my account, the rep. located an address in Sparks Glencoe. The rep. canceled the account to the Sparks Glencoe address and opened up a new account to that address in MY NAME; which is why I never received a bill!
We had electricity in our new house because the bill reverted back to our housing management. The bill that I had paid was NOT for our use but for the owners of the Glencoe address!
I lost it! I immediately asked to speak with a supervisor (#6) and told them how outraged I was with the service that I had received. I spoke with numerous people who, out of pure habit asked to verify my information, but were never actually
verifying my information! And now I just paid someone else's electricity bill!
The folks at BGE were quick to apologize and refund me my payment. And I got to tell you, while I was livid with their behavior, I was also exhausted and happy to receive both. What am I going to do: turn off the electricity?
We do a lot of laundry in my house. There's only two of us (not including the dog) and we wash about 5-6 loads of laundry per week. This sounds like a lot but we're big people and I think our clothes take up more space than "normal" (less hungry) sized folk. All five loads are not clothes though, only 3 of them are. One load is our sheets (which I strip off the bed each week to wash and rotate on a fresh set from the linen closet and the other load is towels. Two people, showering daily equals about 12-14 towels a week. Is that a lot?
