Looking through my bills this month, I noticed something peculiar. Verizon is charging us for services we canceled (after at least 8 hours of tech support, and many more on hold), the gas company is charging us almost $300 to heat our 900 ft2 apartment for March (which wasn't that cold, with thermostat set to 68 max), Cingular did not apply my last payment (made by a rebate "credit card" provided by Cingular).
The list goes on - there is a problem with every single one of my bills, all erring on the side of overcharging.
As soon as 9 am hits, the calls will begin - shushing my babies, and engaging customer service representatives, themselves exploited, and who will not keep the promises they make. Then next month, I will call them again.
Monthly bill paying is not the fun it used to be. It sounds crazy, but it actually used to be something I enjoyed. Having been rather poor in my childhood and looking at piles of red bills, having the heat go off, and having no food in the fridge at the end of the month, I then went to college and worked like hell - about 25 hrs/week as a waitress while competing with non-working engineering students for the upper half of the bell curve (the University over admitted, and students failed en mass) . Anyway, after college while working as an engineer, and I took pride in my ability to pay my bills on time.
But I digress. We left the US from 2000-2003, and when we returned, everything had changed. ATM machines would continue to dispense cash ad infinitum, as a "service", charging $35 for each withdraw on zero balance (rather than informing one that there were no funds available, as they used to).
I'm now a stay at home mother (although working part-time), and because my husband is an assistant professor, we are middle class. But I wonder who can make it, if anyone, these days. If you don't already own a house, how can you afford to buy one with the prices as they are? And what's the deal with new houses? I just learned that "sheetrock", a favorite for walls when covered with plater, is actually paper. Why are houses made from paper? And why are all building materials so toxic that after construction/renovation, people have to let their houses "outgas" for several weeks?
Sorry, can't stay focused this morning. Just got off the phone with Verizon, and since they couldn't/wouldn't tell me whether we would be charged for our disconnected DSL again next month, I decided to cancel our phone service as well. I was asked what phone service we would be using, and I politely said that's none of their concern, at which point the customer service rep was audibly fuming. Ughh, confrontation is such a drag.
I can't imagine how someone with a full time job would have time to do this. And since all the bills err on the side of overcharging, I don't think it's paranoid to say that's what they're counting on.
I realize that this diary is mundane at best, and I don't mean to complain when there are so many problems in the world - the point I'm trying to make is that the system seems to be set up to gut everyone: to make errors that can only be reversed with a substantial time commitment, to run interference by making promises that are not kept, starting the whole cycle over again. I've had my turn with insurance companies as well, and the state agencies set up to "regulate" them. There seems to be no recourse for consumers now besides writing an anecdote such as this on-line. The BBB? I wonder what they would do if I reported Verizon or Blue Cross of California?
Now having trouble with bills is not something that revolutions are made of. But if I could just get some of my more conservative friends to understand that the system is broken, and the problems faced by those living in poverty in the US and in "developing" nations, as well as the problems they face (which they will only notice if they check their bills carefully) all originate in the unchecked greed of the corporate elite. It has to be stopped. The average American is now being affected and I wonder if that is enough to jolt them into action, or if they will continue to blame the poor, the minorities, or immigrants, as they are told to do by the media.
Anyway, gotta make those other calls. If you read this diary, thanks - and if you are in the "Nor-easter" take care.