Sometimes dealing with a large corporation is dehumanizing. Other times it’s just stupid. This is an example of how bad processes waste everyone’s time.
My wife and I sold a house a little over two months ago. We paid the final bill from the power company through our bank’s epay system like every other time. So we’re good, right?
The following month we received a notice claiming the balance was unpaid. Something’s gone wrong, but it should be easy enough to resolve by phone right? Not so much. On calling customer service we was forced to leave voice mail. That seems a bit odd, but still no real cause for concern.
Until this month. We didn’t realize they never called us back until we received a notice from a collection agency. We called Duke, and again we were forced to leave a voice mail instead of talking to a person. The next call was to the bank, to see if they could shed any light. In reviewing the details of the ‘missing’ payment, here’s what we realized.
Duke Energy changed out account number on the final bill. CHANGED OUR ACCOUNT NUMBER! Of course the payment wasn’t applied correctly.
I haven’t had a chance yet to ask why a new account number was issued, but I suspect if I get an answer it will be some variation of “We’ve always done it that way.” As far as the unanswered voice mails? To paraphrase Ernestine the Operator, “We’re the power company, we don’t have to care.”
With wind and solar gaining momentum, we will have choices, and when we do, it won’t be Duke Power.