Friday, October 01, 2004

NW Natural is teh suck.

I just had the strangest conversation with the gas company. They're now officially worse than the cable company: I have to take a whole day off from work Wednesday and wait for them to get there so they can do a "safety check" on our furnace, before they will turn on the new gas service that they just connected to us. They actually suggested leaving a key outside so they could get in, and no, they wouldn't let me bring it to their office. First she offered to have the technicians call 10 minutes before they arrive so I could go home from work. Who lives that close to work? Then I asked her to have them call anyway so I'd know when they're on their way. Nope, that's too much work for them to call everybody for 30 seconds each, unless they are actually at work.

All this is after fighting with them for a month, to get us connected for new gas service. It's not rocket science, it's something they do every week. Maybe I wouldn't be dealing with this if the sellers of our house had actually had the new gas furnace hooked up to a gas line. They aren't charging me any money for the hookup, so the seller really has no excuse. Maybe I can sue the guy in small claims court for selling us a house with no working heat.

I can't believe the incompetence. Now I'm considering converting the furnace to propane just to be rid of these morons. Apparently they don't want our money badly enough to not suck.

UPDATE:

I called back because now I have a meeting on Wednesday. The guy starts with the phony scripted "how may I provide you with excellent service?" So I tell him my story, and ended with "I'm not sure how you CAN provide me with excellent service. It doesn't sound like an option."

To make a long story short, homey came through for me. Now I just have to take Tuesday afternoon off, but they might arrive after 5. No worries; they'll be done in record time, since the furnace is A-OK. I had to fix the wiring on the thermostat myself, though: whoever installed the furnace connected it to some excessively-spliced wires going nowhere, instead of the thermostat wires that I found dangling nearby.

Sweet, glorious heat -- it's about time. At least this weekend will be warm.

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