Monday, December 05, 2005

Please just let this day be over

Remember the death Friday of my Cingular contract? Well, they are not the only ones who have been fucking with me lately. I normally pay as many of my bills online as I can because the whole writing out checks, finding stamps and mailing shit off on time is just annoying. Well, Entergy, our power company, does not have a way to pay them online on their own website. Should you want to pay the bill online you are immediately sent to a website called My Check Free. You can pay any number of bills on there and it all seems well and good, right? Back on October 5th, I paid $151.87 for our latest payment. Wonderful. All is done. When I got our next bill in early November, I notice we have a past due amount of $151.87. Now I am human - I can think I paid a bill I never paid but I was sure I paid this one. I consult checkbook. Not only did I pay it but the amount cleared - as in it was debited from my bank account on 10/06. Um, ok. So I call Entergy. They were not surprisingly unhelpful. "Call the online bill place." Great thanks. So of course there is no phone number on the website of the online bill place so I have to email them. Luckily they email me back with the phone number so I can call them. Let's fast forward another MONTH because that is how long this shit has been going on. I have called My Check Free a total of 7 times in order to get this matter rectified. I have called Entergy at least that many times seeking the same resolution. NOTHING. Finally I got a disconnect notice over the weekend. At this point, I am HOT. This is all after dealing with the fucktards at Cingular. I call MCF this AM and when they try to call Entergy, the lady tells me (with a slight tude I might add) that Entergy said they were experiencing "higher than average call volume" and then promptly hung up. I'll be honest, I thought she was full of shit and just did not want to deal with the highly agitated woman that was me. So I said fine, and hung up. I called Entergy. Hmmmmmm....she was not lying. Same thing happened to me. I call MCF back and tell them what happened. This man was confused and said hold on while he called in an attempt to have us do a 3 way. A non-fun 3 way. Same thing happened to him. He was nice enough and said basically continue calling them over the course of the day in an attempt to get this rectified. Not a very great solution but I mean, what else could he do? If the fucking company will not answer, he can't help me much. Finally we got through today at about 1:30. Let's cut this short - they hire fucking morons at this company. The MCF woman that I was on the phone with this go round was super nice. Her name was Sharon. Being that we had loads of time to chat since we were on hold with Entergy (we finally did not get hung up on) she had time to read the voluminous notes on my file illuminating exactly how long this has been going on and what lengths we have gone to thus far. She was understandably amazed. We continued to chat being that we were just stuck there. Lucky for me, she had half a brain and by the time we got a rep from Entergy on the phone, she was pretty much just as pissed as I was. Basically Entergy wanted to let me know that despite what my disconnect notice stated, my power would not be shut off on Wednesday. They were kind enough to push it back until December 15th. I'm sorry, fucktard says what???? No, darlin, the bill was paid. You acknowledged the receipt of the fax from MCF confirming the payment. This is now not my problem. Just because you can't find the money (oh yeah, you read that shit right) I should not have to worry about my lights getting shut the fuck OFF. Sharon and I both went back and forth with this woman who finally got fed up enough that she transferred us to her supervisor in Jackson, MS. At this point, the planets aligned, hell froze over and I had thin thighs because something amazing happened: I had two (not one, but TWO) people on the phone who (a) were semi-intelligent and (b) could see that this situation was not my fault and needed to be rectified. Well, halle-fucking-lujah. Jackson, MS woman agreed that them not being able to figure out where the fuck my money went is not my problem and she promptly took the disconnect notice off my account. THANK YOU, JACKSON MS WOMAN. This is what I went through almost all damn day. I am understandably a tad worn out and just annoyed with people in general.

This leads to my next topic and I promise this will elicit strong responses. I live in Jefferson Parish. Jefferson Parish is the parish just to the west of Orleans Parish. We suffered way less damage than they did. I am beginning to understand how cities like Jackson, Houston, Memphis, and Baton Rouge must feel. You see, those cities were "lucky" enough to get the bulk of our evacuees after the storms. I am talking evacuees that left voluntarily as well as those who were bussed out of the Dome. Well, I have been home since the very end of September and slowly but surely things are coming back to a state of normalcy. However, being that we sustained a lot less damage and population loss, we are opening businesses way quicker than Orleans parish is. Therefore, where do people come to shop, conduct business, MOVE TO, etc? Oh yeah, right here. I purposely don't live across the river because traffic makes me want to stab people in their eyes and then shove their cell phones up their asses. I like my town. It's smallish and I can do what I need to do in a semi-relaxed state. Not so anymore. We are crammed into our spaces because those people from Orleans parish that have been allowed back are staying over here. So while our businesses are open and our grocery shelves are no longer bare, we have to all compete to get what we need. It's a fight to drive to the store. Jefferson Parish is being sucked DRY. I know how selfish this sounds. Had the water moved more or the storm surge been higher, the ones displaced would have been us. I KNOW. Save the judgment. I am just tired. It seems like in a very twisted way that those of us who were fortunate enough not to lose everything are being punished for our luck. I am tired of going to Walmart and being pushed and it being even more ghetto than usual. I want my life back. My husband thinks I have become a lazy slug because I never want to leave the house. In a way, he's right but it's not laziness. I just know what is out there. He goes to and from work PERIOD. I do all the running. I am the one who fights traffic to get where ever, then stands in line to grab whatever off the shelf and then gets attitude from the bitch in front of me and then drives home in worse traffic to bring our shit here. I am resentful. Do I have a right to be this way? Of course not. I am luckier than most. My home is here - pretty much fixed from the small amount of damage we did sustain. I can't help how I feel though. I just am tired of the nightmare. It never ends.

Elizabeth at 8:10 PM

4comments

4 Comments

at 11:31 PM Kami said...: ((((((HUGS)))))
at 8:48 AM Danielle said...: damn gurl.
at 7:39 PM Anonymous said...: Don't know if you're in Metairie or the Westbank, but I totally agree. The Westbank is getting just as cluttered at Metairie and Kenner. Don't even get me started on the congestion around Clearview by Target and Zea's.
at 11:16 AM MilkMaid said...: We live outside of Houston....uh huh, feeling your pain.

Glad you got the light bill thing worked out. Makes you wonder bout peeps that hold these jobs sometimes, huh?