Yikes! Embarrassment!

Gawd! The things that happen!

A short time ago, I was sitting in front of the computer engaged in research for my next TAFE assignment when I heard someone mucking around in the carport. I then heard the electricity meter box open. "No problems," I thought to myself. "It must be an Ergon Energy employee who had come to read the meter for the next bill cycle." The noise continued however.

By this stage, I was becoming suspicious about what was going on. I got up from my spot in front of the computer and made my way into the kitchen. Through the window, I noticed a car parked outside the house. Then I saw a woman walk out of the carport, round to the front of the house, stand in front of the house looking back at it and then disappear back into the carport. What was going on? Ergon Energy meter readers take a minute to peer inside the meter box, record what they need to and then they are on their way.

Still dressed in my nightie and over shirt, I ventured out to the back landing to investigate what was going on. Sure enough, there was a woman standing in the carport with her head in the electricity meter box. I asked if she was a meter reader. She replied that she was not a meter reader, but was there to disconnect our electricity supply.

What!?!

The woman showed me her work order which stated that Hubby and I owed over $700 to Ergon Energy because the last bill had gone unpaid. Eek!

When I paid the household bills last week, I had noticed an old Ergon Energy late payment notice. Because it was a couple of months old, I had even tried to call the accounts information phone number at the top of the bill to ensure that I had already paid the account in full. Unfortunately though, in this age of automated phone systems, I had not been able to work out what number I had to press to get an account balance or, failing that, how to talk to an actual person. Consequently, I threw the late notice in the filing cabinet in amongst the other paid bills, assuming that because it was so old, I had already paid it. Apparently, that was a mistake.

The woman from Ergon Energy told me that I had about twenty minutes to pay the outstanding fee and to organise reconnection of the electricity before she left town. I raced into the computer room where our main telephone is, removed my sleeping husband's carcass from the chair, fended off the cries from my now awake, pissed off husband about what was going on and hurriedly set about paying the outstanding account and calling Ergon Energy.

Luckily I acted quickly enough. The woman from Ergon Energy returned to reconnect our electricity supply about fifteen minutes after she had initially disconnected it. Phew! Crisis aborted!

Despite the whole situation being pretty damn funny, in all honesty, I'm actually quite upset. I find myself thinking that I'm not even able to smoothly run a household, that I didn't try hard enough to contact Ergon Energy when I paid the bills last, and that I am generally hopeless. Grrr at the internal dialogue! How destructive is that!

Mind you, if I try to look at the situation in a more objective manner, it's just "one of those things". Yes, I neglected to pay the initial bill, however Ergon Energy screwed up as well. Obviously their automated phone system could be more user friendly. The Ergon Energy telephone customer service officer whom I spoke to regarding reconnecting the electricity supply told me that the company usually contacts customers via telephone a couple of days prior to electricity supplies being physically disconnected. They definitely did not contact us.

So, I guess the moral to my little story is to try to think of the situation objectively. However in-grained and difficult to ignore that destructive internal dialogue is, ignore it! I'm not labelling it as destructive for no reason!

Mmmm!