The Entergy Odyssey
Or, "Cold showers for days? Didn't we just leave this party?"
I am supposed to be at work as we speak. However, I am not. I am sitting on the couch watching The Empire Strikes Back, drinking coffee, and looking at my watch. Let's take a look at the circumstances that led up to this morning.
Sunday 10/8: Sometimes the gas flames on the stove work and sometimes they don't. The pilot light on the hot water heater keeps going out. It seems like something is blocking the line.
Monday 10/9: Mike calls Entergy. They tell him they take gas problems very seriously, and ask if he is home. He says he is at work, but his girlfriend can be home by 3. They say they will send someone. I sit at the house from 3-7, annoyed because I had planned to go to the library, the tanning salon, the bank, etc. Entergy never shows up. But the gas inexplicably starts flowing again.
Tuesday 10/10: At 9 AM Entergy shows up. I tell them it seems to work now.
Saturday 10/14: I take a very cold shower. Mike calls Entergy. Later that evening, at around 8:30 PM (who makes house calls at 8:30 PM??) they arrive and announce that they are shutting the gas off. Then they leave.
Sunday 10/15: Nothing.
Monday 10/16: Nothing. Cold shower.
Tuesday 10/17: Mike calls Entergy, irritated. Is someone ever going to turn the gas back on? Or better... fix it? That would be a revolutionary concept. They tell him they will send someone the 23rd. THE 23RD??? Meanwhile, back at the house, at 9 AM, Entergy shows up. So he has pumped out the gas line, but the hot water heater won't light. Entergy man says he is calling another Entergy man, who will come in 1-2 hours. I am supposed to leave for work at 10:00. Completely unrelated but an ironic coincidence, the lead story in the Times Picayune this morning is "Flood Residue Crippling City's Gas Lines."
So here I am. If they are not here by 11:20, I am leaving. Based on the story above, my hopes of an Entergy employee actually showing up are roughly... nil.
5 comments:
Oh, sucks! And cold showers just when it's getting cooler outside. Perfect.
Did you try the "my boyfriend's a lawyer" thing? My husband loves that one. I've tried to tell him that it probably won't do any good, and that I can not do anything about it other than write a mean letter, but he persists.
Although, my husband goes with, "my wife's a lawyer" rather than his boyfriend.
Just thought I'd clarify.
Haha. Thankfully, I just let him correspond with the evil utilities... he did manage to get us free cable one month by lawyerly complaining.
Though after spending a year as a paralegal in personal injury, I am a master of the mean letter myself.
Free cable's pretty sweet.
After fighting for months with a moving truck company that double charged me, I got a quick refund after the first letter on firm letterhead.
But I think that's the only time being a lawyer has benefitted me. Sad.
Fuck Entergy. I had a gas leak one time, called them and NO ONE answered. Called the emergency line NO ONE answered!
Only a matter of time before a house in New Orleans blows up because Entergy sucks and doesn't respond properly to emergencies.
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