Worst Customer Service Ever, and Another GenCon Pic

Bounce Energy has absolutely the worst customer service I’ve ever experienced with any company.  Some of you may have read about my ongoing issues with them, which basically started with them screwing up from the very first day I had service with them.  They billed me for the wrong ESID #, for the wrong address.  Getting that sorted out, my proper ESID added, and getting the charges they tried to lump onto me for fixing THEIR mistake, and simply getting my bill straightened out has taken months of frustration.  I’ve been flat out lied to by Bounce CSRs, I’ve seen them repeatedly ineffectual at following through on what should be relatively simple changes/fixes that I was PROMISED by their supervisors would be handled that day, or the next . . . and I’ve received precisely a total of TWO return phone calls from anyone from Bounce ever.  Yet I’ve been told I’d be called back by someone there (after my issues were resolved, of course) probably a dozen times.

Yesterday, I got home from work, to find my apartment oddly quiet.  Why?  Because my apartment was devoid of power.  They’d frigging disconnected me.  By mistake/accident.  In calling them, on my cell phone, to get this mess sorted out, I got disconnected/hung up on twice.  I was spoken to rudely.  I was berated, accused of lying, and told flat out things that contradict the pink piece of paper I was holding in my hand from Bounce – the one that told me to either call them, or use their web site online to make my payment to avoid disconnection. The final supervisor I talked to was so confused by my bill from Bounce, she ended up arguing with me about what I’d paid and suggested that I was disconnected because I didn’t pay enough.  I quite simply paid what their web site’s billing section for my account said I owed.  Simple enough, right?  My current bill is really amusing.  My current monthly charges, indicated on it?  $-42.99.  Then there’s the amount due for my Next billing cycle, not due until September 8th (Currently, nothing is due – zero balance – as the only semi-intelligent rep I spoke to observed, there’s no reason I should have been disconnected) is $137.01.  Oh, but if I wait until After the due date . . . it’s $134.86.  Wait, what?  I save $2.15 if I pay my bill AFTER the due date?

Lunacy.  Insanity.  Absolute, ludicrous incompetence.  After my power is turned back on, I’m looking for a new energy provider ASAFP.  I’m done with Bounce screwing up with me.

On more amusing notes, here’s something that’s just too awesome not to link:

Automatic Pancake Machine: 200 pancakes per hour

Next up, here’s the next GenCon pic:

[singlepic id=41 w=320 h=240 float=center]

This girl was actually featured on an article on this year’s GenCon in the Indianapolis Star: Despite recession, Gen Con Indy drew 27,900 I ran into her as she was waiting for the elevators on Saturday as I was heading up to grab food before my DM shift, and she was en route to the costume contest.

Stuff of the Day

Update: Blah.  Not lots to say here.  Work was work.  I chatted for a decent amount of time and talked on the phone for a while with womenfolks (well, just one on the phone).  Watched the 2nd and 3rd episodes of the Torchwood: Children of Earth miniseries.  Had dinner.  That’s about it.  So happy that this week is coming to an end, looking forward to my date tomorrow night.

Got paid today.  Money from that paycheck has vaporized alarmingly quickly.  Cable, Verizon, Airfare to Indy for GenCon.  Yeah, that hurt.  $346 was the best I could score, even with The Priceline Negotiator working his dubious magic (not as magical as I had been led to believe).  Having to borrow some money from my Dad for 4 weeks so I can be sure I don’t starve and so forth.  Bounce Energy STILL has my account screwed up.  Called, left two different voicemails to people there (Though I don’t know if one of the extensions actually is anyone or not), filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, and even griped on Twitter.  Someone at Bounce responded on Twitter and I emailed them about it, going with cut ‘n paste from my BBB complaint.  😉  I’ve got to budget for paying Bounce still this month, once I can find out what I actually owe them, and probably replace another wheel on my car (please god/universe/karma/luck/whatever, just be the wheel and not require the tire to be replaced now as well).

Link of the Day: Key/Keyring Combo

Spam of the Day: ” Are you looking for the Fountain of Youth?”

Funny of the Day: Lit-er-al?

Pic of the Day: Super Trooper

Quote of the Day: “Life is like a road trip. Sometimes, the road is smooth, the scenery is beautiful, and the weather crisp; other times, you break down with a flat across the road from a hillbilly with 3 teeth, playing a banjo and looking at you like a dented can of Spam out of the dollar bin at the local Piggly Wiggly.” – Kara

Stuff of the Day

Update: So, I got my electricity bills yesterday.  Yes, bills – plural.  My mess with Bounce energy still isn’t resolved.  They sent me two bills.  For two different ESID #s, both, they claim, for my address.  I spent 38 minutes on the phone with them this morning, talking to 3 different people, having to re-explain the entire situation every time, despite the second person saying she was going to take the time to enter detailed notes on the case – so I wouldn’t have to explain it all again. *eyeroll*

It’ll be a couple of days before I hear anything. Or, if is as it has been for them thus far, they never call me back, and I decide to call them Friday and ask what the hell’s up.

Link of the Day: Stem cell contacts cure blindness

Spam of the Day: “Your presence is obligatory”

Funny of the Day: This wouldn’t have been a problem for me.

Pic of the Day: Colorful map of the brain

Quote of the Day: “If you go away, On this summer day, Then you might as well, Take the sun away” – Cyndi Lauper, If You Go Away

Stuff of the Day

Update of the Day: So far, it’s been just a lovely, happy, jolly day.  <- Insert sarcasm there.  It wouldn’t have been so bad, really, if I wasn’t dealing with yet another bureaucratic SNAFU.  I’ve had hassles with insurance, hassles with my 401k, and now today, I get a call from my apartment complex asking about my electric service, saying that TXU called them, saying the power was still being billed in their name, that it has been for the last 2 months, and I owed like $240-something dollars.  Or maybe it was $280, I’m not sure.  I knew I didn’t owe it, I’ve had Bounce Energy, already gotten my first bill, paid it, and have my second bill sitting on my desk at home.  Provided proof of my service to the complex, called Bounce and had them fax over proof of residence/proof of service.

Well, it seems, Bounce has the wrong ESID for my apartment.  Which means I’ve been billed, and have been paying for, someone else’s electricity bill.  Which also means that the amounts I’ve been billed for currently, are almost certainly wrong.  The way my luck goes, the correct amounts will be higher. :/

It is, indeed, higher.  The two bills I’ve received from Bounce, for the wrong ESID, totalled less than $80.  What does my complex want me to pay them (not counting since the end of the current bill they have, or the “5 to 7 business days” Bounce says it’s going to take to get this sorted out and have them properly handling my electric bill, like I thought they have been for the last 2 months?  $228.16.  TXU’s billing Windscape at 18 cents per kwh.  With Bounce, I’d be paying 11.8 cents per kwh.  My proper bills would be higher than the two I’ve gotten so far, but nowhere near totalling 228.16. 

This is really crappy timing.  I’ve got 2 more Doctor’s appointments the next 2 days, with those copays, plus whatever it’s going to cost for any prescriptions I end up with out of those.  I’m past angry.  I’m at sort of a simmering resigned rage.

Link of the Day: Mayan Apocalypse of 2012 May Have Scientific Basis

Spam of the Day: “The Queen and Her Jester – Role Play of the Month”

Pic of the Day: Sexual Positions (for the lonely and loveless)

Quote of the Day: “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage”. – Anais Nin