energex. is there a bigger corporate trainwreck in this country?

[Ken Gargett]

give us this day, our daily rant...

telstra and the stumbling wombat will be aware that our relations, despite the rumours spread by unhelpful individuals - no names, rob - have been fine for quite some time. all efforts have been re-directed at these idiots. 

it is not that long ago that they were supposed to take down a tree near my place. 6 months of corporate navel-gazing and ignoring every approach, before i finally wrote a joint letter to the mayor, those idiots at energex, the local councillor (in fairly terse terms - our local councillor threatened to sue me unless i wrote back to everyone telling them that she was not as spineless as a jellyfish and even more useless, to which i advised her of the dates i'd be at home to accept service and was looking forward to discussing it in court - never heard boo) and the local paper 'the courier mail' (it was the last one that got action - i actually wrote to a friend who edits the food pages but i failed to mention that bit and the rest of the dills are terrified of appearing in the paper for incompetence).

that afternoon, a huge truck with about a dozen guys all in full disaster gear arrived. carrying axes, helmets, bio-hazard suits, lord knows what. where is the emergency? i explained it was the same one for the last 6 months. a tree. they went off to chat to head office. i also had three calls from the heads of dept at the council. later, they finally decided that they could only take the top part of the tree. the council would take the lower part. the small hiccup? energex planned to take the top half the week after the council took the bottom half. i am not making that up. 

more recently, their boxes on the telegraph poles broke. they fixed them but assured me that i would be fully reimbursed for all the costs i had to pay electricians. fat chance. needless to say... we'll be reopening that discussion again soon. 

anyway, i took myself away for the last week to get some deadlines done, down northern NSW. today, had to get back. A wonderful Krug tasting by the river (and I get to so few of these).

Even made certain I got back from NSW earlier than planned so as not to miss any of it.

Got home and was locked out (usually come in via a roller door). Power was off. And then it turned out the key, which I had not used in 12 years, for the front door didn’t work – and I realised I had never even tried to use it before. Managed to get in via a small door to the laundry – never used it either.

Turns out that there was an outage on Sunday and Energex (who really do make both Telstra and the stumbling wombat look competent) shut everyone down but then, to turn power back on at my place, needed someone to be there. Which, as I wasn’t, my power has been off for 4 days and I am about as happy as you would imagine.

I ask what has happened. After about an hour listening to their messages while on hold. i am told that there was an outage or something in my area. fair enough. i am told that this was on the 25th. (today, of course, the 27th). 

So i say, 'you blokes are really good'. He bites. 'Why do you say that?'

Because you left me a note on the 24th telling me the power was out. 

oh. really? well there must have been an outage then as well. 

you sure or just guessing? 

spare me. 

Why, I asked, when you have phone numbers do you not call or text to say power out since Sunday, you must be away and might need to contact us? How simple? surely a computer could do it standing on its head. power out. no contact made. so a text sent. then someone could contact them, return to the place, get someone else to help. but no. And what good customer relations it would build.

I was told, ‘we left a note’. Yes, that would be the thing on the top of the post-box which went to a soggy mess at the first rain. And so what? You left a note at home. think about this as possibly the dumbest thing that happened on the planet this week. 

How many people at home would not be aware their power is off? At home. where they are. Or would they wander out the front, find the note and think well that explains why no tv for 3 days. what possible use is a note telling you the power is out. at the place it is out. 

How stupid are they? Actually, i was kind enough to explain how stupid they are to them and all I was told was we understand and sympathise. Well no, if you understood you would not do to. and if you tell me you understand again, i will come down this line and rip your head off (i was getting a smidge frustrated). he was at least clever enough not to do that. 

So I have had to sit around and wait for them to come and restore power and even worse, instead of looking at the wonderful Krugs and having a fabulous time, the afternoon now required for cleaning out four days of food from the fridge and freezer.

So not happy.

but wait, always a silver lining. my aircon system for the main (large) room died 3-4 years ago. had it checked out by a technician from the company and was told no hope. dead. i would need to replace it and that would cost, for one that would work in this room, at least $3-4,000. bugger that. so four layers of woollies in winter and fans in summer. 

before energex got here, i had a look at the fuse boxes etc (like i'd have a clue). everything was on. except one tiny little switch right at the end. it was off. had a look and in pencil, someone had once scribbled 'a.c.' next to it. so i flicked it on. and when the electricity finally came back on, the aircon came back in full force. so glad i did not pay that tosser four K for a new aircon. of course, it would have been nice for this to have happened at the beginning of a long hot summer and not on the very first cold day we have had for months. but still. 

anyway, i'm off to think of ways to annoy energex.