'Explosive diarrhea from anime achieved.' by Kara
Saturday, December 27, 2008 at 11:56 AM

So a few days ago, I got a note from my new landlady informing me that my gas bill was still in there name, and I needed to clear that up or else gas gets turned off on the 29th. I was given the 800 number for the gas company, so I figured ... right away is the best time.

Not a difficult thing to do, really. Just make sure that the bill now goes to me rather than to my landlady. No change of address, no starting up new service, just ... I dunno, maybe I was deceiving myself, because the person I ended up talking to was from an Indian call centre and didn't seem to think it was as easy as I did.

So after about an hour on the phone, we came to the conclusion that in order for me to start paying bills that are already being sent out, we'd have to create a new account for me, have a guy come out on Friday (sometime between 10 and 4 ... 10 and 4) to check the meter or I dunno what, and we could go from there.

This didn't seem right, so I went to the landlady. I can understand her hesitance to trust me completely on things since I'm new and she's still gotta know for sure that I pay things on time. So when I came in saying that I'd gotten her note and I'd tried but I don't think I'm doinitrite, I'm really not surprised that she probably doesn't believe me.

So she picks up the phone, dials the number, goes straight to punching 0, and as the operator starts talking, I can see her face falling. The secretary and I watch, giggling, as the landlady tries very hard to check on what I did.

Finally, she's been on the phone for ten minutes and I have to get back to work. 'Can I go?' I ask. 'Only she'll probably be at this for a good while longer and I'm late back.'

'Sure,' the secretary says, 'we'll call you if we find out anything new.'

I never got a call back, so I figured things were as my friendly operator said. So the day after Christmas, I send a note to my manager saying I'm stuck home waiting for some idiot to do nothing. Several hours go by ... I get all my 'real' work done except that stuff I can't do from home ... which I have to tell my manager about. Because, well, I can't leave 'til the guy shows up.

The guy, he never shows up.

So I'm not entirely sure what to do. Because Monday's the 29th. I'm of the opinion that maybe, maybe, this landlady will actually be understanding and help me with this. I'm sure she will, actually, because she witnessed the idiocy of this, and I've paid her what part I owed her. (I'm responsible, I did it right away!)

Just goes to show ... you're not gonna escape idiocy on some level.

If you have been, HEEEEYAAAAARGH!!!