It's the Little Things--Like a Bill With Your Name on It

Not happy with them. Ridiculous.

Remember when you first moved out and got your first bill with your name on it? How thrilling and scary it was? Well, Chef and I are having some issues because we're waiting for a bill with our name on it. An electric bill.

Unlike most electric companies throughout the US that actually bill a person every month for the electricity they use, the LA Department of Water & Electricity (LADWP) sends a bill "every other month" or whenever the hell they feel like it. In our first six months in our apartment, we got two bills, which we promptly paid. Then the drama starts.

The last bill that came in our name was in July 2011. In October (which is NOT two months later, by the way), we started getting bills in a very foreign name. We called immediately--the day the first bill came--and found out that they had gotten the apartment number wrong when they started his account and it would take--get this-- 4-5 MONTHS to get the bill back in our name. They told us to not pay the bill until it came in our name and that we shouldn't get any more bills.

But we did. We kept getting bills in the wrong name and we called back every time to make sure. "No," said various customer service reps. "Don't pay it until it comes in your name." Then the the cut off notices came. "No, we won't cut off your service. This is all taken care of."

Flash forward to today when Chef gets a visitor at our door demanding payment or cut off of the electricity. Despite Chef trying to explain and showing him the plethora of paperwork and even walking him down to the front office (where they told him that the person they had listed on our bill had not lived in the complex since 2010), the guy said "I don't care. I'm leaving with a check or having cut off the electricity."

Needless to say, we're pissed. I've called the LADWP and they apologized, but frankly they assured us FOUR TIMES that this wouldn't happen and it did so I have NO FAITH in them. I made them have a manager call me who assured me that it was taken care of, but I told him I was stopping the check. I can't be sure that the money we paid would actually be credited toward OUR account. And I'm not paying off Ghosh's (that's the last name of our phantom resident) bill. And then I told him that if another bill or collection agent showed up with the wrong name that I was getting him on the phone to straighten things out and then coming to see him personally to eat my bill.

ARGH!?!? I have NEVER had my electricity threatened and certainly never had a collection agent visit my home. I am still wound up, and pissed.