surviving mothers day and thereafter

I know it has been a while but it took some time to recoup and I had a few things I was working on! This is always a bit of a scary time for my business, the summer is slow so I am trying to do a few things to change that. Spread the word about my blog and site and help me out!

OK so yesterday I thought I would burst a blood vessel! My son was working all day and went home to take a shower. He called me at the office 15 minutes later to tell me that United Water had cut us off. Of course my dear mother was here at the office with me and immediately asked if I had paid the bill (that sort of questioning comes up a lot when you own a small business and live by the seat of your pants waiting to turn the corner and never worry about bills again!)

Anyway back to the story. So of course I told my mother the water bill is practically the only bill I pay on time because it is always so low! My son tells me he called United Water and they said there was nothing they could do. Being the calm, cool and collected individual that I am (mind you, I am so calm I ended up giving myself a heart attack last July, a real authentic, emergency room heart attack with all the bells and whistles that come along with that particular health [problem!) I immediately got on the phone to customer service at United Water In Rockland County. The woman explained to me that we did not have a water meter and therefore they shut us off! No warning, no letters, no nothing, just give you the finger Jane Carroll in your face attitude from my rep at United Water. I explained to her that the water meter had melted last year when we had the house fire and when we got back into the house in January I called them to get one installed. They finally got back to me in April and told me they were installing a new meter and it had taken so long because they had new meters that there employees did not have to enter the home anymore they just drive by and their little gadgets read it automatically (oh boy, technology, what a wonderful thing, now if we could just have intelligence to go along with that!). So we finally got our drive by water meter in May as I paid for the past year and a half on estimated bills, and yes mom, on time!!! The customer service rep tells me that everyone there at United Water had been instructed, under no circumstances, to turn my water back on. With that said, the lunatic in me came out and I asked her who was the almighty powerful one who instructed them with such confidence in his position as supervisor. They gave me the supervisors name and I asked to be connected to his phone line. They told me that would be useless as he was either in the field or home. Home....hmmmmm...I am sure he was going home to a nice shower, pasta boiling in water, fido drinking water from his bowl, his children washing daddy's car with water supplied by United Water, his wife in the jacuzzi filled with water!!!!! My son and I were going home to a dried up well, I was not going down easily. Since I couldn't contact the powers to be I then asked for the telephone number of the main headquarters for United Water, to my shock she informed me that would be in the country of FRANCE!!!!! Now in the great country of ours, how in god's name did France get approved to own a utility company, here in my sleepy river town of Nyack, NY?????? So OK, can't call France (they are 5 hrs ahead of us), it was 10pm their time. I resort to desperate measures, I look over at my mother and decide to use her as a bargaining chip. I tell (well maybe I scream) my lovely customer service rep (whom I am sure she felt so lucky to have picked me as her phone customer) that I have a sick mother over the age of 70 who is staying with me and is in need of water. I tell her I will sue the french beret off of United Water if anything happens to my poor, sick mother (who by the way is sitting next to me waiting to go out to dinner and throw back a few with my sister!) She certainly couldn't go to my house for the Dewar's and water!! This ranting went on for what felt like minutes when I am sure it was just seconds. I finally hang up with her and then proceed to leave a voice message for the supervisor who gave the orders not to turn on my water under any circumstances! Five minutes later my cell phone starts ringing, surprise, it's United Water telling me they made a mistake and were sending someone out to my house to get the water back on. How do you install a water meter in April and not document it anywhere? Also how do you shut off water to a customer without any warning? It infuriates me that a customer service rep can't help and you have to become irate to get anywhere. Well anyway, that was the end of my day yesterday, hoping today's ending will be a bit better. It should be, I am working out so I can get my aggression and frustrations out on the heavy bag. I'll tell you about my heart attack next time, yes I was only 42 when I had it!