From: viking@iastate.edu (Dan Sorenson)
Subject: Meatheads at Utility Companies
Summary: This pisses me off
Keywords: meatheads, utilities
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 04:44:02 GMT

	My account as z1dan@exnet.iastate.edu is hosed.  I only
read a couple groups there, and want to read every post.  Alt.
peeves is such a group, so naturally rn barfed on that machine.
It went through the entire .newsrc, telling me all groups were
bogus.  That seems to be the standard for today.  Thus, I'm
using nn to post from this machine.  We'll see if it works.

     I would like to resurrect a word.  Back in the seventies,
All In The Family, starring Carrol O'Conner and an unknown Rob 
Reiner (as well as Sally "We have to feed these starving
masses -- pass the pizza" Struthers) was one of my favorite
TV shows.  Archie Bunker used the word "meathead" to describe
his son-in-law.  The word meant "dead from the neck up."  This
word perfectly describes the vast majority of people I depend
upon to do a competent job.

     Case in point: The U.S. Postal service has managed to use
up two full weeks in getting a letter thirty miles.  To get a
letter from Ames to Des Moines requires that the mail go through
the sorting office in Kansas City, there to spend at least a full
week while the machines decipher the scrawls, in crayon, of some
sprog's letter to Santa. Meanwhile, my checks to various companies
sit unnoticed.  I can certainly understand a bit of a delay during
the Christmas rush, but two weeks?  It also took an entire week for
a letter to make it from my mailbox to the City of Ames offices,
roughly two miles distant.  Other times the checks just never arrive.
Where they are at is anybody's guess, but they have yet to be cashed.

     Peeve: My November cable bill arrived on the seventh of December,
a full four weeks after it was due.  A simple phone call verified that
the date was not a mis-print, and so I mailed a check for two month's
worth of cable.  This clever act on my part, namely anticipating the
delay and compensating for it, went unnoticed by the US Postal service,
and was equally unnoticed by the Cable company. Today, I arrived at
home to find the service disconnected. Another short phone call
verified that the check arrived last Saturday, but wasn't entered
unto the computer until this afternoon.  Saturday afternoon the
disconnect order was given, and it was executed this morning.  A
bit of controlled spleen-venting on the phone managed to get a rush
work order entered, and my service will be restored tomorrow morning
with no changes in service, and no extra charges.  Still, this pisses
me off.

     Peeve: Today I received a notice of disconnection from the City
of Ames.  Four weeks ago I sent in a check for the latest bill.
Today's notice included the present bill, and there is no record of my
payment.  This is annoying.

     Peeve: Ah, the electric company.  Here, the electric company does
not, as might be assumed, provide electricity, but is rather providing
gas and water services.  On three separate occasions I have written
checks for the current bill at their downtown office, and received
receipts for same.  The US Postal service was in no way involved.
On three separate occasions I have not seen these checks credited
to my bill.  Phone calls indicate that, yes, the money was credited
to my account on their computers, but whoever sends out the bills is
certainly not being notified. I'm ready to blame this on Mike Holmes,
but given the similar problems with other companies I'm more inclined
to believe it is simply meatheads at all service industries.

     Tomorrow morning will find me giving two companies advance warning
that, come the afternoon, I will take time from my busy day to visit
their offices and reconcile this whole damn mess.  I will not be in a
good mood as I do this, and furthermore I want statements for the
past three months of transactions on my account.  Finally, I shall kill
and eat the first meathead who suggests that this is somehow all a
simple misunderstanding.  It is most certainly not a misunderstanding,
but rather a severe pain in the ass that has caused me considerable
annoyance, and one for which I refuse to be inconvenienced further.

     Peeve: insurance companies.  Since late October I have been
planning on hernia surgery during Christmas break.  The Insurance
Company has yet to tell me how much they will pay, or even if they
will pay.  Without this information, the hospital will not allow me
to schedule the surgery.  I have just over three weeks of break left,
and there is no way in hell I'm going to get cut any later than next
week.  If those meatheads don't get their collective asses in gear I
am going to enter their offices, lock the door, and either 1) proclaim
that nobody will leave until we have reached an agreement regarding
payment, or 2) take hostages.  Which it will be is entirely dependent
upon how I'm feeling at the time.  Given that the hernia has been
acting up quite a bit of late, the latter is becoming a very plausible
scenario.

     Peeve: that I am forced to write this long diatribe instead of
getting on the phone or in the truck and settling things because every
goddamn office in the country closes at 5:00pm.  This includes my own.
Hence, I have to take half a day off of work to settle anything, and
lose not only the wages from that time but also fall behind on those
projects I'm trying to finish up.

     About the only good thing that's happened this Xmas has
concerned presents.  First, April has fallen into some money.  Enough
to pay me back for the past three years worth of loans, in fact, but I
won't be receiving cash.  The payment?  A 1993 Harley-Davidson XLH.
I'd say it's a fair pay-back method.  The second concerns metric
shitloads of reloading supplies from my grandfather.  I now have
enough brass, primers, powder, and bullets in my basement to outfit a
Central American army.  This might come in handy during those
"negotiations" with The Insurance Company.

	Peeve: April likes board games, and I admit I am somewhat
fond of them myself.  One of the presents I bought her was the game
Monopoly.  The game is defective.  In addition to the single piece
of plain blue paper that is supposed to be a $50 bill in the game, I
have not won a single game using this set.  None.  Nada.  There is no
reason I should not win at least one game in the last twenty or so
playing sessions.  None at all.  Come to think of it, my success rate
at getting to pass "GO" is around 50%, which indicates that the game,
or at least the dice, are defective.  I blame Mike Holmes.

< Dan Sorenson, DoD #1066 z1dan@exnet.iastate.edu viking@iastate.edu >
<  ISU only censors what I read, not what I say.  Don't blame them.  >
<  "Are you *SURE* he's worth a Harley-Davidson?" -- my grandmother  >
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