Dear AR Friends,

I've been absent from AR since Mid-May.  Lot's going on, and someday I'll probably post some of my journey, but not today.

Although, I probably have plenty of time that I could.  You see, I have a vacant listing and the gas was turned off because a delay in a closing caused the buyer to not have it transferred into their name (Understandably).  So I called the gas company on Monday to get it put in my name until the 2nd buyer closes (hopefully next week).

I was surprised that they were able to get her (hopefully) yet this week.  The nice lady said that they would be at the house on Thursday and that someone 18-years old or older had to be there.  I asked the obvious question... "can you narrow it to a 4-hour window?"  and the answer:  "No- they'll be there sometime between 8 am and 6 pm." 

They are supposed to call, but there was no way that they could tell me that they would call 30- 45- minutes ahead... and I got the impression that if I wasn't immediately available when they called, I was SOL.  So at 8:00 I arrived. It's now 2:45 and no word. 

I cannot imagine how quickly I'd be out of business if I told my buyers and sellers, Yep, I'll be there sometime on Thursday.  You just wait for me, and if I think of it, I'll call you when I'm on the way. 

The last time this happened, Karen went on a 30 degree day.. sat in the car and at the end of the day, got a call that 'they were running late and wouldn't make it.  I went ballistic, called the CEO's office at DTE and was able to get a different outcome.

It is amazing to me that in this day and age, the GAS COMPANY still expects that someone will waste an ENTIRE DAY in order to do business with them.  Oh wait, they have a MONOPOLY.  We don't have a choice.

Bitching about it won't change it... I'm sure that you've had the same or worse, from someone else... but today I needed to complain to someone.  Thanks for being there for me.

Guess I'll have to write my buddy the CEO to let him know that they're still doing the same bad service that they provided a year or so ago when I wrote. Maybe this time I'll copy the Michigan Public Service Commission too.

Have  a great day.