“Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.” — From “InfernoSDRq by Dante Alighieri
A year after canceling my trash service, I am still getting billed for the three months during which another company picked up my trash. The problem persists despite letters, messages left on answering machines, and phone calls with actual employees. Nobody seems to know how to stop sending me bills for services that were not rendered.
I thought I was trapped in customer service hell. Then I met Daniel Gray.
The Falls Church lawyer has been trying to get his gas bill corrected — for the past five years.
November 2005: A Washington Gas customer for 10 years, Gray signs up for a fixed-rate plan to reduce his energy costs offered by Washington Gas Energy Services, which will be included on his Washington Gas bill.
January 2006: Gray starts receiving two separate gas bills.
April 2006: After more than a dozen phone calls and faxes, an exasperated Gray asks Washington Gas which bill he should pay. “Ours” is the reply, so he writes a check for $381.66.
June 2006: After spending Memorial Day weekend driving his parents from Florida, Gray learns that the money in his account was never transferred and Washington Gas is now demanding more than $700 (including a $200 deposit). However, the utility will only accept a $550 payment by telephone, so Gray’s gas service is disconnected. “Those cold showers weren’t too bad in June,” he recalls.
A letter from WGES arrives notifying Gray that although he submitted the correct information on his application, a clerical worker misspelled his name (“Gary”) and mistakenly assigned his WGES account number to another customer with a similar address. However, after calling WGES’ billing subcontractor in Cleveland at least 10 times to find out why he is still receiving two bills for the same service, an employee there questions why he is using someone else’s account number.
August 2006: During yet another phone call to the Cleveland office, Gray overhears an employee refer to him as “the irate customer.”
Sept. 25-27, 2006: After being assured that his WGES account would be opened with the correct name and address and the other account would be closed, Gray receives (you guessed it) two bills within two days. “How can I have developed a $303 credit with WGES when my account is brand-new, and how can I also have a previous balance of $683.29 if I have a new account?” he wonders. Meanwhile, Washington Gas is demanding a $550 deposit for the June rehookup.
Oct. 23, 2006: Gray writes a letter titled “How WGES Has Bungled My Account,” explaining that the double-billing problem still has not been resolved even though WGES admitted three months earlier that the clerical errors were its fault. But when he calls WGES’ executive offices in Herndon, a receptionist transfers him to … Cleveland.
Years go by.
August 2011: Gray refaxes his 2006 letter to Manila, where Washington Gas subcontracts operations, including customer service. After a 50-minute phone call in which Gray insists he will “not pay a dime” and demands an apology, the “Customer Advocate” promises to stay in touch.
“Washington Gas has not sent me a bill since the time I wrote that letter,” Gray told The Examiner, “but they now claim I owe $2,000. Although giving me credit for being billed for someone else’s account and my ridiculous deposit will reduce my bill to several hundred, Lord knows there are more holes in that phantom bill (which I have yet to receive) than in a case of Swiss cheese.”
If a practicing lawyer can’t find his way out of customer service hell, what hope is there for the rest of us?
Barbara F. Hollingsworth is The Examiner’s local opinion editor.
