8/8 Any tips on getting a bank, cell phone company, or utility to properly
acknowledge a change of address? With my recent move, both PG&E and
Cingular fucked up the change. In PG&E's case, they moved the
location of the account (i.e., where the gas and electricity was
being delivered), but not where the bill was being sent. In Cingular's
case, they just dropped the ball completely and failed to move the
account at all. In both cases I called specifically ahead of time to
move the account. Since the Post Office acknowledged my forwarding
request, but never forwarded any of my mail, I never got any
bills and got hit with all sorts of "surprise" disconnection notices
recently.
\_ You could try praying.
\_ Cingular's customer service is so f*cked up. Best bet is to
contact their customer service and get someone to give you their
direct phone number for future inquiries. If you get a different
person for each customer service inquiry, then just start praying.
\_ I moved several times in the past. Every time PG&E always sent the
bills of the old and new accounts to my new address properly. USPS
forwarded most of my mail properly for a year or so. Once a while a
piece of mail slipped USPS's forwarding mechanism and went to the
old addresse.
\_ I had a serious snafu with PG&E that took 6 months to resolve.
The short version is they couldn't keep track of what money was
supposed to go toward a deposit and what was towards my bill.
Even after you call them, the rate they actually fix things
is much slower than the rate the computers send out "we're
shutting off your electricity" notices, so I had to call a lot
to confirm with someone "Yes, I see the notes here, the
paperwork just hasn't gone through yet. Don't worry, we won't
shut you off." I'd say call once a month until things are
resolved, and when you call, just give them your account
number so they can bring up your case history and catch up
on the story. Thank goodness I don't have to deal with
PG&E anymore. -bz |