BIRD TALK

Dear Bird Talk;

As we prepare for our travels to the sunny south, I usually make all of the calls in preparation; i.e. calls to phone, electric, newspaper, etc. I have not encountered any problems other than long waits, pressing numbers one to six, four or five times until I reach a person.

I was extremely annoyed when I called Progress Energy just to make sure that all bills would be directed to our southern address, rather than Canada. They would only talk to my spouse, whose name was on the account, then they wanted an ID from him – his passport number.

This is ridiculous and totally unnecessary, as well as an invasion of privacy. I did talk to the supervisor to express my concern, but thought that I’d write to you to see if others found this a frustrating experience.

Thank you.

Brenda Cooper
Hillview, NL

Response:
Ed: Dealing with any of the utilities is the most frustrating game in town…although banks and computer-related helplines are a close second place.

They have virtual monopolies and therefore do not have to provide any real service. Everyone has these same problems, but I caution you to not give out any information unless you called them. My wife, Pat, deals with all of these faceless and nameless entities and they always need to talk to me, for some reason.

Her name, not mine, has been on every cheque they have received in the past 20 years and they certainly have no problem in cashing her cheques!

Our home is in her name alone and still they have to talk to me. When we ask to have it changed, they want to speak to me and add her name, not replace mine. And to top it all off, my guess is that the “supervisor” you talked to was just another telemarketer sitting at the next desk. That’s a very common practice. Ah well… that’s just life in our new wired world. Oops, I think it’s “wireless” now.