topic Re: Can I Vent ? in Community Chat

Can I Vent ?

QVCkitty1 — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 13:45:21 GMT

I just got off the phone with the electric company. We have 2 services that we are billed for separately monthly. Long story short , we only received the bill for the main house, even though informed delivery indicated that both bills would be delivered together as usual. All I wanted to know was the total on the bill I didn't receive and how to best send it in. You would think I askedfor the nuclear codes. I won't relive the experience but I was passed around to 3 different customer service folks, one of whom was unpleasant and after much nonsense said she would issue another bill . I'll bet I end up paying over the phone. I do paperless on some bills , but not utilities . I just didn't think my inquiry was complicated, I was wrong. Thanks for listening .

Re: Can I Vent ?

kaydee50 — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 13:59:25 GMT

It has been my experience that NOTHING is easy these days from opening bottles to resolving problems with various service providers.

Re: Can I Vent ?

PinkyPetunia — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 14:05:41 GMT

If you set up an online account with the utility company you can view the bill or amount due online. You don't have to pay online if you don't want to and this doesn't mean paperless either. I like getting the bill in the mail, it reminds me to pay. Emails can get overlooked.

I don't want the automated payment but I usually pay online having the monthly bill taken out of my checking account. A high fee is charged for credit card.

Re: Can I Vent ?

meem120 — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 14:12:02 GMT

The same happenned to me. I wanted to pay my sons health insurance. He was unable to work before his surgery and he didnt want a lapse of his insurance. You think i was asking for the moon. They needed his permission for me to pay his bill. This required a 3 way call for him to give his permission. I wanted to give them money......no not easy. A simple task that should have been completed in 5 minutes took alot longer. Ridiculous.

Re: Can I Vent ?

Major Shopper — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 14:15:27 GMT

@QVCkitty1 Not a good way to start your day! I feel for you!

Are you able to see your billing on the electric company's website?

We have our primary residence and our secondary property with the same electric company.On their website, the two addresses are listed along with a breakdown of each bill.

Checking the billing on the website helps me to keep track of each property.

The less time I have to spend on the phone with any company, the better I like it!

Maybe this will work for you?

Best of luck!

Re: Can I Vent ?

Catastrophe — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 14:19:49 GMT

We are sick and tired of the Robots on the phone and also the calls that are sent to other countries that work for countries in the USA. Hard to understand don't know any answer to our questions and ask for all your ID, account numbers and Social Security numbers which you are not suppose to give out and especially to someone across the world.

Re: Can I Vent ?

Laura14 — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 14:55:38 GMT

@QVCkitty1 I am so sorry for laughing, but I so hear this! I am living this at my day job.

How can you not look up a bill for a customer? I don't get that. They need that information to create your bill.

Our credit card proccessor went down last Tuesday and no one knows whether or not anyone got paid. I was at work two hours past close trying to figure this all out for everyone after a week, because the customers have been charged on their credit cards, but we have no money or payments to post to their account.

The kicker is most people tried to put the card through multiple times so they are out two to three times their money and we show we have none of it.

The banks have no idea and the company whose system went down wants us to refund everyone to fix their mess.

With what? How can we give back money we show you never sent to us?

I miss paper and comon sense!

There are zero humans to talk to. It's like the computers run the world and, when a human pops up to say, hey, they made a mess. How do we fix this? We get crickets.

Re: Can I Vent ?

Susan345 — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 15:03:42 GMT

These days people are so worried about identity theft they make it harder for the real people. The worst was when I was told that I was not authorized to pay my own bill.

On the other hand there are a lot that don't check any thing. When my older Brother died my younger brother took care of cancelling his services and arranging his funeral.

Several companies did not ask for ID because both had the same first initial that was on the account.

Re: Can I Vent ?

geezerette — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 15:28:44 GMT

@Laura14

"I miss paper and comon sense!"

Amen to that!

Re: Can I Vent ?

Stray — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 18:31:14 GMT

It seems like life is harder today but technology was to make life easier….I was having surgery done & we have accounts together but I still have my own checking account. I couldn’t get to the bank & asked my husband to make a cash deposit. They wouldn’t accept cash as he wasn’t the owner of the account. What? It’s American currency? I’ve since added his name to the account.

Re: Can I Vent ?

nambee — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 19:12:08 GMT

@QVCkitty1 Oh can I so relate! I had an issue with my internet recently and I knew that I needed a new modem/router - mine was ancient. Only communication option was to text with a robot. Took an hour and 15 minutes! If I had been able to talk to a human, would have been a simple 10 minute conversation. And the robot was actually snarky with me because I wouldn't 't sign up for additional services!

I live in fear of having to communicate with any company anymore. I do as much as I can on-line but sometimes you have an odd question or need help beyond what you can find on their websites and it's a nightmare! I know there's no fighting it and it's about to get much worse. Glad that I can commiserate with others here having the same experience!

Re: Can I Vent ?

judy0330 — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 19:39:30 GMT

I have to preface this by saying that I swear to you it is a true story that happened years ago. Who could ever make it up?? My husband spent THIRTEEN hours on the phone with Verizon. I brought his lunch and dinner upstairs to his office. He put the phone on speaker and went about his business while they kept pushing him up the line. The miracle was that he was never disconnected. How did it end? After listening to what they all had to say -- my husband figured out the solution and told them exactly what had to be done. Whenever he had to deal with customer service before this he would always get very frustrated and I would say "Welcome to my world" since I deal with all the non-tech customer service issues. He truly earned his stripes that day!

Re: Can I Vent ?

happilyretiredgirl — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 19:51:03 GMT

@QVCkitty1 I feel your pain.... I need to vent to, long story short I heat with propane gas, I called to have my tank filled and the driver filled my neighbors tank instead of mine. It took me three months and about 5 calls everyday to finally have the problem solved. It was a nightmare and the company I deal with does not have a office for customers so you are not even talking to anyone in the United States when you call customer service. I would ask for a name and number first a representative in my area and was never given any information. Nightmare is how I will end this vent.

Re: Can I Vent ?

ROMARY — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 19:58:43 GMT

One step forward, and then three steps backward.

I'm only guessing that some are hired part-time workers in or out of our country.....maybe some work at home who weren't /aren't properly trained.

I don't know the answer......Is there some sort of agency where people can contact and complain?

Re: Can I Vent ?

Tinkrbl44 — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 20:00:27 GMT

@QVCkitty1

(Sorry, Pacific time, still waking up)

What prevents you from signing on to your account and just viewing the bills?

WHY would you pay over the phone?

Personally, I ALWAYS pay my utility bills with the credit card that pays rewards for usage online. Doing so, the last monthly accrual was $14. People also do this for points and mileage.

Re: Can I Vent ?

shoekitty — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 02:36:38 GMT

@QVCkitty1 ,,vent all you want , I'm in there yellin with you. Phone calls now take twice as long as ever with these AI type bots that answer call. You think I was trying to get in touch with Bob Dylan, lol. They spend several minutes getting my info, what I want, exact nature of my call before, they say, " I can help you with that". Then I have to say "agent", then bot says , "are you sure? I can help you with that", then I'm mad, and yell, and sometimes swear. Once I used the S--- word, and she said, "I'm sorry, I didn't understand you", and started over asking me stuff! lol omg, I put off calling anyone. and forget about chat! when I do get a real human, they want all my info. AGAIN! By then I am so worn out! i try to be pleasant, very sweet , somI get what I called for. lol

Re: Can I Vent ?

Biftu — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 02:52:01 GMT

@Catastrophe wrote:
We are sick and tired of the Robots on the phone and also the calls that are sent to other countries that work for countries in the USA. Hard to understand don't know any answer to our questions and ask for all your ID, account numbers and Social Security numbers which you are not suppose to give out and especially to someone across the world.

@Catastrophe I'm sick of robots too, but no problem speaking with someone from another country as long as they can resolve my problem. I have no problem understanding them and have never been asked for personal information.

Re: Can I Vent ?

Biftu — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 03:05:59 GMT

Good idea to have a Power of Attorney to pay someone else's bills. With that in hand there is never a problem.

Re: Can I Vent ?

Tinkrbl44 — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 10:01:39 GMT

@Stray wrote:
It seems like life is harder today but technology was to make life easier….I was having surgery done & we have accounts together but I still have my own checking account. I couldn’t get to the bank & asked my husband to make a cash deposit. They wouldn’t accept cash as he wasn’t the owner of the account. What? It’s American currency? I’ve since added his name to the account.

@Stray

I had loaned my sister $500, and she wanted to repay it by just depositing it in my checking account. I emailed her a copy of my deposit slip, and her local Bank of America wouldn't allow her to do so.

I called my bank and said she wanted to put money IN my account, not take it OUT.

Uh uh. Apparently, it's been a common money laundering method and now banks won't allow it.

Go figure.

She emailed me the money via Paypal, and I forwarded it to my checking account from there.

Re: Can I Vent ?

Tinkrbl44 — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 10:03:53 GMT

@Catastrophe wrote:
We are sick and tired of the Robots on the phone and also the calls that are sent to other countries that work for countries in the USA. Hard to understand don't know any answer to our questions and ask for all your ID, account numbers and Social Security numbers which you are not suppose to give out and especially to someone across the world.

@Catastrophe

What?? Hang up and call back. This is a common scam.