Letters that should have been written . . .

This would fall under the “Letters that should have been written category”

Dear Gas Company,

I am writing to thank you. Yes, that is correct, writing to thank you for your lack of care or concern. For without this lack, I would not be where I am today. I’m sure if you look, you would find it in your notes that I called you last December.

The conversation went something like this . . .

“Thank you for calling the Gas Company, how may I be of help?”

            Yes, good morning. I am calling because the pilot light on my hot water heater is out, and I need help lighting it. When would it be possible for you to send someone out to help?

            “Thank you for your inquiry, may I have your account number and name please?”

            Of course, the account number is 12345, and my name is Amy.

            “One moment please.”

            “Yes, I see that account number, but the name we have listed on the account is Chris. If I could speak with Chris, we could get this taken care.”

            Well, I’m sorry, but that will be difficult. Chris passed away last month.

            “Oh. I’m sorry to hear that. But in order to provide service or answer questions, I need to speak with Chris.”

            Yes. I understand that. However, Chris is dead. He cannot come to the phone and speak with you to make the request.  Is there someway that you could help me please? It is December and the pilot light is out. The water is quite cold at this time of year.

            “I’m sorry, but I cannot send someone out to fix it, if the request is not made by Chris.”

            Really? But he can’t make the request because he is dead. Is there someone else I can speak with to get assistance?

            “One moment please.” (placed on hold)

            “I’m sorry, but we cannot send anyone out to help you, since it is not Chris making the request.”

            Okay. Then how can I get it changed so that he is no longer the contact person, so I can get things like this fixed?

            “We would need a death certificate to prove that he is dead before we can make any changes.”

            Okay. The problem is, I don’t have a death certificate. There was an autopsy shortly after he died, and the coroner has yet to determine the cause of death. So I don’t have a death certificate yet. What else can be done?

            “I’m sorry, that is the only way we can make the change.”

            Okay. But again, all I really want is the pilot light to work. There is no way to send someone out for that.

            “Not without a request from the account holder. Besides, we no longer provide the service of lighting pilot lights”

            Okay then. Thank you so much for your time.

Yes Gas Company, I am going to thank you for the complete waste of time that you provided me. I would have made far more progress if I had hit my head against a brick wall at that moment in time. The truth of it is, I sat down and had a good cry after that conversation.

Then I realized, that if I wanted to have something done, I might as well do it myself. I made a few phone calls, and finally spoke with Walt, a handyman. After ONE question, “how old is the hot water heater?” he told me over the phone how to light the pilot light. Yes, it only took one caring person, one question, and one phone conversation to learn something new.  After speaking with Walt, I swallowed my fear, walked over to the hot water heater, and I lit the pilot light. Me. I did it. I did something I had not known how to do before. Something that I would normally let someone else do for me. I admit, I really did not want the knowledge of how to do it. I wanted someone else to take care of it for me. But there was no one else.

So thank you Gas Company. Without your lack of assistance, I would not have risen to the occasion to learn something new. I would not have taken the time to acknowledge, it’s all up to me now.

Thank you for all that you do,

Amy