Part 2

"Dad, when I grow up, I'm gonna be a McDonald's worker and bake food for people."

— Sontoo, this day, 2012.

Here's hoping for slightly more grand aspirations by, say, tomorrow.

And how's your day starting?

Well, quick update first. It's about yesterday's blog entry. If you haven't read it, go back and do it now. Click here to find it. We'll all wait. Take your time. But hey, try to keep up next time.

Okay, so where was I?

Oh yeah. Manitoba Hydro . . . estimated bill . . . . no . . . estimated six months of bills, all at once. Not happy.

So, yesterday, after I finished my blog, I thought I'd pull up the Manitoba Hydro Act. It seems to me in my initial conversation with a customer service rep, back on September 10, it was suggested that the Manitoba Hydro Act said, somewhere, that estimating bills, when the meter goes kaput, was somehow legal. Wouldn't surprise me if, in fact, the Act said that. Doesn't make it right. But I wanted to see for myself.

So, first thing I did was a search of the on-line document (http://web2.gov.mb.ca/laws/statutes/ccsm/h190e.php) for the word "estimate." And to be fair, I used "estimat" so as to include estimation, estimate and even estimatorium should it be required.

Appears three times. Once in the WIRING PERMITS AND INSPECTIONS section, once in the ASSISTANCE TO CUSTOMERS section and once in the TAXATION, CHARGES AND DISTRIBUTIONS section. This could take a while.

And ya know, I read all of the stuff surrounding the "estimate" word in each instance. And, to the best of my non-lawyer understanding, none of it says they can estimate my bill for six months when their meter dies. We'll get back to that.

Oh, and just for interest sake, the word "meter" appears only twice in the document. I will be interested to know where, exactly, the six-month-meter's-dead-estimation thing comes in. (read read read) Nope, couldn't find it.

Okay, under the COLLECTION OF ACCOUNTS section, I find some interesting stuff that may relate to my issue (read read read) but it doesn't appear to be so.

So, I called the good folks at Manitoba Hydro. I spoke with a customer service rep, we'll call her M just for fun. I disputed the amount I was being charged. 

I mean, for one thing, during the time period in question, I was camping with my family for four weeks. That has NOT been accounted for in this estimation. I was not using the lights, TV, dishwasher, washer, dryer, air conditioner, computer, blowdryer or electric nose hair trimmer for an entire month.

There are other things that make me question the amount being charged, but I'm not showing my entire hand before the first round of betting. 

Anyhoo, bottom line is M argued with me a little. Not in a nasty way or anything, just attempting to present Hydro's side. I still disagreed and we ended in a bit of a stalemate. She was gonna take my case to a higher authority. We'll call that person Q.

Now, to M's credit, she was not only polite and professional, she did phone back at 11 a.m. 

But I was out.

She phoned back at 2 p.m. and told me that Q was away until Thursday, but she'd talk to Q on that day and get back to me. So that's where we've left it.

So hopefully, by Friday, we'll have a fair resolution to this problem. And hopefully, Sontoo will have returned to his dream of being a firefighter.