When I looked at my bank statement the other day I saw a charge of $78 from Microsoft. That’s news to me I thought, and when I called, the voice at the other end said it was probably for a game I ordered. When I said “no, never,” they said to call Microsoft. I did and I soon learned it was charged an annual subscription fee.
I could not recall getting a notice about the bill, I thought, but it took two phone calls and less than 10 minutes of my time to get an answer to my question.
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Sometimes, however, stuff happens.
Three weeks ago, Park Forest resident Elliott Greenberg opened a letter from the gas company warning him his heat would be turned off because he had not paid his emailed bills since March.
Pay us more than $400 or shiver.
Now you need to know some important things about Elliott Greenberg. He is 94. He admits to having a hearing problem. He does not have a computer (“If I had one I wouldn’t know what to do with it,” he says) and he is angry at the way he was treated by the company.
“I tried to call immediately, but it was Friday night and all I got were canned messages,” he says.
When he tried again on the weekend, he insisted he still could not talk to a human being. He did not want to involve his son, attorney Dan Greenberg, and turned to his temple in Homewood, where he told his tale of woe to Diedre Bodine, the Shir Tikvah secretary.
When you are 94, both illness and angst should be avoided. The following Tuesday, Elliott had appointments with three different doctors in Chicago. When he returned home late that day he discovered there was no heat in the house. “The place was ice cold, it was too late to call anyone and I had to go to sleep in my clothes.”
Meanwhile, both Diedre and Dan tried to come to the rescue. By using the account number from the warning letter Elliott received, Diedre downloaded all those overdue bills and said she was surprised to see there was no click mark next to a paperless bill acceptance box in the online account in his name.
Dan spoke to the company’s local liaison who told him Elliott had been on electronic billing since March under one of Dan’s email addresses and that perhaps the son had accidentally clicked the wrong button. Dan disputes that, saying the account was set up for Elliott’s drugstore purchases and he never ever saw any gas bills.
He may have even said “no, never.”
In another conversation Dan said he had with another company rep, he was told Elliott was definitely not on electronic billing and should be getting all the bills in the mail. And although Elliott admits he sometimes forgets to pay the bill, he insists that in the past he would call the company and send a check when he became a month or two behind.
“I never gave them permission to put me online and they had no right to do so,” he says.
Heat was restored Wednesday after Dan finally got through to someone who explained the situation. It seems a new gas meter was installed at the house while Elliott was in Chicago seeing doctors. Since no one was home to check on whether the gas was actually turned on, a notice should have been left at the front door, but this was not done. Not long after that explanation, someone was at the house to turn on the heat.
When our meter was replaced on our house earlier this year we received a notice in the mail and later a note attached to our front door. Elliott says he never received any warning this would happen.
“No, never.”
Then someone from the company called and Elliott said he was offered money for being inconvenienced. Sorry about that, the voice said, but we can make it up to you. How about $50 for your trouble? “No” (never?) said Elliot.
$75? “Put it in writing,” said Elliott and hung up.
The mind has a mind of its own.
So perhaps I overlooked a note from Microsoft and perhaps Elliott forgot about paying the gas bill every month and maybe he did not pay attention to the gas meter notices and maybe Dan perhaps accidentally clicked the “accept email” button.
No, never may not always be the answer.
Jerry Shnay is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.
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