National Fuel, you are like an unseen benefactor uncle: you provide me with necessary warmth from afar, but those rare times I have to deal with you are awkward and, frankly, an inconvenience.
Take, for example, today – I had to turn on the gas in my new apartment (for the second time, but that’s another slumlord story), so I scheduled my gas to be turned on today. When I made the appointment Monday, I asked about what time the technician would be coming that day.
“Oh, sometime between 8 and 4.”
“Can’t you give me a ballpark time frame?”
“That is a ballpark time.”
Fantastic. She was nice enough to put in a note to delay my time until after a 9 a.m. appointment, but being that I have to work at 2, there was still doubt.
So today I hung around my apartment, ran a couple errands close by, and by 1:30, I was wondering when the hell this guy would come. I took another cold shower, as I had all week, and got ready for work. Still no tech. I called NF and they said, go to work, and if you can get home in time – about 10-15 minutes after the tech calls, come back. I only live 2 miles from my job, so I figured I could risk it, anyway the next available appointment was July 19, and I can’t bear another week of cold showers, no matter how hot it is.
So at about 2:50 the tech calls.
“This is National Fuel.”
“Hi, I can be there in less than 15.”
“I can’t wait 15 minutes.”
“Your office said you can wait 15 minutes”
“But I’ve been busy today.”
“Ok, ok, I’ll be there in 10.”
So I rushed to my car, set my stopwatch to see how I was doing and turned on the radio to keep me going. On Oldies 104 I caught the start of “Sledgehammer” and was home before the end of the next song, “Maggie Mae.” A new record for a 3 p.m. commute. But hey, no NF van. WTF?
So again I called, they said he’d come right back. Still no van. Another call? “He’s on his way.” 45 minutes later, he finally arrived. 2 minutes later he was done.
Here’s my big problem with all of this – why can the cable company, phone company and almost any other large utility entity set a short 2 hour window, but the gas company requires a full 8 hour waiting commitment from their companies? If they offered this on the weekend, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but you can only have your gas turned on during the week, so if you just moved to Buffalo for a job, you better make friends fast to let NF in or take a day off from work.
So, National Fuel, would a little competition make things a bit more interesting? Break up the monopoly!
