______ If you do-______If you don't

Saturday, February 13, 2010, 9:35 a.m. my phone rings. The number is unfamiliar and I am busy so I let voice-mail answer. No message is left. 12:30 p.m. the phone once again rings. It’s the same number. This time I answer. There is a recorded message, d@mn what are they trying to sell me!? I quickly learn this is not a solicitation call. No on the contrary, this is a collections message from my friendly local energy company (FLEC)! It states that my account is “seriously delinquent” and I have been sent a shut-off notice. I think to myself, it most certainly is not! I am on the budget plan…

Before I continue let me give you a little background. I was laid off February 2008 and did not find employment until August 2009. I am not complaining because I know people that have been unemployed much longer but I digress. During that period I received unemployment benefits. I was also on FLEC’s “budget plan”. Funds were tight as one might imagine because my income had fallen to 1/5 what it was when I was employed. I contacted all of my creditors and informed them, including the FLEC. One month my utility bill came due 2 days before I received my benefit deposit. I pay the bill on day three of my delinquency. Said company informs me I have defaulted on my contract and removes me from the plan. They also demand payment in full! I am angry and frightened. Angry because I was doing the best I could. My situation was at no fault of my own and I was in this arrangement because of my financial situation. I felt they were kicking me while I was down. I am frightened because if I cannot produce this large sum of money my wife, son and daughter will have no electricity. What kind of man am I? So, I do as I always do, I pray and I thank the Lord for working this out because I sure can’t! God moved and the lights stayed on! However now I am out of the plan for 12 months. My thought, Lord you are going to have to work this one out too! I am thankful that he did.

Now back to the story…

I have spent my year in the prescribed purgatory and have now added my account back to the budget plan. God is good! I even made a payment to my account during that conversation even though I was informed I did not have to do so. So, why in the world am I receiving these calls!? To add insult to injury the computer continues to call me once per hour until 6 p.m. and I of course cannot get a live person because it is not a business day. So, I wait…

Monday morning arrives. I call FLEC. Once I make it through their automated system and receive a live person, I explain the situation. The CSR asks me to hold. When she returns I am informed that the issue is that I made a payment before they added me back to the “budget plan”. As a result the computer essentially did not accept me back to the plan. I think to myself I have been kicked out again but this time because I made the payment too early!? This has to be a joke! Once I process this information, I repeat my thoughts to the CSR and ask her if that is correct. To which she simply responds, yes sir. She then tells me that she will “reset” my account and the calls should stop. I most certainly hope so!

Let us recap. I was removed from the budget plan because I was laid off and did not receive my unemployment benefits until two days after the due date. While I do not agree, I do understand this practice. The contract was technically broken. However, how do you then kick me out of the “budget plan” before I am actually re-added because I was early with a payment? Is it just me or does this give new meaning to, you are d@mned if you do and d@mned if you don’t?