Kroger Incident Not Necessary

Of course it wasn't. If the folks who get paid to provide customer service actually provided it, there wouldn't have been any drama. 

There's a second reason why that little melodrama could have been avoided; one I didn't know about until after the fact. 

On Friday, February 7. I had a past due SEMCO balance, and shutoff notice indicating the service would be turned off "on or after Monday, February 9." 

I decided to do what seemed to be the right thing, send a partial payment. 

SEMCO participates in an income-based payment arrangement called MAP (Monthly Assistance Program) administered by the state of Michigan. Its stated goal is to keep utilities from being turned off in the winter time. It provides customers who qualify "with a reduced budget amount" (averaging out the bills thru the year). Qualifying customers "may also be eligible to receive relief for any past due balance up to $1,000." 

However, to qualify for this, you need a current past due balance, and any partial payment -- like the one I ended up paying with cash at Kroger, drama not included in the total, in an effort to do the right thing -- is applied to the past due balance. No past due balance, no qualify. 

I didn't know this. I'm sure the first timer who's never received a shutoff notice doesn't know this, and am equally sure that your typical single mom with two kids who's working three jobs doesn't know this because no one ever told her. When offered the choice, make a partial payment or have the service turned off, the obvious choice is to do what seems like the right thing and make the partial payment -- while disqualifying yourself from the help your utility so generously offers. 

The utility is aware of how human nature works, and has written the MAP rules to eliminate as many people as possible who would qualify for help if they only knew how the game is played and didn't do the right thing. 

I should have filled out the MAP application, stayed home, not even bothered with the Kroger cunts, kept my cash, and waited to hear from SEMCO, hoping in the meantime that the gas stayed on.  

Trust me, dear readers: Your Blogger will never, ever again do what seems to be the right thing. 

Fuckheads at Kroger. Fuckheads at MAP who wrote the rules, and at SEMCO for approving them. Fuckheads all over the place. If it didn't have so many fuckheads, America's 1,109th best small city might actually be a nice place to live in. Eliminate the fuckheads, and it might make it into the mid to low 900s. 

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