Retail Balls Award: So You Chose To Pay For Fish Rather Than The Electricity To Care For Them
From APeacefulWarrior
About a decade ago, I used to work doing customer service for a power company in Texas. As you can imagine, a great number of my calls involved late bills and disconnections. And it's not like the company was ruthless - due to Texas regulations and the general PITA of disconnecting/reconnecting someone, it generally required being 3+ months overdue to actually get shut off. So it was hard for me to work up much sympathy for anyone who was disconnected for delinquency.
But the absolute best was the guy who called up screaming at me about his power being off, because he'd just bought a whole load of rare exotic saltwater fish who have to be kept temperature-controlled. And (of course) he was totally unwilling to pay anything towards his bill either, because he'd spent his money on the fish.
So yes, I DID say exactly what any reasonable person would be thinking at that point, "Well, then you should have paid your electric bill BEFORE buying fish that require you have electricity!"
(I was the rep customers got escalated to when they were assholes who refused to pay, and I had a lot of leeway to be almost-but-not-quite rude to them in cases like this.)
I told him WHEN he paid his bill, he would get electricity back. Not before. I feel bad for the fishes tho.
--APeacefulWarrior
Posted by Ilia on Monday, February 27, 2017 | Permalink
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Comments (5)
Aw geez, those poor fish... I once had a whole tank die because heavy winds knocked the power out for two days in the middle of winter. You ever had it so cold that your breath misted in the living room? Fortunately for me I had a fireplace I could curl up next to, but the fish were toast. At least it was just a small tank and only had about four fish in it...
Posted by: datawog | Monday, February 27, 2017 at 08:21 PM
"You ever had it so cold that your breath misted in the living room?"
My grandfather owned a farm in northern Nebraska. He decided it was time to sell the farm and retire the morning he woke up, and the fish bowl next to his bed was frozen solid.
Posted by: plus.google.com/108073606865059711666 | Monday, February 27, 2017 at 08:41 PM
My uncle's fish died during his vacation to Florida. His tank heater stuck on, until half the water boiled away. It then broke the heater glass and tripped the circuit. He came home to fish soup and a stink that lingered.
Posted by: Jofur | Monday, February 27, 2017 at 08:48 PM
Had a tank, kept shrimp- decorative ones, not edible ones. Between a move just before new years, and random black outs, lost all my critters. I was crushed. -20C was hell. Darknl. The blackouts were a big part of the reason our premier resigned.
Posted by: Tech Support Survivor | Monday, February 27, 2017 at 09:18 PM
"(I was the rep customers got escalated to when they were assholes who refused to pay, and I had a lot of leeway to be almost-but-not-quite rude to them in cases like this.)"
Awesome.
Posted by: Lightning | Tuesday, February 28, 2017 at 03:12 AM