In the Computer Age: Electric Companies and New Addresses

I tried today to get electric put in our name on the place we just bought. You’d think all you’d have to do is look in the internet for a map of where each company serves, but to my knowledge such maps, if they exist, are not put in public places.  I thought it was in NYSEG territory, but they said not. So I called National Grid and got the same answer. Finally I tried my third choice, a local co-op. Not theirs either. Of course each phone call meant negotiating a phone maze. They each wanted me to run out and look at the meter, which just happens to be an hour away. I have seen this before with electric companies. The people who answer the phones know so little about the area, they cannot correctly pronounce all the postal addresses they serve.

The place we bought has 2 deeds. One is a 34.5’ wide strip of land, wide enough for only a 4.5’ wide home. The town official that I verified this with and I both had a laugh over that one (they have a 15’ setback rule). The other deed is for the home and a normal-sized lot.

So, I ended up calling the agent we bought this through, then driving over there to look at the meter. The agent told me to tell NYSEG that the home was #1477 on the road and had a Richfield Springs address. Only, there is Post Office 4 houses away and that’s sure not Richfield Springs. I took photos of the meter and the tag which clearly said “NYSEG”. I called them when I got back home, but first accessed the County records, learning 1477 is the tiny lot and, as expected, 1479 was the home.

Now why NYSEG uses an address for which a home can never be built instead of the address where the home actually is, will be a matter of continued debate if we wish to beat a dead horse. They insisted that 1477 and Richfield Springs was the address and it was no use to try to convince them otherwise. “Heck, what would the owner know about it?” is the attitude. I said that if they insisted on mailing bills to that address, they would be unpaid because they’d never be received. Makes no difference to them. Why should they care? Collecting is someone else’s job. A different department. Those folks need jobs to.

I had a long talk with a neighbor who, it turns out, I knew slightly. She said that when she started ordering from Amazon and such places their GPS had her listed as Richfield Springs and she had many go-rounds over that. To no avail. Now, it’s good: the delivery people all know where she lives and just make their deliveries as they should, ignoring the postal address on the packages.

I have seen this before. On the Rural Grove home we had, National Grid insisted it had a Randall address. When I pointed out there is no post office in Randall, nor is there a zip code, they still they disagreed. They’d listen politely to me, and not change a thing.  They know better where these places are than a mere owner. As a person who expects things to be done correctly, we went through this many times.  They, like NYSEG, refused to change the address.

What would these companies do if the mail was returned as "undeliverable, no such address”?  In each example here, the mailing address was different than the delivery address, so the bills got through. But normally the two are the same.  Curious minds want to know.

I have had several instances of bills not being sent to me with recently acquired properties. Once I decided to sell the home after the tenants left. Careful about such things, the tenants had informed National Grid when they were leaving and I’d informed them to put the electric in our name at the same date, but mail the bills to our address (which they’d used here before without difficulty). However, this fell on apparently deaf ears and they continued sending  statements to the address of the property, only there was no mailbox or anyone living there. Previous owners  and tenants had always used a PO Box as the post office was just 100 yards away. That went on for three months when I decided I should have received at least one bill by now, but hadn’t. On earlier calls, I was told to wait and things would catch up. And initially I  had been very careful to let them know delivery and mailing addresses were not the same. I’ve learned to make that very clear.

Then I sold it, and some months after closing got a $900 bill. The new owner never got a bill and was using lots of electric heat for an elderly relative living in an enclosed porch. She had told them the date it was to be in her name and had the new account number they gave her. She’d saved it all and had everything needed to substantiate that what she had done was exactly the way they wanted. Then National Grid asked me to pay the $900 even though I’d pointed out that 1)  I did not own the property during that time; nor 2) did I use that electricity and 3) that the new owner had informed them in plenty of time how the bills needed to be addressed. It’s like they just thought that since I'd been paying in the past that I'd like to continue do so in the future as well. Wouldn’t that would be nice of me? Only I'm not that nice.