####### thieves broke into a power box on the abandoned building next door and stole the power cable from the meter going into the building. They left the wires exposed, and the meter appears to be hot.
So I called Duke Energy and after 10 minutes of getting the automated runaround (which there is no way to bypass) asking if I need to speak to 25 different people that I didn't need to speak to, I finally say hell with it and connect to billing, figuring they could at least transfer me.
The lady answers, and I cut her off on her canned speech to explain the situation. I just need to report a theft, and a very dangerous situation since kids play back there. To which she says "OK, let me see... 10 second pause... I see here there is a note on your account about your last billing cycle. No! Listen lady. I am not calling about ANYTHING to do with my account. I just need to be connected to somebody to report a dangerous situation.
So she has to put me on hold for 5 minutes to come back and tell me she is connecting me to a local office. Finally, I'm getting somewhere.
The next person answered, and started asking me my account info, and I had to cut her off and explain the situation all over again. She finally decides to shut up with her canned speech and says she is going to connect me to the tamper department.
Ring ring ring, no answer, then it pauses and rings some more. I think, oh no. Voice mail coming up. It paused again, and rang some more. Right back to the ####### beginning of this whole thing.
Finally after going through all of that a second time I get connected to the local office again, and they transferred me again, but this time simeone answered so I finally got it reported to someone.
These automated AI answering services and the use of call centers based in India need to be outlawed!
