[ExI] Abandon all services

[Amara Graps]

Giulio:
>I must admit that in Amara's situation I would not have even thought
>of writing letters to anyone. I would just have canceled the bank
>account or credit card associated to the services to discontinue, and
>left the country without leaving a forwarding address. The
>"authorities" would have acted, if ever, 50 or 60 years later, which
>is a problem only if our immortality aspirations come true.

Given my years of experience with Telecom Italia, Italgas, Tele2,
Fastweb, the only way I could manage a proper closure was with a fax
and a registered letter with my information. This was the advice of other
Italians around me, by the way. To put everything in writing to protect
myself, in other words.

But I didn't expect this -

ENEL (the largest electricity company in Italy) (**): (in Italian)

Telephone Call to Amara (while the moving company are carting away her
house) :

--------------------

ENEL: We just received your fax and racommandata and we cannot stop your
electricity.

ME: You must. I will no longer be in Italy after November 16. Please
send to me at my EU address the last fattura (bill).

ENEL: We cannot send the last fattura to your EU address.

ME: What is the problem?

ENEL: We cannot send the last fattura to your EU address (plus lots of
stuff that Amara didn't comprehend)

ME: I don't understand the problem with turning off the electricity and
sending to me the last fattura. Can I see someone in an office?

ENEL: There is an office in Albano (impossible for Amara, it is some
distance away, her car is scheduled for demolition, and she doesn't
have time)

ME: I cannot go to Albano, I think there is an office in Frascati...

ENEL: (They hang up on her.)

(**) two weeks after I sent my Fax and registered letter with my closure
information, which included my customer information, codice fiscale, new
address (I gave them my EU address in Latvia, because I thought it would
be easier for them)


--------------------

In the next week, I discover that the ENEL office in my town in Frascati
has no staff to help customers. In fact, even though there are ENEL
offices all over Italy, only a small percentage have a Customer Service
departments, the closest to my former home is about 30 kilometers away.

Seven days after, I ask my girlfiend if she can call ENEL and confirm
that ENEL will turn off the electricity and send to my Latvian address,
the last bill.

AMARA's FRIEND: I'm calling for my colleague and friend to confirm that
you will turn off the electricity and send to her the last bill

(they proceed to ask her personal information, like her tax id, to confirm
her identity, in case my friend is a fraud)

ENEL: We received her fax and registered letter, but we were waiting for
her to call.

AMARA's FRIEND: She sent to you in fax and letter her closure information.
What is the problem? Can't you send to her the last fattura
at her Lettonia (Latvia) address and turn off her electricity?

ENEL: Lettonia?

AMARA's FRIEND: It's an EU country. Latvia.

ENEL: Leectenstein? Lettonia, I don't see.
  (They hang up on her.)

(Note to reader: Hanging up on customers is a standard Italian utility
company strategy, because they know that the customer will call back,
and probably get somebody different on the phone who might know the
answer.)

Amara's friend calls ENEL again, gives her personal information again,
and comes to the EU/Latvia address problem again.

ENEL: Lettonia is not in our database. Is there another address we can
send the fattura to?

AMARA's FRIEND: Do you have the United States in your database?

ENEL: Maybe, I will look.
(They succeed to find the United States in their database)

AMARA's FRIEND: (After giving them her Boulder address.) So can you
turn off her electricity on November 17?

ENEL: Yes, we can turn off her electricity on November 17.

--------------------

One week later, after I have left Italy, I discover that ENEL has
called my friend back, and that there is a problem. They cannot close
out my account until they have entered my old flat and read the meter.
Why didn't they say that during the previous month? Why didn't they say
that during the last phone conversation? I don't have any idea if they
actually did turn off my electricity on November 17. I have not received
the last bill, yet.

I will remind you that this is the largest energy / electricity company
in Italy.


Amara



-- 

Amara Graps, PhD      www.amara.com
Research Scientist, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boulder, Colorado