It's Complicated...And Could Only Happen To Me

I got a knock on my front door and had to get a shirt to cover my pj's before I answered. When I got back to the door, no one was there.

Oh, well. I sat down to watch TV and, a few seconds later, wham. All my electric shut off.

I ran out into the garage and hit the garage door opener, but, when there's no power--no garage door opener. I banged on the garage door and yelled, but no response.

I ran back into the house and to the front door...sprinted across the lawn and around the corner of the house and chased down the Oncor truck (the electric provider) leaving the scene...and asked him what was going on?

He said a close out order had been ordered by the home owner...??? (that's me)

I told him we sold a house on Monday and the close out order was for that house in a town 200 miles away! He VERY reluctantly got out of his truck and turned my electric back on and gave me a lecture and only 1 hour to reverse the order or he would come back and shut it off! One hour, very firm.

Now, if you haven't moved in a while, you may not know that there are now a lot of small energy companies that broker energy for the providing companies. They sell energy at far cheaper rates, but you have to go through them to start and stop your account.

We have 3 different addresses with one energy broker; the old house, the new house, and an apartment Wild Bill lives in when down in Temple. The broker was supposed to close out the house we sold, but instead closed out the house we live in!

After laughing hysterically for a good 5 mins, and many phone calls and a few tears later...I am no longer in fear of that guy coming back to turn off my electric. But a few lessons learned: (1) when someone knocks and disappears, go check around the corner of your house to see if they're parked around the side of the house, and (2) make sure when you contact your energy broker that you give him the account number in addition to the address of the property to want shut off.

Sure hope Wild Bill has electric when he gets home to his apartment tonight...you get the picture? ;-)