They Were Mistaken...

I love it when people make mistakes - and they own up to their mistake. I love it even more when someone makes a mistake, accepts responsibility for the mistake and the mistake happens to benefit me in some way. Yeah, I know, it's a pretty selfish way of looking at things, but, hey...we're all like that sometimes whether you care to admit it or not.

Today, a mistake was brought to my attention and it has benefitted our bank account our family BIG TIME.

Last week, the gas company called and left a voice mail message. I sort of brushed it off...it was around 6pm on a Friday when I finally got the message and I didn't recognize the company on the Caller ID (it was different from who our gas company is). I mentioned this to Adam and he sort of brushed it off, too. My parents were in town and they told me to just call the customer service number on my bill rather than the number that was left if I was skeptical about returning the phone call.

The weekend came and went. Monday came around and I never called the gas company back. I guess it all sort of slipped my mind. But, then again, they never called back...

So, today, I decided to call to see just what was going on. I didn't owe them any money. There weren't any discrepancies on our bill (as far as I could tell). I didn't understand why they would be calling.

I'm glad I called. They made a mistake. A huge mistake. A BILLING mistake. Apparently, there was something wrong with our meter and they had to fix it. Consequently, we were incorrectly charged. I got a bit nervous when the woman told me this. I was thinking to myself, "OK, how much do we owe you?"

As it turned out, we didn't owe them a dime. They owed US money. A lot of it. (Like just over $1400!) All I said to the woman was, "Holy cow!"

I am pretty sure there is a bruise on my chin from when it hit my desk. She asked if I wanted it credited to our gas account. Hell no! Are you kidding me?! Cut me a check right now...momma needs a new water heater! (And, even better, our gas company gives out rebates for new water heaters, too!)

Thank you, gas man!

I forgot to ask his name. I wonder if he's still sitting outside the house in his VNG truck?

Anyway...

I called Virginia Natural Gas tonight...their emergency line. I've since realized that what I thought was a gas emergency wasn't such an emergency. But, I'm glad I called and I'm glad I have an answer to our little issue.

We have gas appliances - stove, furnace, water heater. Our stove & furnace are cool...both are relatively young, but our water heater is geriatric. The serial number (and most serial numbers start with the date of manufacture) starts with 98. Yes, our water heater was built in 1998. That doesn't necessarily mean it was installed in 1998, but it still means the damn thing is about 11 years old. I've asked around and the average life span of a water heater is about, oh, 10 years or so. Yeah, our little water heater is a trooper.

But...

I smelled gas. I swear I did. Adam did, too. He actually believed me for a change and didn't think I was nuts! Of course, to smell the gas you have to get riiiiiight on the water heater by the temperature valve. We've had a gas plumber look at the water heater twice -- both times we were told nothing was wrong because the gas pipes weren't leaking...that maybe we were just smelling residual gas that had built up as a result of having to shut off the gas line to the house (we had some work done to the gas line behind our stove during our kitchen reno). Anywho...I still didn't think something was quite right and my biggest fear was having my house:

a) Blow up with us in it
b) Blow up while we were all at work or school
c) Blow up just after I get the laundry all caught up (wouldn't that be a bitch...I know, I know, this is a serious matter and I shouldn't make jokes...people have lost their lives due to natural gas build ups...)

So, I called VNG and they sent a tech out and he arrived around 9:30pm. Bless his heart. If I could hug the man, I would. He checked things out with the little gas leak detector -- it buzzes, whistles and hums depending on the intensity of the leak -- and, sure enough, it went cuckoo around the temperature valve. He did the soap test and then did some snooping. He messed with the valve and then had me put my hand just underneath the valve. When he cut the temperature up, I felt heat. My water heater is leaking heat! Well, not exactly, but basically when the temperature is up and the water heater cuts on, the gas or whatever gets all cranked up and whatever is leaking around the valve is being burned up by the heat. The smell I am smelling is the burned off gas smell and you can see it on the water heater. It forms a very long, light tan triangle on the water heater.

This, friends, is a sign of old age.

The gas man said that everything is fine. It was nothing for him to warrant shutting off the water heater or making us shut off the gas line and evacuate the house -- thank gawd! He did advise that, yes, we'll need to replace the water heater soon (oh, boy), but overall things were ok. One thing he did mention to me was that since we transformed half of the garage into a separate laundry area that we cut off some of the air space for the water heater. Had the room been made smaller, then our problem would have been greater. So, as a temporary fix, I have the door from the laundry room to the garage open to help better ventilate the laundry room.

*whew*