Electricity - Part 1
Electricity. Something we pretty much take for granted, right? Like, if you buy a house that has electricity, you assume you’ll be able to use that electricity. Turns out, that’s not a good assumption to make.
On my first night in the house, I couldn’t get the kettle to heat up water without blowing the electrics for the house. I figured it was just teething difficulties – kettles are notoriously temperamental creatures, and I was confident I’d have the whole thing figured out in no time. The shower wasn’t running hot either – again, it was an old water heater, so I assumed it’d have some teething difficulties and then be right as rain.
Nope.
I spent the first week at the house plugging various things in, then resetting the fuse box (with its two breakers.) The list of things I couldn’t use (and not a definitive list at that) looks something like this:
Kettle
Water heater
Toaster
Hairdryer
Vacuum cleaner
Microwave
Washing Machine
And, most heartbreakingly, the coffee machine
Now, the confusing thing was that there didn’t seem to be a reason behind it. Laptops and phones charged fine, but anything else tripped the whole system. Admittedly, some of the plug sockets were literally falling out of the wall, but surely that couldn’t be the problem?
It was time to get in touch with the electric company.
Time to warn you now – this story’s going to be a two-parter.
Phone call 1: “Press for English.” No answer.
Phone call 2: “Press for English.” No answer.
Phone call 3: “Press for English.” Electric company: “Hola, que tal, no hablo ingles lo siento.” Electric company: *hang up*
Phone call 4: “Press for Spanish.” Me: “Hola, que tal, lo siento, mi espanol no es muy bien.” Electric company: *hang up*
And approximately 15 other calls with basically the same end result – they’d hang up on me, and that was that.
All of this was done over the course of a week or so, during which time I was showering in a bucket, hand washing my clothes in a different bucket and drinking instant coffee (the HORROR.)
Time to get help.
So, I spoke to the old owner of the house and explained the issues I was having. No problem, he said! He’d call them and pretend to be me (!) and change the name. 5 minutes later, I have a text confirming the name change of the contract.
Success!
After speaking to a whole host of people about the electric issue, the general consensus was that the tariff I was on wasn’t a big enough tariff to allow for a lot of electricity usage – which was why everything was tripping all the time. That made some sort of sense, and I’d heard of that kind of thing before.
Changing the tariff sounded like it’d be relatively simple. I’d started to make friends in the village, and one of them very kindly offered to help as she’s fluent in Spanish and has lived on Gomera for a while.
So, Caroline and I went for a (proper) coffee in the plaza while she called the electric company.
Phone call 1: “Ah, yes, this is the wrong number, call this number.”
Phone call 2: ‘Number not in use.’
Phone call 3 to original number: “Ah, yes, we can help you with this. Please hold.” 20 minutes later, they hung up.
Phone call 4: “You have to call this other number.”
Phone call 5 to third number: “This is the wrong line, this is for corporate clients, call this number.”
Phone call 6 to fourth number: “Yes! This is the right department. Let’s help you out.” 90% of the way through the process, and the line goes dead and they’ve hung up.
Phone call 7 – instant redial to the fourth number: “Sorry, no, we can’t help you on this number.”
By this time I’m realising it’s a game. A super fun game where you have to know all the buttons to press in the right order while speaking in exactly the right tone of voice to a specific person, or you lose the game instantly and forgo coffee-drinking privileges.
Phone call 8: “Change the tariff? We can’t do that on the phone, but it’s very easy on the website.”
Visit website.
Change tariff within 3 minutes. SUCCESS!
Go home to turn on coffee machine.
Still no electric.
Wash in bucket.
Shower in bucket.
Drink instant coffee.
Wait a week.
See that payment’s gone out of bank account to electric company.
Accept that changing that tariff wasn’t the issue.
Bang head against wall.
Try to work out what the next level of the game could be…