Power Outage

There was a brief story in the Herald Tribune the other day about frustrations with customer service in the States. The lead example was a Comcast repairman who fell asleep in a customer’s house as he was fixing an internet connection. The customer videoed the snoring techie and posted it at www.smakesonablog.com.

Well, utilities are the same the world over, or at least here in Morocco, and the other day a power outage gave us a glimpse into the interesting approach of the Accounts Receivable Department at the electric company, as well as Hamoud’s reaction to it.

While we’re enjoying breakfast on the terrace, Hamoud stops by to say good morning, and tells us that the power is off at Mitch’s place, where Simone (whom we mention in an earlier post) lives. We ask why, and he tells us, “the bill hasn’t been paid in three months.” Funny how wherever you are, the passive voice creeps in when something doesn’t get done.

We help Hamoud write an email to Mitch requesting a wire transfer to pay the three months of electricity, and go on about our day. As our house hunting takes us past
Mitch’s front door, we knock and say hello to Simone. Simone laughs it off, thinking there’s a regional power outage for a while, before Hamoud makes it clear that the electricity has been turned off. As we’re all wondering how long this will last, we tell Simone she can come take a shower or hang out at our place. Hamoud tells her with a smile that, “Maybe Mitch will send the money tomorrow, Insha’Allah.” It’s pretty clear that to the three Americans, the prospect of living for three days without electricity is not a good one, while to Hamoud, it seems to be just part of life.

We press Hamoud about the electricity cut-off; after all, we reason, one of his main jobs for Mitch is to pay utility bills. Hamoud explains that the Meter Reader who comes each month brings the bill for the previous month with him. If you’re not at home to receive the bill, he doesn’t come the next month, and after three months they shut off the electricity. While Morocco might not yet be expected to have online bill paying, by any measure this is a pretty ridiculous system, and Hamoud clearly finds it frustrating. He wasn’t at Mitch’s house once when the Meter Reader came by: therefore he didn’t pay the bill, and never thought to go to the office of the power company to take care of it. For a man with so much common sense, who prides himself on having a mentalité Europeanne, this was a rare glimpse at his latent mentalité Moroccaine.

The next time, back in the States, when we feel our blood pressure rising precipitously at the cable guy’s arrival well after his four-hour window, let’s hope we’ll just take a deep breath and relish a few minutes with a book instead.