Update: Thanks to the kindness of strangers, my lights are staying on. Thank you all so much!
On Monday the 22nd, my payment agreement with Con Edison will break. They need $468.89. I have about $20.
When the payment agreement breaks, I will be asked immediately pay them more money, more than $500. At that point, I'll receive a turnoff notice.
It's happened before, but I've been working odd jobs, and I've managed to hold them off so far. Not having a job and having expenses is a lot of work. It's like juggling. I see this ball falling and I know that I'm not going to be able to catch it, not this time.
I'm poor. I don't have a job. I've managed to make do, but it's not enough.
Not having a job means being shamed by people, all the time, because of this idea that I don't have a job because somehow I don't want one. I spend most of my time filling out applications, tweaking resumes and sending them off, going through the two-hour online questionnaires that ask irrelevant questions only to find out that best buy isn't actually hiring, they just say they have 400 jobs available in your area for the hell of it. It means taking six hours to apply for a security job only to discover that the craigslist ad was a scam, and the "security company" you were trying to apply to is actually a school that wants you to pay them $800 for a "license" with no guarantee of finding employment. And yet, somehow, dealing with this means I don't want a job.
It means not doing things that are free because you can't afford to spend $4.50 on a metro card that wont make you any money, or walking for miles because it's cheaper and you have the time.
It means having holes in my teeth where fillings used to be because I can't afford to replace them. It means using credit cards to buy a little breathing room, knowing that you'll pay more later, but scraping by with plastic because it's all you can do. And if some service you need, like electricity for refrigerating your food and gas for cooking, does't accept credit cards, then you're SOL.
And that's the situation I'm in with the power company.
Yes, I know paying with plastic is financially irresponsible, but I work odd jobs to pay the bills, and the past few months have been slow. Things will pick up again. I'm hoping to get a retail job during the holiday rush. We'll see. I'll scrape by.
But I need breathing room, and the power company won't accept my credit card. I have begged them, for months, to start accepting Visa credit cards. The people over the phones have been given a standard line they always use.
"We're just like any other store you'd see going down the street. Some of them don't accept credit cards."
"You're the only store on the street. You're a monopoly. There's no other power company in New York City."
To which they answer with the same comment, repeated. "We're just like anyone else."
If you push them harder, they say
"I'm sorry sir, but someone else handles our payments. We don't have any control over that."
As if a multimilliondollar corporation has no control over its own affairs.
I don't know what to do. They are refusing the only means I have to pay them.
So I'm asking for help.
I have a paypal account, and they helped me set up a donate link.
I also need help signing up services in New York. The last time I tried doing that, they told me I hadn't lived in New York long enough to be eligible. It's been just over a year, though, so I'm pretty sure I'm eligible now. My understanding, though, is that this takes 30 to 60 days, and the payment agreement breaks on Monday. So I need to get into services as quickly as possible. (I've also read something about emergency assistance if you get a turn off notice.)
Most importantly, I need work, and I'm having trouble finding it. If you're in New York and you have an open position, let me know. I will do anything. You know I can write. I can fix your computer, too. I studied history, and can tutor your kids. I can cook. I will sweep floors and make coffee, and be grateful to have the work. I literally don't care what the job is, how long the commute is, or how crazy the hours are.
1:44 PM PT: Thank you, everyone who's commented. I just realized that if I replied with a thank you to every single person in this thread, it'd spam things up.
So here's a general thank you to everyone, and check your kosmail, cause I'll be sending thank you notes there. I'm trying to gather my thoughts, too. The whole situation has me feeling pretty emotional.
2:06 PM PT: I just checked paypal, and I'm stunned. I'm at 277.36 right now. Thanks, so much, everyone!
2:10 PM PT: And just after I posted that, someone chipped in $100. Thank you! We're at 374.16.
2:21 PM PT: Thank you all so much! I'm beside myself right now. My paypal account just hit 470.96.
My lights are staying on. I'll still be able to cook, and keep food in the fridge.
I'm okay.
Thank you so very, very much, folks. I'm absolutely beside myself. There's a lot of things I want to say, a lot of things I'm thinking and feeling, but for now all I can think to say is "Thank you." Thank you all!