Duke Power: worst customer service. Wealthy monopoly shafts customers. Vent!

I am writing to you, gentle readers, from my cellphone, because half an hour ago while I was recording Yiddish songs in my living room, a Duke Energy guy walked up to the house and cut off the power. (I didn't realize it until he was gone because my recording studio was running off a laptop battery.)

Turns out my bill was overdue. I've been a customer of this bloated company since 1981 and always pay my bill. But somehow, without my permission, they seem to have transferred me to a paperless billing system. OK, except I don't get any emails. I also didn't get a phone call. Where are the robocalls when they would actually help?

That guy who cut off the power, I'm absolutely sure he saw me through the window, but instead of ringing the doorbell he pulled the plug and left.

Is this how well a paperless system works? Duke Energy doesn't have to care how its customers are treated because we have no choice, they are the only game in town. Like Time Warner Cable, another wretchedly mismanaged widely loathed monopoly around here.

Just sitting here thinking about the food that's melting in the refrigerator, the work I can't do, and how much I hate being treated this way after decades of paying my bill like a good customer that deserved better than this.