Hi Everyone!

Hope you are doing well. Last weekend I was in Atlanta for a seminar and workshop. I always like going back to my old stomping ground (I lived in Atlanta for 10 years.)

So as luck would have it, while I was in Atlanta I got a panicked call from my husband. He said that we received a disconnect notice from the power company saying that the power at one of our vacation rentals would be turned off on Monday due to non-payment of the bill!

What??? We paid our bills! We do all of our banking through our online banking system. So the first thing we did was go to our online banking website to confirm that the payment was made and processed. When we pulled up the payment, we got an odd message that said they sent the check but it had been returned due to incorrect account numbers. (Mind you these account numbers have been set up for years and to our knowledge have not been changed.) What really upset me was that the bank never mailed or emailed anything to us about the situation.

Next thing—we checked to see if we had renters in the property. No one was in there, thank goodness, but there were some due to arrive on Monday afternoon. Wouldn't that be a sticky situation to try to explain to our renters?

So Monday morning we made a call to the power company first to make sure they had not turned off the power yet, and secondly, to get the payment expedited. As soon as we called, they asked what bank we used.  I wasn't sure why that mattered, but the power company claimed that there was some sort of mix-up with all the checks that were from that particular bank!  Thankfully the power had not been turned off, and we were able to expedite the payment (at a $25 processing fee.)

Bottom line—Disaster averted! Whew!

Christine

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Problem Solving: The Key to Smoothly Renting Your Vacation Home A lot of vacation home owners worry about how to handle the problems that may arise. Here are a few tips on vacation home ownership.   3 Steps for Resolving the Problems of Your Vacation Rental Guests How to turn a disgruntled renter into a repeat one.   How to Decrease Your Electricity Bill by Lowering Appliance Costs Learn how to lower the cost to power your refrigerator, washer, dryer, and dishwasher.   Get Organized: 12 Ways to Simplify Your Vacation Rental Life Cottage, cabin and condo rental tips for confidently handling any problems that may arise at any type of vacation rental.

© Copyright 2009 Christine Karpinski