Utility Futility

   So I come home from work today, a bit frazzled by the pre-holiday busy-ness (and from working 10 hours yesterday to try to catch up, post-vacation). And preoccupied because I needed to collect Gypsy and take her back to the vet for more fluids. As I was leaving, I turned on the faucet & learned that I had no water.
   I called the water company and was told that someone requested that my service be shut off. Apparently, I am moving. They said they'd look into it "to see if it was an error" (because apparently *I* don't know whether or not I'm moving) & call me back.
   Meanwhile, I thought, "I'd better call the other utilities just to make sure." Good call: my electricity was about to be shut off, along with the gas and wastewater services! They had my accounts marked for "final bill" and were ready to close them out. I asked why I wasn't called prior to closing out the accounts and was told they weren't required to speak to me.
   "Unfortunately there is no fail-safe to keep this from happening," said the woman at the electric company. I asked each of them to make a note in my account in case the Mystery Person called again. (I am looking for you, dear Mystery Person.)
   The water guys finally called back. They *think* they can get it back on tonight. Great. Now to get Gypsy taken care of. So now I'm sitting at the vet now, listening to my baby howl with displeasure at being at the vet again, & hoping they fix my water quickly.
   I'm pretty irritated with the utility companies for having no way to know if calls are legit. I had to give them my name, address, phone & social security number just to talk to them, and they don't know who cancelled my service? Sigh.