For 2 weeks I smelled gas from the gas meter outside of my second house on Cape Cod. I left 2 Emails over those two weeks for National Grid - asking if they could come out and take a look at the meter. Absolutely no response. So now the day before Thanksgiving I wanted to call them to find out if they can come by while I am there on Friday/Saturday. The woman freaks out and says a technician will be there within an hour. Someone, she said, needs to be there at the house. Unfortunately I am currently 3000 miles away so that is kind of an issue. I am then told that if they suspect gas issues inside the house (honestly, I don't know why they would - the meter is OUTSIDE!), that they would call the fire dept and break down the door. At this point I had to ask if she was Freaking kidding me! She asked if a neighbor had a key and I said that there indeed was, but I had no way of knowing if they were there - tomorrow is freaking Thanksgiving!. I asked why they didn't respond to any of my emails over the last 2 weeks and she said they don't respond to emails reporting gas smells. Nice! so I guess the emergencies are dependent upon how you notify them, not the emergency itself! I then said that I changed my mind and there was NO gas smell - I just wanted to call to tell her there is NO gas smell - but alas! she said it's like 911, the emergency is already declared! I asked if the meter connectors just need to be tightened if the gas shutoff for a short time will shut-down my furnace permanently, and she said it would. I then asked if the call was being recorded and she said it was. I then said - "you are hereby accepting full liability for my pipes bursting and damaging my home" She answered that they accept no liability for actions taken for safety's sake. I told her this didn't sound very safe to me making a perfectly good furnace to not work - in Winter. She also said that it takes 3 days for pipes to freeze (at this point I am thinking - as stupid as she is, she must have taken some kind of Physics course!). I hung up and after trying my third neighbor I got an answer and she kindly went over to my home - it took me an hour to get someone - guess what? Nobody's there! I am currently waiting to hear how all of this goes - as my neighbor sits in my house and drinks my beer. So here is the moral, folks - you just can't fix stupid. And National Grid is sadly - STUPID! I guess the issues with gas fires up in the North Shore last month put the fear of God in them - the fear only being triggered by a call, of course - Emails bring no fear. And a fear that is downright nonsensical - maybe hysterical! As I write this it is now over an hour. Maybe the technician is on his third dunkin donut - snickering about the whole thing.