Frikken Frakk N F***

I truly have a love hate relationship with my water tank. My RENTAL water tank.

Let me tell you why.

See, my water tank has big shoes to fill in this house. He is not only responsible for the hot water in my house, he is also responsible for the heat in my home.

So when Good Ol' tank breaks down, we are left without hot water and more importantly WITHOUT HEAT.

Last year when it first happened I was dazed. Confused. Just totally 'out to lunch' with what to do. Then I realized it was a rental unit. I pay Direct Energy a monthly amount to RENT this unit from them!

They were MORE than happy to schedule me a repair appointment as soon as possible.

Only my idea and their idea of "as soon as possible" was very different.

My idea was immediately or within six hours. Their idea was approx 48 hrs away.

Um, HELLO people!!! Its -30* outside. I have two small children!

Their answer to all my problems in this situation was that they were going to drive over to my house and drop off electric heaters and blankets to keep us warm until our appointment.

That was last year.

Fast Forward to this year. My unit has broken down ONCE per month since October. I've had enough. ENOUGH. I'm grateful that they come over and fix it free of charge, I really am. But its starting to cause a great deal of STRESS around the issue of their four hour window.

I've had to stay home from work, cancel appointments and Peat has even had to alter his plans and work arrangements JUST so we can be home. On a monthly basis...I say this is enough.

So I've requested that they stop FIXING my friggen unit, face the fact that its NOT REPAIRABLE and put a new one in. But because its ten years old and NOT 15 years old, they'd rather pay the nice man who comes here to fix it.

I'm sick of this.

I just don't know what to do about it.

Do I call Consumer Affairs? Do they care? Probably not.

Do I write the paper about this?
Can I find another company?

This HAS to be wrong in SOME BODY'S Books.

I need heat and when I place a call at 3am, giving me an appointment two days away is UNACCEPTABLE.

I don't have alternate heating sources.

JUST replace the unit that isn't working.

God I'm frustrated. Anyone have any ideas for me?