One-Minute Fiction — Too Bad, So Sad

Fandango

I received two notices in the mail yesterday. One was from the electric company. The other was from the telephone company. They both told me that the large evergreen tree in my front yard would have to be taken down. The electric company said that the tree was a hazard to the power lines. The telephone company said that the tree was a hazard to the telephone lines. Both letters gave me until the end of the month to remove the tree. At my expense.

I got three estimates from tree removal companies. They ranged from $800 to $1,500. I can’t afford that. So I contacted the electric company and the telephone company and said that if they want that tree down, they have to take it down themselves.

The electric company threatened to shut down my electricity if I didn’t comply. The telephone company threatened to shut down my phone service if I didn’t comply.

It’s a good thing I put in a whole house generator a few years back and that I no longer have a landline because I use my cell phone exclusively.

So too bad, so sad, electric and telephone company. You want that tree gone? Do it yourselves.

Written for Cyranny’s One Minute Fiction prompt. Photo credit: Cyranny.

15 thoughts on “One-Minute Fiction — Too Bad, So Sad”

  1. newepicauthor November 11, 2021 / 7:06 am

    One time I had a water bill for $1,200 and I refused to pay it because my bills were averaging only around $75 at that time and I knew there was something wrong. I looked at my meter in the basement and nothing seemed irregular to me, but they told me that the line running to my meter had sprung a leak and it was my responsibility. I had to pay the stinking bastards.

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    • Irene November 13, 2021 / 7:51 am

      Ugh, so painful and unfair! We have been reluctantly paying “pipe insurance” for a couple of years now, because of the aging system in the city, foreseeing the liability that you faced.

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  3. Marleen November 11, 2021 / 10:32 am

    Okay… I know this is fiction… but, I was going to say “that answers that question.” I have such a tree, but the telephone company has not contacted me. (The electrical company doesn’t have lines there.)

    I have considered taking the tree down myself (actually because it’s dead and not precisely myself but via paying somone). What if my people do damage to the telephone lines? Then I’ll be in trouble.

    I can live without the land line like you can. But doing damage to their infrastructure [theirs even if my tax dollars now pay for private company equipment and so on] would be a different ballgame.

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    • Marleen November 11, 2021 / 10:33 am

      🙄… somEone …

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  4. Nope, Not Pam November 11, 2021 / 10:43 am

    I had a similar situation and we just ignored the letters, that was four years ago and they’ve done nothing. PS – the tree is a bottle brush and my husband suffers with an allergic reaction to it 🙂

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  5. Melanie B Cee November 11, 2021 / 11:37 am

    Your stance is reasonable. The tree is viable and I’m shocked (if not surprised) that they don’t do regular trimming of trees and such along their line paths. They do here. If they contacted me about a similar issue, I’d be very tempted to tell them the same thing. I can’t afford it either. Time those monopolies got the message that they’re becoming obsolete.

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  6. donmatthewspoetry November 11, 2021 / 1:44 pm

    If trees are on private land it is the owner’s responsibility. If on public land it is the supplier’s responsibility. At least where I come from……….

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