When you move into a new apartment, one of the first things they tell you to do is set-up gas, electricity, and other utilities so you have heat and hot water. Well, this is a story about how not to do it. I signed for an apartment in Paris to move-in on November 5th, 2021. Right before I moved in, the company that did the rental insurance offered to set-up my gas and electric. Since they spoke English, I happily walked through the process with the agent. I even received an email from the energy company welcoming me as a new customer. All good so far. So, I’m happily living in my apartment enjoying the heat (using water radiators) and hot water, all heated by a modern natural-gas boiler.
Then December 4 rolls around. This happens to be a month after I moved in. In the morning, I have my hot shower as normal and go out for the day with my friend, Weston, who’s in town for a weekend trip visiting me. We come back to my place later that evening. Weston comes into the living room asking me how to use the shower since the water is bitter cold. My first reaction was of disbelief. I had not had a problem with my hot water so far. Checking the temperature of the water, lo-and-behold it’s really cold (not even lukewarm).
I check on the water heater. The boiler has an error code (EA) that basically means there is no gas. I am confused, confounded even. Then I realize it’s December 4th, a month after moving in. I ask myself, “do I have a contract for my has and electricity?” Was the welcoming email a ruse to lull me into a false sense of security? Did I imagine the email in the first place? Have I been dreaming this whole time in Paris and this is the point in the dream where it becomes a nightmare and the walls start closing in on me and the clown starts laughing from the shower?
I call the energy company, and they do not have any record of my being a customer with them. They are very friendly about it, but cannot really help me since I’m not a customer. Then it begins to click in my brain. I was advised to get a subscription (or contract). I apparently did not, I only have a welcoming email, but no subscription.
Weston and I spend the next hour or so ordering electricity and gas service on line. The electricity subscription (Classic Electricity offer) with TotalEnergies (https://www.totalenergies.fr/) went smoothly. I was notified the service would start December 7th with no break in service. The adventure with gas was another story. I went with EDF (https://www.edf.fr/) for my gas service because they had the best rates for their Gas Advantage plan. The website walked me through the set-up process including a gas usage estimator calculator which I found very straightforward. However, I was without gas and needed an appointment ASAP in order to have heat and hot water.
Once I was able to set-up an appointment for the gas turn-on, the appointment date was December 13th, about a week later. My apartment was getting colder each day by about two degrees Fahrenheit. By December 7, the temperature in the apartment was down to 60 degrees F. I still had no hot water. My washing up included a washcloth dipped in heated water from the stove which was thankfully electricity-powered. One of the nights I decided to stay at a hotel in order to have a hot shower and a warm room to sleep in.
The thoughts going through my head included how weird that in Paris, it was possible to be without heat and hot water. How difficult is was to live this way and how normal this is for many people in the world. Rather than being upset, I decided to be thankful for the electricity and friends in Paris that helped me out at this time. And I continued my attitude of a smile and patience.
Now back to the date of December 13th. Another week was going to make my life much more difficult and probably drive me to live in a hotel. Coming to the rescue was one of the French teachers at my French language school, L’Atelier 9 (https://latelier9.com/). After hearing my story, she happily offered to be in the call with me with EDF to figure out a way to accelerate the appointment. Thankfully, there is an Urgent option where they can come that day for a price of 131 Euros. Since that is a lot cheaper than a hotel or space heaters, I jumped at the option. EDF came by the same day, the evening of December 7th. They had the gas on in no time and now my apartment has heat and hot water again.
This was another lesson learned for me. Be sure to complete signing up for contracts through the entire process. There are usually multiple stages in setting up a contract (customer number/information, subscription, contract, appointments, billing) and you need to be sure you complete them all or you may find your electricity or gas cutoff on a Saturday evening.
Now if I could just my internet service to start working. A topic for another post.
Until we meet in Paris…
Talenton 
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