NW Natural Gas Neighbors place burns and they took our gas meter Beaverton, Oregon

Just before Thanksgiving 2010 there was a fire in my condo complex, and to my astonishment NW Natural Gas took my gas meter as well as the other one.  As you may know it is a bit cold and wet in Oregon in late November so that was not a good thing.  We packed up and took the pets to the parents place for the night hoping it could be resolved the next day.  At first things went ok, they sent out Andrew a technician to replace our gas meter. 

Unfortunately he thought that my gas line was part of the area affected by the fire (about 3-4 square feet in the attic 2 stories up).  I talked with Andres and he knew I was on my way, literally 2 minutes away and he would not wait so I could show him where the lines went.  Unfortunately at this point the water from the above unit was seeping down into my unit, only 60
gallons were used total so we could have dried the place out and not destroy everything.  The really sad part is that this condo was built for people disabilities, it took almost a year to design and build and only 6 months later it was destroyed.

I kept calling in and talked with other representatives trying to get someone out to place the meter, they kept saying no.  They were adamant that the main gas line was in the fire, later they said we needed to have a furnace technician come out
(it was a weekend so I had to wait till Monday) and inspect that the furnace was ok.  Again the tiny fire was up 2 stories and the gas line goes inside and straight to my furnace only about 10-15 feet away not through the attic, across the unit circling back to where it started.  

Now desperate I pulled some strings and had a guy come out to inspect the furnace and put a sticker on the furnace to appease them but Ella one particularly rude representative at NW Natural Gas in Portland Oregon literally called me a liar and would not send anyone. 

Three days later after taking to everyone up to the president and the executive customer relations department, the floors buckled the cabinets in the gourmet kitchen destroyed by the cold water stagnating on them I finally got someone to come out.  The insurance company determined that everything had to come out.  My dream, a year of my life and one amazing
place was destroyed and NW Natural did not care one bit. 

I talked with NW Natural further and they think they did nothing wrong.  It took one year to restore the damage, the place still is not perfect and there are still things we are trying to get fixed back the way they were. 

If only Andrew had stayed 2 minutes so I could show him the physical gas line I could have dried the place out, saved my house, saved a year of living in hotels and saved my insurance company over $150,000.  If Ella had done her job and sent out another technician it may have mitigated some of the damage.  Alas I have the constant reminder of this horror story every time I walk around and see the lines in the sheetrock where they had to cut pieces out, the replacement floor (20 year warranty) is already showing issues because they could not get the same stuff that was in there (50 year warranty). 

The gas service was turned on during the sheetrock installation, and in the following months there was no usage again.  I asked them to at least reverse the $90 in base fees from when I could not live there as a token of good will, they refused, shut off my gas service and sent me to collections.  

Now my house remains without any source of heat, NW Natural knows they have me over a barrel so they are not willing to do anything for us.  The Brand new 98% efficiency furnace sits there not running and we get to suffer in the cold.  Yeah I could call them up pay $500 or something for a reconnection fee and have service but I do not want to do business with
company that can destroy someones life, call customers liars and not suffer any repercussions. 

Maybe I am alone but I have to think there are other people who think there is something wrong here. 

Maybe NW Natural did not cause the initial fire but they definitely did not help in drying out the place, and they definitely did not act with any sense of compassion.