posted on Nov, 25 2008 @ 02:03 PM
mmm, about two years ago out of the blue I received an electric bill for a HUGE amount of money. In confusion I called the electric company to find
out what was going on.
In the end I found out that someone had called in and changed our electric to another persons name AND address, who never paid it. I own my home and
have been here for years. I was never sent a notice in regards to this, or even a "final bill", I never received a paper notice or an email notice
from the electric company.
Well as my bills are on automatic pay I did not even think about it or realize that the electric bill was not getting paid for six months (my bad
really for not being more on top of it, you can bet I pay more attention now), but the electric company wanted all the money immediately and refused
to work with me (close to $1300) .
I asked them, you changed my bill to another person as well as sending the bill to another address, without my permission and expect me to jump
through your hoops because of your mistake?
How do I even know that this is just my bill? How do I know it is not a combination of two homes? I never did figure this out for sure, but the
amount has always had me wondering if I ended up paying another person's electric bill on top of mine.
The electric company refused to assist with this, telling me that it was my responsibility 100% because I should have called them immediately when I
did not receive a bill. Uhm, how about NO you guys were the ones who changed it over to a different person's name AND address without contacting
this address for verification.
Well, they supposedly tried, and the phone number was disconnected. So I asked, what number do you have for me? Yep, that's it, has been for years
and has never been disconnected so try again. Did you guys send me an email like you are supposed to? We tried, it bounced back. Well, what email
do you have for me? Yep, that's it, has been for years. Did you try to send me a paper notice? Yep they said, sorry I said, I never got one, which
address did you send it too? Uhm, the one it was changed to. Well, then you did NOT notify me, you notified someone else.
That is a simple version of the situation, but needless to say after speaking to manager after manager they were finally willing to work something out
with me.
I was told in the end that it was "standard procedure" to tell anyone who calls in asking for assistance with bill pay for them to say "they cannot
do anything to assist you and they require full payment". So, basically that is how they are trained, those that get assistance are those that say,
let me speak with your manager, when you finally reach a high enough point in the company, then they are allowed to assist you, though the least
amount possible.
Basically in the end I had to say, I can pay >> you accept that, or you don't, your choice. The problem is, their is not another electric company in
this area to use if you have problems with one. So they knew they had me cornered here. Can we say MONOPOLY? In the end they accepted the amount
that I could pay.
Many people do not realize this, so the company is more likely to get their money right away. So, if you reach someone that cannot assist you, ask
for their manager and so on. If they refuse tell them you plan on sending a complaint to the better business bureau, that usually does the trick, but
not always.
Anyway, I know, my bad as I did not pay attention enough to realize that I was not receiving my bill from the electric company. But basically I feel
they messed up the whole way, allowing another person to change the billing name and address without verifying with me about this taking place.