Utilities Companies

The utility companies are heartless instead of working with someone to keep their service on they cut off even the basic of services. A friend of mine is on oxygen therapy and definately needs the electric. Always has to make sure the bill is paid, even to the point of ignoring another bill.

Sometimes you can half-way live without electric a couple across from us barbecued every night and midday. Would only accept help for food storage. They did get it back a week an half later.

No utility company should have that kind of power over people. What do you think?



EmineSinmaz

Texas woman, 69, lives without water for SIX YEARS after racking up a massive bill and cutting off her own supply. Fannie Wilson, 69, spent the last six years occasionally bathing at her daughter’s house or getting by on bottles of water she collected from other people and keeping them at her house.
‘I paid three expensive water bills,’ Wilson told CBSDFW.com. ‘So I went out to the meter and cut it off myself.






Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk...

reply to post by 1loserel2


That's sad eh.Around here April fools day is the legal shut off date....It happened to me once a few years ago.

A friend of mine who is dying from cancer and has been out of work this winter, had an electric/heating bill up around $700. She could not pay the bill so she went to the utility assistance for help, and for three months they kept bouncing her around, asking for more proof of this, that, and keeping her case tied up in red tape. They told her they would help pay some of the bill to avoid a shut off. Finally, last week she got a notice that her heat is getting turned off this Monday. She called and begged them to keep her on and you know what they said? If she is not on oxygen, they can turn it off. They don't care if she is dying.

People in our community have rallied and we paid off most the bill. I'm sick to death of these heartless companies who keep jacking up the rates every year. My heating bill was $380 in ONE MONTH and that is with weatherizing, and some major conserving of energy. I have gone to battle with this company and it does no good.

i will tell you that ever since they came to my house and put one of their new smart boxes on it, so the man doesn't have to read the meter, my electricity sky rocketed

reply to post by 1loserel2


And you know what is going to happen next? The counties and states will start making laws that a home owner must have their water on. They will start making it illegal for a house to be without electric and water.

In town, if a person is late on their sewer bill, the county brings out bear cats and parks them in your front yard and gives you ten days to pay your bill or they start digging.

"No utility company should have that kind of power over people. What do you think?"

Uhh,it's called if you don't pay your bills they're going to shut it off.Whether it's electric,cable,phone,etc.People these days need to stop whining and start being responsible.While it sucks,NO company is obilgated to you or anyone else if you do not pay your bills.If that person is sick,make arrangements to make sure that bill is paid if it's on you need that's going to keep you ALIVE.There are programs out there that do help.I know that sounds cold hearted,but it's the truth.Being old and/or having an illness doesn't qualify you for free stuff.

IF you are DYING, you should NEVER have to worry about losing heat in the winter time. It is called compassion. I could give a # less who owes what and how much. If you are paying out medical bills for cancer treatment, and you are struggling and lost your job because of severe seizures, then you should never lose heat in winter time. Period.
We live in a sick minded society where the all mighty dollar is more important than a damned life. Living without compassion for another human is sick minded.

Originally posted by Thunder heart woman
IF you are DYING, you should NEVER have to worry about losing heat in the winter time. It is called compassion. I could give a # less who owes what and how much. If you are paying out medical bills for cancer treatment, and you are struggling and lost your job because of severe seizures, then you should never lose heat in winter time. Period.
We live in a sick minded society where the all mighty dollar is more important than a damned life. Living without compassion for another human is sick minded.

I have plenty of compassion for people.But I do not have compassion for anyone who let's their bills get into the thousands and then whine that it got shut off.Bills do not just get high overnight.It's usually because you've gone without paying them for an extended period of time.

WHY shouldn't our elderly be taken care of? IMO, in the non Native culture, you put your elders away in nursing homes to die because you don't care of them. You don't want your hands dirtied. In my culture, we take our elders in and we care for them because they are our elders. Young people get together and help buy propane for our elders and pay heating bills each year so they don't freeze to death. By your count, you'd just let them freeze because they don't have money to pay their bill. You would do great working at the electric company...... I bet they'd hire you in a heart beat.

Originally posted by nightstalker78

Originally posted by Thunder heart woman
IF you are DYING, you should NEVER have to worry about losing heat in the winter time. It is called compassion. I could give a # less who owes what and how much. If you are paying out medical bills for cancer treatment, and you are struggling and lost your job because of severe seizures, then you should never lose heat in winter time. Period.
We live in a sick minded society where the all mighty dollar is more important than a damned life. Living without compassion for another human is sick minded.

I have plenty of compassion for people.But I do not have compassion for anyone who let's their bills get into the thousands and then whine that it got shut off.Bills do not just get high overnight.It's usually because you've gone without paying them for an extended period of time.

It's called, BEING SICK and being forced to make choices between expensive medical treatment, food or utilities. I do hope you never find yourself backed into that corner. I really do.

Originally posted by Thunder heart woman
WHY shouldn't our elderly be taken care of? IMO, in the non Native culture, you put your elders away in nursing homes to die because you don't care of them. You don't want your hands dirtied. In my culture, we take our elders in and we care for them because they are our elders. Young people get together and help buy propane for our elders and pay heating bills each year so they don't freeze to death. By your count, you'd just let them freeze because they don't have money to pay their bill. You would do great working at the electric company...... I bet they'd hire you in a heart beat.

Who said I didn't think the elderly shouldn't be taken care of?Don't presume to know what I think or what I'd do.There you people go again,assuming.For your information,my grandmother stayed briefly with me to avoid just that,going to a nursing home.She then went and lived with my Aunt once she got a bigger place.So again,don't assume you know what I'd do in any given situation.You know,even elderly people HAVE to pay their bills too.You're saying they should get a free pass because they're old?What about me?My daughter is 4.She can't pay a bill.Should I get a free pass?No,of course not.

Of course,situations are different.I'm not saying it's right that someone's heat/power got shut off.Certainly if they're on oxygen.Years ago when I lived at home one of my mother's friends came to stay with us.She had emphysema and was on oxygen.We got a notice that the electric was going to be shut off.All we had to do was show proof that she was sick.They didn't shut off the power.They worked with us on payments.That option is available to everyone.So quit pretending it isn't.

ETA : I'm getting the vibe from your posts that you think everything should be free.You're making it sound like these big bad companys are pickin on people.It works like this : Company provides a service.You pay for that service.What happens when you don't?It get shuts off. Here's a tip.Sick or not,pay your damn bills and you won't have to worry about it.

Originally posted by Thunder heart woman

Originally posted by nightstalker78

Originally posted by Thunder heart woman
IF you are DYING, you should NEVER have to worry about losing heat in the winter time. It is called compassion. I could give a # less who owes what and how much. If you are paying out medical bills for cancer treatment, and you are struggling and lost your job because of severe seizures, then you should never lose heat in winter time. Period.
We live in a sick minded society where the all mighty dollar is more important than a damned life. Living without compassion for another human is sick minded.

I have plenty of compassion for people.But I do not have compassion for anyone who let's their bills get into the thousands and then whine that it got shut off.Bills do not just get high overnight.It's usually because you've gone without paying them for an extended period of time.

It's called, BEING SICK and being forced to make choices between expensive medical treatment, food or utilities. I do hope you never find yourself backed into that corner. I really do.

Again,every situation is different.MOST people have family they can count on when they're sick.In most cases they end up either living with that relative to be taken care of...or someone moves in with them to help them.In the latter case the caretaker should make sure all bills are paid.

There was an elderly woman (81 years old) in Saskatchewan a couple of years ago, that was paying the wrong utility company. Our gas and electric bills sometimes come in the same envelope, sometimes they don't.

She got confused and was paying both her bills to the electric company, for more than just a month. She was running a large credit on electric, and no one bothered to look into it. Her gas heat got shut off and neighbours got together and paid her bill.

Apparently, the woman was writing the cheques out to Sask Power instead of Sask Energy..Sask Power noticed nothing wrong with a credit as high was what hers was growing..this didn't trigger off any red flags. It was her neighbours who noticed that the energy had been cut off....

forum2.aimoo.com...

Up here, our winter bills average $500 a month for heat, or more. Less if you have a wood stove, and a lot of wood.
I have electric heat, last year, 3 months in a row, the bills were $600 each.

I heard about another elderly man who froze in the winter also, but I couldn't find the article.

Now they're supposed to phone you, or a contact person, instead of just cutting it off.
We have a lot of elderly people here, really elderly, and they don't always have their wits about them in such old age.