Texas family hit with $8,000 electric bill

that fact that they made one mistake already, how can you trust anything they say. whose to say that they check again and find out they owe her 8,000. that company is a complete mess.

The corporation cannot be beat because a normal person is expected and limited to attending to all cognitive and experiential factors of his/her life on an individual basis. The corporate "person" works more like a collective organism (i.e., a beehive), whereby different positions that relate to different personal functions are totally fulfilled by individual persons with no other necessary thought process.

In other words, the corporate person has a multiple personality disorder that actually helps it thrive. The lawyers, the accountants, the PR person, the marketers, the decision makers (CEOs), the invisible hands (stockholders).

When a corporation catches a mistake in its favor, you're expected to pay. When a corporation catches a mistake in YOUR favor...hahaha, unless it's part of a fake marketing ploy ($100 back for booking the hotel before a rate decrease)...they'll never tell you.

I could actually see someone making this mistake. The article said that though she wasn't charged for electricity usage, there were other electrical charges on there. Combine that with an already 400 dollar gas bill, that could look just about right to someone.

I work with all kinds of situations in my job, things are not always crystal clear to people. Sometimes I have to explain things three times and they still don't get it.

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Why should she be responsible for there mistake. YESSSSSS thus is the problem with this
country's unquenchable GREEEEEEEEEED.

Originally posted by Hedera Helix
reply to post by tothetenthpower

 

I have a strong hunch... that if it were just she and the kids struggling... and she didn't have a live-in boyfriend... who's probably drinking and doing drugs... this would have never come to light.

What? Where did you come up with that? How biased can you be.

"Every person that drink and/or does drugs will always get the bill collectors after you!"

I mean seriously, I don't know where you're coming up with what you said but why would you assume such things, and why would you even apply that to this situation?

Anyway, I think it's fair for her to pay it back over the amount of years it was screwed up - asking her to pay all at once would be ridiculous and would definitely get taken up by a lawyer easily. In fact I'm pretty sure she could still take this to court no problem and at least get some of that money knocked down but she may end up spending that much on the lawyer so...

Originally posted by Blanca Rose
reply to post by LocoHombre

 

Even if the company made a mistake, she still used the service.

Oh well, no problem. Your local electric company will be more than happy to pass on this kind of a mistake on to all their customers to recoup the money for this mistake. They do that sort of thing, ya know.

So, should she pay the bill, or should all the other customers have to pitch in to do so?

As one poster stated that if they were overpaying her, they would never tell her and pocket the money. God bless the human corrupted heart.

If they give her 7 years to pay that is $95.24 each month. That is a substantial chunk of change for anyone who is struggling.

If the company is inept enough to miss $8000.00 over a five year span, which is $129.03 a month, then what other mistakes have they made. Before anything is paid back an extensive investigation into the companie's accounting system and their profits vs their expenditure should take place. I bet they would not want the money back if they had to go through that.

[edit on 15-5-2010 by Conclusion]

reply to post by Aggie Man

.... Yea my power company installed those here2 yrs ago, 1st month after my neighbors and my bills jumped a $100.oo ... then went back down a bit... We went to their HQ , They said tuff S..T Georgia Power Company BTW.... They do have excellent Linemen though...

Originally posted by dragnet53

As one poster stated that if they were overpaying her, they would never tell her and pocket the money. God bless the human corrupted heart.

I guess that depends on the power company. When I moved into a house in Mundelien Il, the person who lived there before me had done a payment plan where they had a set fee every month throughout the year.

For some reason, they set me up with the same plan. While I did not use as much power as the person who was in the home before me, they adjusted my bill, because I preferred to pay peak during summer months, rather than have a high bill year round. I hate air conditioning.

I got a huge refund, for not paying on the yearly guestimated plan. Enough that it was enough for almost half a mortgage payment.

People really need to read their bill. This company was Commonwealth Edison, and I believe they did right by me.

Ridiculous.

No consumer should become the guarantor of a business' negligence or poor business practice.

If you can't invoice properly, then go out of business and make way for those who can.

..."bail-out mentality" everywhere I look.... makes me sick....

She's nuts if she really pays that bill.



[edit on 15-5-2010 by loam]

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
I bet if it was the other way, they would have NEVER told them they were overpaying.

That has happened to me more than once.

There was one time where I over paid on a parking ticket and they never told me. Even when I received other tickets (I mixed up the street cleaning days a lot), but one day I actually had to go in to pay and because a crowd they let me go into the back and sit with an actual State employee. So she types in my info and says, "do you want to pay with cash, credit card, or used the over-payment to cover this?"

It was over a year and they never told me.

Verizon eventually sent me a $300 check after I ended service when I moved. They said it was do to some error and overpayment from so way back I didn't even know what they were talking about.

I received $800 from the State taxes and a week later they send a letter claiming I owe them $600.



I always paid what the bills claimed I owed to these companies or the government yet there still seems to be some sort of over payment out there that they neglected to tell me about.

They seem lackadaisical when it comes to giving you money they owe but when you owe it, then it's all about threats, turn-off notices, and car boots.

The best moment for me though came when my electricity was accidentally cut off because the company claimed they didn't receive a payment that they actually did.

It was my turn!!

Not only did I make them come out and turn it back on immediately, I charged them for the food in my refrigerator that would possibly go bad due to this error. I didn't think they would pay me for it but they did.

Me: 1
The System: 1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000.

Meh.
I'll take it.

- Lee

well i didnt read the whole thread but They should have a 5 year payment plan at the least...wasnt there fault

I just had a 2000 dollar bill for the last 3-4 months, with GAS AND HYDRO Merged, monthly bills for 3 bdr homes can run a 1000 dollars. It doesnt make sense nobody can make it soon but the rich.

You know what makes the cost of electricity worse? Try not having any....you can't. If you decided you didn't want electricity, guess what? They will deem your home unfit to occupy and will condemn it. Or at least in the city I live in has the scam set up that way...even if you install solar cells, you MUST remain connected to the effing grid.