Termyn8or
Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
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For the past bunch of years, at least around here there are a rash of utility thefts. I don't mean people stealing, I mean the companies. I have heard about this too many times now and been presented with more hard evidence, the bill itself. People wonder just how these things can happen until they talk to me. There are effective ways to deal with it which are perfectly legal and honest, but many do not know this.
What happens is that you are tooling along through life and let's say i.e. your water bill is $100 per quarter (they bill every three months around here). Now you have not sprung a leak, fifty illegal immigrants have not moved in nor did you buy a swimming pool or change anything about the way you live. However your water bill for the cycle is not the usual $100-150, it is $700.
Now if this were an honest error you would think that it happens in reverse as well, that the bill might come in way lower than you think at times. That never seems to happen, and/or it is never reported. However if you were to call the water works to question a bill that is too low they will be happy to send you a "corrected" bill. However when the error is in their favor their attitude is "pay it or we shut it off". This is an issue because without water they can pretty much force you out of your own home in the city, citing that it is not fit. This makes it a huge issue.
Why are almost all of these "errors" in their favor ? Of course because they are not errors. In the old days utility companies were seen as respectable and pure in motive, as honest as the day was long, but now they have gotten on the bandwagon of the "Mo Money" theory, as promoted on that old TV show, In Living Color I think. This is how it works.
They send you this ridiculous bill, perhaps ten times the normal. No sane person pays it, even under that form of duress, and indeed many simply can't. Therefore they must call the PUCO or dial 211 (around here) to get it resolved. Others may take it to a local news station if they can find one that does not do advertising for said local utility company. Ever wonder why the electric and so forth monopolies ran ads on TV ? That's why. So our "action five" newsteam will not take on the case and bring it to the public eye. Many are forced to take their own action, like putting the bill in someone else's name, but that doesn't work for those with good credit who want to keep it. Then what ?
Wel people don't understand how and why this happens. What they are doing are fishing for people who use automatic bill paying out of their account, something that I will not allow. If they overbill your checking account it could cost you many times that in fees, and you won't even know it for a month until the next statement arrives. Then you find out that a bunch of checks bounced because they made an "error" and billed you $1152.10 instead of $115.21. Note that this error is almost always in their favor.
Now I am not suggesting any conspiracy here between the banks and utiliy cos, just dishonesty and greed. If caught in the act, what happens at best ? They will issue you a "credit". They are not going to pay those fees or anything unless you sue them, got any idea how hard that can be ? But even with the credit they are floating millions every cycle and collecting interest on it. Giving you a credit does not make it right, as it costs you, and even costs you several times what they make off your money doesn't matter to them, as long as they get mo money.
They don't care. Most municipalities consider a house without water unfit, and now as if not having water was not enough to deal with, now you don't even have a roof over your head. And they don't give a shit, could not care less. And the minions, the talking heads on the phone bank downtown don't even realize that the same could happen to them and just go along with the program.
Last Thursday was at least the dozenth time I have been presented with this, by people I know, with bill in hand. With me knowing that they know and I could even go see that their plumbing is in good order and that they have not moved in a bunch of people. This is too much coincidence.
So how it is now is that you must watch every bill, that means all of them. That means it is foolhardy to use any form of automatic bill payment, ESPECIALLY out of a checking account. That means that you can't trust anyone, even Ma Bell. Even the electric company.
Think about this, if they do this to you and a bunch of your checks bounce because what they did was to steal from you, you have very little standing in law to recover all your bounce fees and overdraft charges. They just give you a "credit". They collect the interset on your money for who knows how long and you are working overtime to pay the fees, that is if you want to stay in good standing with your bank. You might have direct deposit for your pay, which makes that evermore so important.
They definitely have you by the short hairs here. They got you anyway, even if you get the dead tree bill in the mailbox, pay up or else. If you enjoy the "freedom" of using all these automatic services it can be much worse. Just try to sue someone for one of these "mistakes", and they will laugh you out of court. How can you sue the water dept for the fees a bank charged you ? How can you sue a bank for fees that you agreed to pay in the event that this happened ?
In the end you pay. That is all there is to it. For a measely 2% on your money they will wreck your credit and possibly your life, and completely not give a shit about it. And there is more and more of this going on. Noone is immune to this.
Do you realize the ramifications of this misplaced trust ? A cable co can load you up with fraudulent charges for porn channels for example. In some cases this could break a family up, with accusations flying around because nobody would believe that someone as stoutly honest as a utility would do such a thing. They are above suspicion yet your own family is not.
Tell me the reason for the old 900 and 976 numbers, the sex lines in vogue years ago. There were sex lines and chat lines way before that, but they required a CC to get on. The advent of 900/976 numbers simply allowed those addicted to those stupid things to spread the scam around, I know, it happened to me. Let someone use your phone and you could be in deep shit.
And then there was the 809 scam. Looks like a regular phone number right ? Well the connection charge for an outside caller might be $200 if that's what they charge. And this was a phone company doing it IIRC in the Dominican Republic. All provable.
Remember folks, I am not really smarter than others, I just remeber different things. All this added up means one thing - you can't trust them. I don'r remember the actors in even my favorite movies, nor the players of my favorite songs, but I remember that $423 phone bill as if it were yesterday. And like I said this is too much coincidence.
And years ago the news channels around here would from time to time go around finding errors in grocery bills at local stores, and actually report that the error was always in the store's favor. And that it happened more than people think. Well my friends, all it took to fix that was to buy some advertising time.
Like I said this is at least the twelfth time I have heard about the water bill scam locally. Houses have been condemnned and foreclosed upon no doubt because of it and who cares ?
Nobody. You must care. You have read stories about this all over the place, and they count on your short memory when they urge you to make all your payments automatic, and for many people they can count on that. But I remember. I remember the guy who got a bill for $12 trillion. I remember the guy who got a water bill for $33,000. I remember. I will never forget.
This has been a public service announcement from Termy's Terminal, we now return you to your partisan, petty bickering. Please ignore this if so engaged, it is more important to assign blame than to solve the problem.
T
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Dunb Mutha - Business .001, utility cos - 
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