WTF Met-Ed?

[LillFilly]

My boyfriend pays the electrical bill. It's hooked to his checking account, and automatically pays each month. He's confirmed that the money is being taken from the account, yet for the 2nd time we've received a notice to the account being past-due and that our electricity will be shut-off in 3-days. Haven't been able to get a hold of anyone yet, but seriously?

[scruff]

I got notification from my electricity company (on a bright red postcard) that according to their records this address was unoccupied and they would be shutting off the supply that week.

Despite me having lived here for years and paying the bills.

I rang them, and they explained that there was no name on the account, so they assumed the place was empty. I pointed out the electricity was being used, and for years the blls were being paid from the same bank account, did they have a record of that? Yes, they did. But as there was no name in the address field on their computer, they had to assume the place was empty. I pointed out that logically, the name should be mine - as shown on the bank details that they get paid by. They appologised, and promised it would be sorted.

Next week, another red postcard threatening disconnection. And the same appologetic rep on the phone. Fortunatly this time it seems to have stuck.

[Aethian]

Oh don't get me started, at my new place (which is almost two years now...wow...) I've had to go through and submit my numbers to the power company because I'll get a HUGE bill and then it's readjusted down to something of an 1/8th of what it had been.

My neighbors...I try to tell them to submit a correction but don't believe me. Insted saying that the meter reader will come back out and then are faced with shut off notices because they had a huge bill they never paid.

[Taboo]

Oh this has been going on for about 6 months for me, and on top of all of it they're trying to charge us, personally, for the landlord's electric in the hallways that's unpaid instead of a. going after the landlord or b. just charging us rationally for our own electric. And they keep threatening to shut down the whole building over it. Yeah, good luck convincing *anyone* here that your threats are worth them paying someone else's several thousand dollar electric bill. We just all keep putting them in envelopes and mailing them to the landlord.

Sigh.

[bankworking]

When you say it comes out of the account automatically, do you mean the electric company is pulling the funds every month,or is it set up in such a way that the bank is sending the funds?

I'm better the former, in which case the company has no excuse, and good luck in getting it resolved.

But if you do have it set up so that the bank is sending the money, such as by using the bank's online bill-pay, then you may want to double check that the information attached to the payment is still correct. Back when TWC changed all of their account numbers, we had a ton of people who were still using our bill-pay to pay their old account number. Well, after a certain date, TWC stopped accepting the old account number... they still accepted the money, just wouldn't credit it to the new account number.

Just something to possibly look into.

[LillFilly]

When you say it comes out of the account automatically, do you mean the electric company is pulling the funds every month,or is it set up in such a way that the bank is sending the funds?

It's automatic bill pay; I'll have him check and make sure the information is correct.

[Daemonmonkey]

TWC stopped accepting the old account number... they still accepted the money, just wouldn't credit it to the new account number.

Isn't that fraud? Accepting money and not account it towards the payer?

I believe here in Scandinavia, even if it's a state company it will be sued if they perform that type of actions.

[blas]

AT&T pulled a couple of stunts like that on my family before, and we ended up not only shut off, but we had to pay to be turned back on. If that wasn't enough, their "associates" refused to take a faxed copy of my mom's bank account, showing that, just like every month, the cell phone payment was deducted. When my mom said that their customer service was extremely terrible and they shouldn't be surprised that we wouldn't be renewing our contracts, and they really needed to learn some better service skills, the lady on the other end just said "Uh huh".

[LillFilly]

AT&T pulled a couple of stunts like that on my family before, and we ended up not only shut off, but we had to pay to be turned back on. If that wasn't enough, their "associates" refused to take a faxed copy of my mom's bank account, showing that, just like every month, the cell phone payment was deducted. When my mom said that their customer service was extremely terrible and they shouldn't be surprised that we wouldn't be renewing our contracts, and they really needed to learn some better service skills, the lady on the other end just said "Uh huh".

Ohhh boy, I swear if the Electric Co. Says anything like that to us, I will pull the plug and power my computer by hamster! We use gas for everything else, so I figure we could get a generator for the tv.

[protege]

Utility companies get away with that sort of thing...simply because there's *no* alternative in most areas. At least in PA we *can* pick our electric suppliers. But, to do so involves fees. Gas companies are another story--you're pretty much locked-in with those.

I got fucked by the gas company awhile back. Up until now, the meter was in my basement...which required someone to come in and actually read it, at least once every couple of months. Pain in the ass, since it was always during the week. So if I wasn't home, they'd leave a card on the front door. Usually, filling out the dial circles wasn't really a big deal. Usually.

The last time though, the guy supposed to read the meter was a dick. Instead of the usual "couple of months," he decided not to come at all. Imagine my surprise when I get a nasty note threatening to turn my service off...because someone didn't come to read the fucking meter! Seems that the guy would park his van just out of view around the corner, dummy-up some paperwork saying that he *had* been to the house, and would simply leave. He was retiring soon, and really didn't give a shit what was going on.

Seems I wasn't the only customer on the block who had to deal with that--just about everyone got one of those letters. After multiple complaints from not only myself, but everyone else too, they finally sent someone out. As far as I'm concerned, Columbia Gas can go fuck themselves.

[emax4]

I too would be surprised to get a shutoff notice if the bill was set on auto-pay. However, since it's your boyfriend's checking account (and me not knowing how or if you could access his information). do you know if there was enough funds in his checking account at the time the utility company attempted to remove the funds to cover the bill?

[drunkenwildmage]

When we bought our current House, First Energy didn't update the account correctly after I called them to set up service. So when the previous owners called to get power turned on at their new location, they transferred their account from our house to their new one, and put a notice to shut off power, Didn't even noticed I had set up an account..

First Energy sent someone out to post a notice that they power was going to get shutdown, in 'about a week'. I called them, and had them set up the account for the 2nd time.. got the billing corrected, and thought all was well..Forward 'about a week'.. I get a call from my wife's Grandmother, who was staying with us, and she told me she was sitting in the living room, watching TV, and suddenly power went out. Looked outside, just to see the First Energy truck pulling away..

So i called them, and the phone rep told me that no account was set up at the house, so a work order was automatically generated to turn off the power. So I set up the account for the 3rd fricking time. and once that got taking care off, Including in charges for power that We have been using for the last month, they told me that someone was going to be out Tomorrow turn the power back on..

Wrong answer!!!!


I told them that wasn't got enough, since it was their royal screw up(twice) that caused the power to be turned off in the first place. I then told them, if we don't have power tonight, then I was going to forward them the bill for my Hotel for that nite. The CSR put me on hold, and came back, and said they manage to get hold of the service person in our area, and it will be back on in 2 hours..