Dont you hate when..
 

You get calls from a company saying that you owe them money and (which you may) they tell you that if you dont make such and such amount of a payment that they are going to take further action on you. But when it comes to a company owing you money and you call them and they tell you sorry but you are going to have to wait 3 to 8 weeks. Each day that the payment is late they add interest. You dont add interest to what they owe you.

Another thing I hate is right now because of the problem with the company over extending their budget my grandmother as well as every other person in our city is paying anywhere from 150 to 300 dollars a month more on their gas bill. The gas company added 2 types of carrying charges and a storage charge to every persons gas bill to make up the money that they are in debt by. But because they couldnt pay it they are making everyone else cover the cost. Everyone knows what a statement looks like, it breaks down what you have used and bills you accordingly. Well we used suchandsuch amount of gas total cost 45 bucks. Carrying charge 139 bucks , transporting charge 89 bucks, storage 20 bucks. So we are sitting looking at a bill for 293 dollars and only used 45 bucks in gas.
Just seems funny they go into debt and bill us for it, we go into debt and we cant hit up someone to pay it for us unless you claim bankrupt.

that's not right - what city do you live in?

Hamilton ontario canada yeah its a pain in the ass if you ask me. But theres nothing anyone can do about it.

That is a wack gas company....I am glad I dont live where your grandma does. I would complain about that bill big time.

I've got an amusing story about bill collectors.

A couple of years ago, I was abandoned by my roommates, and stuck with (among other things) a $350 electricity bill. The bill was sent to a collection agency, but I was only told this after calling the power company to find out how exactly much I owed, since I had to take a loan out to pay everything. They told me they didn't know the amount, but gave me the number and extension of the collection agent who was handling my account. I called the guy and he told me he'd get back to me with the amount I owed, since I needed to know, as I was taking a loan out to cover everything. He never called back, and after at least a dozen calls, I gave up, deciding that they must not want my money that badly, and I had to get that loan out for all the other, more diligent collection agencies that were calling for my head on a spike. This was a year and a half ago.
Just before this christmas, I got a call from the power company, they told me that were shifting my 'extremely delinquent account' over to my mother's account, and her account would be shut down if they didn't recieve full payment within 2 weeks. We both made vicious protests, saying that I was ready, willing and able to pay them 18 months ago, but nobody would give me the time of day. After a few phone calls, things were worked out, the bill got paid, and everybody's happy.
Utilities will gladly bend you over at any chance they get, especially if they're monopolizing whatever it is they provide.

At the same time, I owed the cable company $500 for a stolen digital cable reciever. I was able to retrieve the cable box a year after paying them back (with the loan I took out), I called the cable company, and explained my situation, they told me I could return the box for a full refund. I brought the box back, and was told that I could expect a cheque within the next 2-3 months. I couldn't understand how it could take that long since they knew the serial number of the box I had, and the one I returned matched this, how could it take that long to cut a cheque?

Wow, this is quite a rant. The moral of the story is, utilitity companies are the devil.

I might have a coupla answers for ya....


I worked in collections for a while, and the different clients we had all had different requests for how often they wanted people to be called on deliquent accounts. Some companies were either cheap or naive and wanted an initial contact, and then just wait for the money to roll in, all the while adding charges for the continually growing late balance. If this happened to you, it sucks. If you were to complain about it, I would check with the collections company to see their contact policies.

As far as cutting a check taking some time, the housing office I work for has the same wait time for deposit checks being returned to renters... basically the process is long because they have to get cleared with the accountant that they do owe you the money, then go up to Headquarters with the request, get the request cleared, then wait for the next check cut cycle, then send back down to the branch office on the next shipment of materials, etc for the office. Then you've got the sorting out, finding and confirming that the check is in the office, then digging up your address, getting the check in the envelope, and then finally, viola! you get your rebate or refund.

Whew.... that's my long post for the night! :)

Do what I did when my ISP were charging me for a service they were not providing me, go to their offices and make a fuss at the reception and refuse to leave until my problem your problem is sorted out. They were overcharging me for several months and would not take heed from my constant phonecalls and letters. Results aplenty when you be an asshole.

Yalaynia... I know, oh how I know.

Debt retirement charge? Why the hell should I have to pay for their fuckups?

I don't even bother to look at my gas bill anymore, it's enough to make me want to retire my car in their reception area.

Yes, there is something you can do about it. I wrote my local MP and in a very calm and well educated manner told him that it is not up to the public to cover for bad debt, it's up to to company itself to do that, and that if I found out he or his party had anything to dfo with it he would loose my vote and small campaign contribution.

The company I work for was burned for about 50 grand. We eventually got about 8 grand of it, but we are still out that 42k. Do we raise our prices to cover it? No we don't. We tighten our belts a little and maybe not buy that new milling machine or whatever.

While I don't agree with them recouping money from their customers for their own mistakes, here are some things you might want to think about:
1) obviously your natural gas is not the only commodity you're buying from the provider. You're indeed paying them to get it to your house, which includes carrying costs, storage costs and the like.
Also...
2) If they have it broken down like that, it may be for a very good reason (other than legislative reasons). Are there other companies which compete for gas service in Hamilton? (Not being an Ontarian anymore, I don't know the answer to this) If so, check their carrying and storage charges. It might do well to switch companies and let your soon-to-be-former company what you think of their little revenue-generating strategies. Of course, this only works if you've got a competitive market.
3) Write to the Ontario Energy Board, or Energy Probe (in Toronto), or whatever ratepayer-defending organisation is nearby.

Best of luck... and down with gouging utility companies!

There's more to this than that. What you have to remember is that utilities are regulated. This means that they are only allowed to charge a certain amount above their costs. The big problem is that what they are allowed to charge is generally not that easy to change. They have to apply for a rate hearing before the local government regulatory agency and hope that it gets granted. The local government sometimes is cooperative and sometimes not. They may not condone a rate increase at that time since they are all up for election, and voters might not like seeing their gas bill go up. Sometimes these rate increases are deferred by the regulatory agency until it all hits with one big bang. This may or may not be what you are seeing.

As for the reason for rate increases, consider this. The utility that is supplying your gas generally doesn't produce the gas out of the ground. This means that the utility has to pay the going rate for natural gas. Since natural gas is a commodity, it's price fluctuates daily based on a complex series of conditions (supply vs. demand, weather, amount of natural gas that is in storage in the ground, etc.). The price of natural gas is one of those things that is very difficult to predict. Natural gas is produced all summer and stored underground in a different area so that it can be produced back through the winter at the rates necessary to meet the demand. If just a few things are off, the amount of storage can be high or low, and the price adjusts accordingly. These utilities used to have long-term fixed price contracts that allowed them to know what their costs would be. In many cases that is no longer the situation and natural gas prices have continued to rise.

Thus, we have a situation where the utility may not know its costs long-term and can't adjust its prices accordingly to meet the regulations regarding profit. We have government agencies that don't want to piss off voters since the chief regulators are generally in an elected position. It is not an easy solution, and possibly your local utility did business in a bad enough fashion that they are in debt trouble. They also have pretty intensive capital costs related to treating the natural gas so that it can be sold in your home. Regulations change all the time and these facilities sometimes have to be abandoned or revamped to meet new regulations. This has a lot to do with debt retirement.