Thanks for the background there, Dale. I do understand how, especially in Toledo, good customers end up paying for the dregs of society that rip off the utilities on a regular basis. I've been told, quite casually how easy it is for instance to run your cable tv illegally here in Toledo. Drives me nuts! This is why cable tv is so expensive here for those of us that don't like to steal things.

Unfortunately for me, my first experience with the local gas company was so extremely bad that I'll never want to do business with them again unless forced to. Any company that would leave a family with children with no heat or hot water, when it was abundantly clear we had NOT caused the meter damage (hell we had just moved from northern Michigan) is not a company that I want to deal with. In our case, I went up the chain well above the call taker and got the same "we don't care" attitude. I think it comes from them being the only game in town and knowing you have no choice but to deal with them.