Is this legal?

[Ikon]

Totally OT but Jeremy we want to see that baby of yours! Or at least pictures!

why does Mike wanna see pics? he saw him at the store!! LOL Just kiddin ya. I'll be getting ahold of you shortly. We have plenty of pics online, plus not like you live forever and a day away haha. This coming week is "bad" as its our week with the other kids...and trying to take a 9 year old, two 3 year olds, and a 5 month old ANYWHERE together is hell on wheels, LOL. But I'll definately get hold of you shortly

[frankykeno]

why does Mike wanna see pics? he saw him at the store!! LOL Just kiddin ya. I'll be getting ahold of you shortly. We have plenty of pics online, plus not like you live forever and a day away haha. This coming week is "bad" as its our week with the other kids...and trying to take a 9 year old, two 3 year olds, and a 5 month old ANYWHERE together is hell on wheels, LOL. But I'll definately get hold of you shortly

Good because I want to see that son of yours. I love babies!

[dsirkle]

I am retired from a gas utility. In my area and probably Toledo as well, people can't be turned off for non payment during the winter months for humane reasons. There is a large sub culture of renters that move yearly. Each year they don't pay their gas through the winter or their rent. Their gas can't be turned off so they are safe there and it takes 3-6 months to evict someone for not paying rent if they fight it. They move each year owing money and put the rent and utilities in someone else's name at the next place. Siblings in such families generally all have different surnames so this helps them to do this.This fiscal year there has been over $100,000,000 in unpaid gas bills in SE Michigan mostly from within the City of Detroit and service has been provided at a loss there (Detroit)for 30 years or more. This is the reason that all customers good and bad are treated as potential thieves. The people in customer service don't understand the work that is being performed at a house and this is another big problem. When you are dealing with customer service on the phone they don't understand what you are telling them and they don't know what they are talking about when they tell you something. There are more situations that employees face than can be covered by a rule book and they are instructed to leave a job any time they feel unsafe. They should have just sent you out somebody different but she probably put in her remarks when she executed her job that a giant snake was in the basement and conditions were unsafe. A customer service person that doesn't know how to think would just tell you that you have to get it out of the basement. I'm not trying to make excuses or justify anything, just trying to clarify why things are as they are. Also to save money most companies are only reading the meter no more than every other month and estimating the rest of the time. They estimate based on last years usage for the same time period. If your meter reader calls in sick on the day that your meter should be read, they will estimate again. That's where the high bills come from.

[frankykeno]

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.

[TheMolenater2]

Pretty hilarious. The "manly" workers come in, see a snake, and zoom, they are gone. Just shows the amount of fear humans have of snakes.

[dsirkle]

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.

These days bean counters at the top set the policies based strictly on profit and loss and customer service no longer is a high priority. Many good customers are treated badly and left with a bad taste in their mouth. Many of the mid to lower management take the attitude that the customers need to be showed who is in control. Computers that are in vehicles make it easy for lazy employees to get out of work by not doing anything and just executing the work on the screen such as "meter tampered with. Need further investigation before completing on order" and then hanging a card on the door to prove that they were there and sneak away without knocking. Policemen, Utility Companies and many others have these computers in their vehicles. Once you learn the system it is easy to work the computer and show good productivity while doing nothing all day. If you are ever at a restaurant and see a guy repeatedly going out to his vehicle and coming back inside,this is what he is doing.He's not showing himself as being at lunch.