Natural Gas Brain Fart

Today's slobberknocker comes from Philly.com:

A woman wasn't billed correctly for her utilities.  The utility company sent her an extra $12,000 on a bill, and only after force was applied dropped it to a little over $4,000.  And even though they admit it was a clerical error on their part, they refuse to "eat the bill" and insist it will be spread among other innocent customers if they don't collect their money.

Robyn Irving got her first break when the law said the utility company could only go back four years instead of more than a decade.  This capped what they could recover and what sent the bill down to 4k. However, any time they declare a loss it's distributed to the other customers.  The business doesn't take the hit, citizens do.  No matter how many mistakes they make, they never have to pay for it.  The employee who made the innocent mistake wasn't disciplined because it was an honest mistake.

I obviously can't verify most of the above, but I'm not afraid to publish it because we hear enough of that behavior locally, that this is the sort of thing that happens everywhere.  Utility companies, especially in areas that have no competition, are famous for terrible treatment of customers who rely on them for a necessary service, and it just sucks.  A friend of mine was in the local paper for such an argument with the utility company, where they admitted fault but left his power shut off until he paid what they decided was fair. And it was a lot.  Thank goodness there are a few regulations that protect citizens.  Not nearly enough, and as the economy gets worse so will issues like this.  There is plenty of room for improvement.