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Granted that I am a weird person but I rather enjoy messing with big business, especially utilities and cable. Here are a few examples.
1) When I bought my house in Ohio it was still under construction. When finished and I moved in I called the water company to have a meter put in and they actually got a little hostile saying that they didn't appreciate such jokes as there was nor residence at my address.
I covered my bases and did a bit of research and sent them both registered and certified letters requesting a meter. Three or four years later they contact me saying that I didn't have a meter and they would have to estimate my usage for the entire time but I had them due to Ohio regulations only allow billing estimates for the prior six months.
2) When I left Ohio and moved to Ft. Worth Texas in 1987 I contacted the phone company to start service. They wanted $90.00 USD to turn on my phone even though all the wiring was there and they just had to enter the service in their system. In 1987 not many had a computer but I did. Fired up my desktop publishing software and made a fake attorney letterhead and stated that our client (me) considered the charge excessive and there was a $45.00 USD check included with the balance being held in escrow with the clerk of courts awaiting future litigation. I was surprised at how fast I got a response stating that the $45.00 USD payment would be considered sufficient.
3) Then on to Jacksonville Beach Florida... Got a call from my cable company offering a deal for just about everything for like $56.00 USD and I took it. Following month the bill was proper but the next month the bill was like $100.00 USD more. They said that the year price was from the introduction of the deal and it had expired. To me this was an obvious scam so I contacted the City Manager's Office which handled cable disputes. They said that they could do nothing over the phone and I would need to submit a written complaint which I did. Shortly after I got a phone call from them stating that out of well over 200 complaints mine was the only one they could use to take action. I had names, times, dates and short versions of all communications with the cable company. The City Manager's Office forced the cable company to honor the deal for an additional year starting from the date of my complaint.
Utilities seem to think they have you under their thumb but that is only true if you allow. It is actually cheaper for them to compromise rather than fight with you if you are persistent.
1) When I bought my house in Ohio it was still under construction. When finished and I moved in I called the water company to have a meter put in and they actually got a little hostile saying that they didn't appreciate such jokes as there was nor residence at my address.
I covered my bases and did a bit of research and sent them both registered and certified letters requesting a meter. Three or four years later they contact me saying that I didn't have a meter and they would have to estimate my usage for the entire time but I had them due to Ohio regulations only allow billing estimates for the prior six months.2) When I left Ohio and moved to Ft. Worth Texas in 1987 I contacted the phone company to start service. They wanted $90.00 USD to turn on my phone even though all the wiring was there and they just had to enter the service in their system. In 1987 not many had a computer but I did. Fired up my desktop publishing software and made a fake attorney letterhead and stated that our client (me) considered the charge excessive and there was a $45.00 USD check included with the balance being held in escrow with the clerk of courts awaiting future litigation. I was surprised at how fast I got a response stating that the $45.00 USD payment would be considered sufficient.
3) Then on to Jacksonville Beach Florida... Got a call from my cable company offering a deal for just about everything for like $56.00 USD and I took it. Following month the bill was proper but the next month the bill was like $100.00 USD more. They said that the year price was from the introduction of the deal and it had expired. To me this was an obvious scam so I contacted the City Manager's Office which handled cable disputes. They said that they could do nothing over the phone and I would need to submit a written complaint which I did. Shortly after I got a phone call from them stating that out of well over 200 complaints mine was the only one they could use to take action. I had names, times, dates and short versions of all communications with the cable company. The City Manager's Office forced the cable company to honor the deal for an additional year starting from the date of my complaint.
Utilities seem to think they have you under their thumb but that is only true if you allow. It is actually cheaper for them to compromise rather than fight with you if you are persistent.
