Putting the screws to the gas man. Hilarious.

[GatorDL55]

This is my first full year of wood heating. Installed the stove end of February last year.

Gas bills last three months -- $40, $14 and $44, respectively. Last year they were $200-$300 for the same period.

Was outside earlier today and noticed a brand new gas meter. Gas company must have thought the meter wasn't working. HAHAHAHA

 

[yooperdave]

thats exactly what happened! 99 lbs. meter has been changed twice, my brothers has been changed once. they show up and when i talked to them (the second time) they said "oh no-we do this from time to time--do you heat with wood?" still laughing about it. (they told my brother the same line)

 

[BrotherBart]

They are overdue to change my electric meter. They used to come out and change it every two years or so. The last time in 2008 they didn't tell me they were here and blew out a thousand dollar UPS unit that they got to pay for. To get to the meter they had to walk around 13 cords of firewood.

"Well, the work order says..."

They have been doing this every couple of years since 1985. They can't figure out why the electric bill for an all electric house is a hundred a month or less in winter. Gotta be a computer algorithm that sets it off.

 

[certified106]

Well at least they are just changing your meters at no cost to you. I just got a bill for $100 dollars from my propane company because apparently I dont use enough propane. I told them to come pick up the tank and their response was they would gladly come pick the tank up and they buy it back at .75 cents less a gallon than I originally paid for it 3.5 years ago. I paid $1.10 a gallon for it back then so they can offer me .35 per gallon for it. The phone conversatiom got lively real quick! It will end up in the atmosphere before they get it from me for that price and turn around and sell it for 2.69 a gallon.

 

[Install fire 1]

The gas meter trick happened to my buddy when we installed his regency F2400.

His gas bill was 25 bucks a month every month! LOL!

They couldn't figure it out. Thought he was stealing gas some how.

 

[SolarAndWood]

The phone conversatiom got lively real quick!

That is an entertaining conversation to have when you have their tank on the curb already ;-)

 

[Beetle-Kill]

Pretty much says it all. No wait, I have to make a call...here...talk to my supervisor- and so it begins.

 

[nate379]

The gas company here is so retarded that I had to MAKE them change the meter.

Something broke in the meter and for 3 months in a row this summer I had bills that were showing no gas usage. I knew something wasn't right (still using gas to heat water and cook) so I called them. At first they wanted to charge me to come test the meter, but in the end I was able to get a workorder for them to come out.

They came out and tested the meter and said it was fine.

Next 2 bills, still zero usage.

I called them again and they sent the guy out again. I happened to come home as he was going to leave, said the meter was working fine. I asked him how I could be using gas for several months and the meter hadn't moved??
I fired the boiler, turned on the cookstove and huh, guess what, meter isn't spinning. It would spin when he opened the line and let a bunch of gas out, but not with reg usage.

The replaced the meter... and then charged me some b/s rate of the gas I should have used and also tried to throw a "fine" down as well. That got removed when I marched down there with a list of the calls I had made and ME having to force them to fix the damn thing.


This is the same company that threatened to put a note on my deed (I guess they can do that) because they came by when we were doing dirt work for the driveway. They didn't locate the gas line correctly, and it was only buried about 12" down. Ripped it out with the excavator. Well the driveway included an RV pad on the side of the garage where the gas meter is. Because I didn't have bollards around the meter right then and there to protect the meter, it was a PROBLEM. The pipes for the bollards was in the garage even but they didn't care.

Frigging idiots!

 

[Lumber-Jack]

The gas company here is so retarded that I had to MAKE them change the meter.

Something broke in the meter and for 3 months in a row this summer I had bills that were showing no gas usage. I knew something wasn't right (still using gas to heat water and cook) so I called them. At first they wanted to charge me to come test the meter, but in the end I was able to get a workorder for them to come out.

They came out and tested the meter and said it was fine.

Next 2 bills, still zero usage.

I called them again and they sent the guy out again. I happened to come home as he was going to leave, said the meter was working fine. I asked him how I could be using gas for several months and the meter hadn't moved??
I fired the boiler, turned on the cookstove and huh, guess what, meter isn't spinning. It would spin when he opened the line and let a bunch of gas out, but not with reg usage.

The replaced the meter... and then charged me some b/s rate of the gas I should have used and also tried to throw a "fine" down as well. That got removed when I marched down there with a list of the calls I had made and ME having to force them to fix the damn thing.


Frigging idiots!

Hmmm???? You are getting free gas because of a broken meter and you have to call them, twice, to come out and fix it.
Yeah, they sure are idiots. ;-P

 

[Backwoods Savage]

A few years ago my wife and I decided to get out of the MI winters for a while and head south. One of the first calls I made each year was to the electric company to let them know there would be zero usage for several months. "Okay, we've made a note of this and thanks for calling." Without fail, every February or March we would get this letter from the electric company threatening us and then also changing meters. Every year without fail I would call ahead of time to let them know we would be gone and everything was shut off in the house. Every year without fail we would be notified....

Some never learn.

 

[certified106]

The phone conversatiom got lively real quick!

That is an entertaining conversation to have when you have their tank on the curb already ;-)

That is exactly what I want to do right now! Lucky for me I live on the top of a massive hill so I think I'll just drag it to the edge and shove it with the loader on the tractor, it should roll right to the edge of the road for them hahaha..... :cheese:

 

[SolarAndWood]

That is exactly what I want to do right now!

Not sure how big of a tank you have. I backed the tractor up to one of the ends of that one, through a chain around it and picked it up with the 3 pt. Those clowns were going to charge me hundreds of dollars to remove their tank until they found out that it was on the curb. The conversation ended pretty quick at that point and it was gone by the time I got home from work.

 

[MishMouse]

The company that handles our electricity TWEC installed one of those turtles where they can automatically control it and read its value without coming out to the property. This allows them to make "corrections" in my usage that are out of the normal range.
A correction happened to my next door neighbor when they migrate south for the winter, all of a sudden the thing starts spinning like crazy.

The gas company I have likes to double the price of the gas occasionally in hopes of getting extra money from its customers. This happened to many people in my area. Both wood burners and non-wood burners at all levels of usage. When they did it to me, I just called around and got the current price of propain and asked them why if LAP, SG, RP, and CLP are changing X, why are you FG charging 2X? When presented with this and the fact that I was going to switch to another provider they siad it was a billing mistake and cut the price back down to X. This also happened to 2 of my fellow workers, so if you have FG watch your bill closely.

I think I posted on here a couple of years ago when FG tried to do this to me.

 

[billb3]

I got a new electric meter when I replaced a 30 year old fridge, switched to all CFL lights, disconnected the dryer and went on a not using electricity bender and my electric bill dropped from $90 a month to $18.

If I started not using any electricity I would certainly calll to get it rectified.
Let a year go by and have them charge at the old $90 rate for the year a meter wasn't working ? I don't think so.

Comcast tried charging me for service I supposedly had but never used. I didn't even have a TV at the time . They kept sending me bills and I kept calling them to tell them to stop and they were more than welcome to stop by and show me how I could have been using it.

 

[Bocefus78]

This is my first year heating soley w/ wood. My bills are like yours... $40 and change. I haven't gotten a new meter yet but I look every day. My old bills were over $200 and I kept it at 66 inside. Now its 74 inside.

 

[fishingpol]

When I put the F-100 into service, a few months later I received a "safety inspection" letter requested by the gas company. I took the afternoon off to meet them. The gas guy came out looked at the dust and cobwebs covering the meter in my basement and left. He never checked anything. No leak testing done nor did he turn up the furnace to see if the meter was even registering. He gave me some BS line that they should be checked periodically. Funny thing was that when I bought my house the meter was 10 years old and they are supposed to be replaced every seven years here in MA. Go figure. I was born at night, but not last night...

 

[burleymike]

Every since our first winter in this place we have heated with wood. A couple years ago I realized if I ever got badly hurt or died my wife would probably not be able to go up to the hills and cut, haul, and split 5 cords of wood so I put in central heat. Last year I was real sick for a couple months and we used the heat. Our electric bill went from $75 to $250. I was waiting for some questions to why we were using so much but we never got anything. We bought the house as a foreclosure due to the previous owners going to prison. They had a big garden in the basement and they used a lot of electricity.

 

[LLigetfa]

I still have the original gas meter that was installed over 12 years. They only changed out the hydro meter recently cuz they went to smart meters so they could do time-of-use billing.

 

[Jimbob]

Are your hydro bills higher or lower since they went to TOU billing?

 

[KaptJaq]

This is my second season with a reasonable wood stove, it was installed in January of 2010. So far this winter I've used 63 gallons of oil mainly to heat water. After the last delivery I got a call from my oil company "reminding" me that I agreed to buy all my heating oil from them. I replied that I was but at their prices I just wasn't using as much. Then she told me that in the 2008-2009 season I used a little over 600 gallons, last season it was about 300, and so far this year I have purchased 63 gallons from them and asked me what I thought that implied. I told her it implied that I was getting better at what I was doing.

She then said that the driver also complained about access to the fill pipe. I wanted to know if he gave any details and she said there were "stacks of wood" in the way. There was silence for a minute. Then "Oh.", she thanked me for my business, bid me a good afternoon, and hung up.

 

[greythorn3]

ya nate is a real sharp one! i let him borrow my chainsaw once, he returned it better then it was too. said he almost cut his hand off.

 

[firefighterjake]

Every since our first winter in this place we have heated with wood. A couple years ago I realized if I ever got badly hurt or died my wife would probably not be able to go up to the hills and cut, haul, and split 5 cords of wood so I put in central heat. Last year I was real sick for a couple months and we used the heat. Our electric bill went from $75 to $250. I was waiting for some questions to why we were using so much but we never got anything. We bought the house as a foreclosure due to the previous owners going to prison. They had a big garden in the basement and they used a lot of electricity.

Thanks for the laugh . . . so did the realtor sell you on the "tanning" room or "indoor greenhouse" features of the new house?

 

[Kaptain]

This is my first full year of wood heating. Installed the stove end of February last year.

Gas bills last three months -- $40, $14 and $44, respectively. Last year they were $200-$300 for the same period.

Was outside earlier today and noticed a brand new gas meter. Gas company must have thought the meter wasn't working. HAHAHAHA

That's classic... LOL

 

[PapaDave]

"She then said that the driver also complained about access to the fill pipe. I wanted to know if he gave any details and she said there were “stacks of wood†in the way. There was silence for a minute. Then “Oh.â€, she thanked me for my business, bid me a good afternoon, and hung up."

I love the "Ah ha" moments.
I also love it when they think they have you over a barrel, only to discover.......not so much.

 

[ewdudley]

"She then said that the driver also complained about access to the fill pipe. I wanted to know if he gave any details and she said there were “stacks of wood†in the way. There was silence for a minute. Then “Oh.â€, she thanked me for my business, bid me a good afternoon, and hung up."

I love the "Ah ha" moments.
I also love it when they think they have you over a barrel, only to discover.......not so much.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_I5F4U2tYwmk/TD_DkOOfQFI/AAAAAAAACYA/SnSahR6FnQ8/s400/Emily+LItella.jpg