National Grid

[curiositykt.livejournal.com]

Have gas rates gone up?

I normally pay around 100 dollars for a month of natural gas in the winter and my March bill is 195.80. While March sometimes goes up slightly, in the years I have lived in this apartment it has not been over 150 (and that was that year that Natural Gas was really expensive)

My landlord told me that the gas company had been over to fix something on Monday morning so perhaps it had been leaking or the meter had been broken...

Is there any recourse for not having to pay a natural gas bill that is twice the amount you normally have to pay?
(I did check and I did pay the Feburary bill)

Therms Feb - 60 - estimated
Therms March - 139 - actual

Therms from 2008 (I don't have 2009) is 72 and 78 for Feb and March

So what happened is that the meter was wrong before and they took what they haven't been getting and added it into this month's bill.

Is this legal?

Comments

[curiositykt.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's my guess as well, I'm thinking perhaps over the last year and a half.. I had hoped the amount had gone down given that gas prices had gone down and that we were using less because of the electric thermostat.

[smoterh.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised that it took that many comments for someone to correctly identify this issue. This is exactly what happened. It has been an estimate and you finally got the correct reading and had to catch up.

There is nothing you can do legally, as this works both ways. For example, I pay estimate water bill, which is higher than our actual usage. Every year or 2, i have someone come and check the meter, and I get huge credit towards my account.

[ron_newman]

A city official told me that they have converted almost all residential customers to electronically-read water meters, so this billing oddity should go away for you.

[smoterh.livejournal.com]

Yes. That's true. However, in order to be switched you have to have it installed. The last time I called to have it installed I had to take half day from work. they guy showed up, looked at it, and said. "Well, you need a new meter. But we're out of stock so you'll have to make another appointment when we get it." I haven't bothered to schedule another appt again.

It's easier to just fill out the little card they send to you to ask you what the count is.

They did mine on a Saturday...

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

I was surprised, since anyone with a job would prefer that, no?