YOU ARE GOING TO HOLD MY MONEY HOW LONG?

Talk about a double standard.

from JoeUser Forums
One thing we all have in common we have to pay some type of utility bill.

Gas, electric, phone, water, cable, satellite, Internet service provider.

What do they all have in common? besides greed!

There is ALWAYS A PENALITY for paying late, be it five dollars or more, in bog bold letter there it is 5.00 if payed after.. some random date. The dmv has different late payment schedules, 25.00 after this date, 55.00 after tat date, 90.00 after the next one. When will it end?

Now I know we can always get around late fees simply by paying our bills on time. Something I heartily recommend.

So this is my gripe, We get ready to move, we pay out final bill, in full I might add, Then I ask "when can I expect my refund"?

Suddenly it's like no one understands you. Then finally you get an answer. 90 days! What I holla! I have paid all my bill on time, never missed a single payment. Why 90 days? They answer with , well we keep your money just in case any late charges arrive. That's it! the final insult. You say if I have payed all my bills and the service is shut off, how can there be any late charges>/ Now they hit you with it's "company policy" So I ask if I am going to get interest on the money the are holding for 90- day? After the laughter stops I hear "of course not" I say well when I am late you charge me late fees {remember them}? Do I get to charge you late fees? More laughter, some snorting in the background.. Nope. So I say you get to use my money for 90 days and I get nothing? That's right sir, some giggling now.

What's Up with this practice? is this just a California rip off or is this universal?
3,071 views 27 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
No, it is not only california unfortunately.  But it is not every company I am happy to report.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
Reply By: Dr. GuyPosted: Tuesday, June 06, 2006No, it is not only california unfortunately. But it is not every company I am happy to report


so they do you the same in VA? yikes. dirty mofos!
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
Yeah, funny how their shit don't work in reverse- they can dish it out but can't take it ya know. One time I had a dispute on a bill over, can't remember for sure- something small like $3.00 or something, and the person I was talking with bought that up. "Where only talking about $3.00 sir." To which I replied "That's right! So that means you won't have any trouble coughing it up." Heh, she wasn't expecting that! Sorry, but that blade cuts both ways in my opinion! Anyway, they paid up. The bastards...
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top

"Where only talking about $3.00 sir."

It was probably a low paid schmuck.  That is why when I get POED, the first thing out of my mouth is "let me speak to your supervisor".  Over the last week, I am batting 500 with them!

Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
Reply By: ShovelheatPosted: Tuesday, June 06, 2006Yeah, funny how their shit don't work in reverse- they can dish it out but can't take it ya know. One time I had a dispute on a bill over, can't remember for sure- something small like $3.00 or something, and the person I was talking with bought that up. "Where only talking about $3.00 sir." To which I replied "That's right! So that means you won't have any trouble coughing it up." Heh, she wasn't expecting that! Sorry, but that blade cuts both ways in my opinion! Anyway, they paid up. The bastards...


yeh but look what you had to go through to get it! Plus they make you feel guilty asking for your own money!
Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top
Reply By: Dr. GuyPosted: Tuesday, June 06, 2006"Where only talking about $3.00 sir."It was probably a low paid schmuck. That is why when I get POED, the first thing out of my mouth is "let me speak to your supervisor". Over the last week, I am batting 500 with them!


My phone deposit 80.00 they made me wait 3 months to the day, I called them opnce a week just to rattle their cage.
Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top

I called them opnce a week just to rattle their cage.

Well, not money, but did it not feel good? {evil leer here}

Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top
They'll keep it. What they aren't telling you is that most of their bills are over 30 days behind. What's going to happen is there is going to be three or four days of the next month that they'll charge you for, and then since you aren't living there anymore to get the bill, they'll consider it unpaid and keep your deposit.

I've had it happen at two separate places. Usually I tell them more than a week in advance when I am leaving, and they always stall around and don't turn off the utilities for a day or two after I've gone, sometimes after the people have moved in after me. Then when I complain about the deposit, they tell me that the account wasn't closed until x date, I owe for the extra days, and it isn't their problem.

It's a ripoff, but because utilities are monopolies there's nothing anyone can do about it.
Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top
#8 by BakerStreet
Tue, June 06, 2006 6:54 PM


It's a ripoff, but because utilities are monopolies there's nothing anyone can do about it


I have gotten my money every time baker, standing between a smart Jew and his money! HA! I will bet on the Jewboy everytime!
Reply #10 from JoeUser Forums Top
Here we agree, the utilities have a monopoly and can do whatever they feel like.
Reply #11 from JoeUser Forums Top
It's a ripoff, but because utilities are monopolies there's nothing anyone can do about it.


So true, so true! It happens all over unfortunately.
Reply #12 from JoeUser Forums Top
Reply By: foreverserenityPosted: Wednesday, June 07, 2006It's a ripoff, but because utilities are monopolies there's nothing anyone can do about it.So true, so true! It happens all over unfortunately


i WONDER how many millions they make off our money!
Reply #13 from JoeUser Forums Top
They aren't legally supposed to. But who's checking in on them?
Reply #14 from JoeUser Forums Top
It's your word against theirs. If you move out, the next people move in, and they don't transfer the account, then all it shows on your bill is someone sucking back utilities. I looked into trying to do something civilly about it the first time it happened and the lawyer told me that the account is like any other credit, and all you are doing when you move out with it turned off is letting people use your account.

There may be more precedent now after all the AOL scams of "forgetting" to cancel accounts when they are ordered to be. Last time I checked, though, you were pretty much at their mercy.
Reply #15 from JoeUser Forums Top

Last time I checked, though, you were pretty much at their mercy.

Yea, but I got a good credit card company!  Let them try.  I will know in a week.  Then they are DOA!

Reply #16 from JoeUser Forums Top
13 by Adventure-Dude
Wed, June 07, 2006 4:35 PM


They aren't legally supposed to. But who's checking in on them?


do you know for a fact what they are doing is illegal?
Reply #17 from JoeUser Forums Top
#14 by BakerStreet
Wed, June 07, 2006 5:45 PM


There may be more precedent now after all the AOL scams of "forgetting" to cancel accounts when they are ordered to be. Last time I checked, though, you were pretty much at their mercy.


I heard so many horor stories about AOl that when I left I demanded an immediate Email saying I canceled order. IO got the Email and that was that.
Reply #18 from JoeUser Forums Top
you know if they do this nation wide aets say 10,000 peopletimes 85 dollars fro 90 days, that's is alot of intrest.
Reply #19 from JoeUser Forums Top
heh, that's nothing. A lot of these now check your credit. I called a rural Tennessee phone company to see what they would charge to have a telephone line brought to the house I was renting, and they asked for my social security number. I told them I wasn't necessarily ordering, that I wanted to know what it cost.

She stuttered and stammered and asked again, and I asked why they needed it. She said that in order to tell me how much the deposit would be they had to run my credit. If I was deemed a "risk" it would be more than the normal deposit.

That seems heinous, but consider the opposite. What if they are running your credit to see how much you can AFFORD to pay? I'd be willing to bet that people who come up as fairly well off don't end up cheaper, and probably end up paying more, since they'll be more apt to be able to pay it painlessly.
Reply #20 from JoeUser Forums Top

She stuttered and stammered and asked again, and I asked why they needed it. She said that in order to tell me how much the deposit would be they had to run my credit. If I was deemed a "risk" it would be more than the normal deposit.

Then there is the other side.  I told them that I could not afford a deposit (this was 28 years ago) and if they would just set up my phone, I would pay them religiously.  They did, and I did.

Reply #21 from JoeUser Forums Top
She wouldn't even discuss it with me until I gave my SS#. I wouldn't give my SS# without signing some sort of contract as to how they'd use it. They refused, and I got a cell phone.
Reply #22 from JoeUser Forums Top
they get you coming and going, where I live there is one phone serive, that's right one, frontier communications, that is the only service you can get to have your phone set up, you can get what ever long distance service you want. Now frontier not onmly takes a 80 dollar deposit, they make you pay the first two months bill in advance, that's right you first bill, doubled. This is why I have no landline just cells phones. The local service you get cost 31.50 a month and the only call that is NOT a toll call is downtown rio vista and Isleton another small town ACROSS THE river {sacramento} Who says there are no more monopolies?
Reply #23 from JoeUser Forums Top
She wouldn't even discuss it with me until I gave my SS#. I wouldn't give my SS# without signing some sort of contract as to how they'd use it. They refused, and I got a cell phone.


I am an old fart.

There were no cell phones in 1978 (and Ma Bell still owned all the teleophones!)
Reply #24 from JoeUser Forums Top
#23 by Dr. Guy
Fri, June 09, 2006 5:44 PM


She wouldn't even discuss it with me until I gave my SS#. I wouldn't give my SS# without signing some sort of contract as to how they'd use it. They refused, and I got a cell phone.


I am an old fart.

There were no cell phones in 1978 (and Ma Bell still owned all the teleophones


I still have not made up my mind if breaking up Ma Bell into 285654312849056754 smaller companies is a good idea.
Reply #25 from JoeUser Forums Top
It wasn't. They just turned a monopoly into the Five Families who meet a few times a year with a bowl of oranges on the table.