Baby It's Going to be a Cold Winter....

Because I am staging a boycott on my gas company. I am so tired of incompetence, theft and their attitude that they basically "own" us. Bah!

Here is the story:
Monday, December 5 th I sat down at the computer to pay all of my bills. The phone/internet/cable, electric, water and gas. In that order. The first three went perfect -verification number, email confirmation on all three, etc. and I moved on to the gas bill.

I hate our gas company - It is Washington Gas for anyone who cares [and doesn't want to be scammed]. But, as much as I hate them [more on that later] Monday sealed my feelings of utter disgust.

The gas company has a $300.00 of our money on deposit [to insure we pay our bill on time or something]. Well, sometime in September they decided to "request" an additional $500.00 - uh, buh? WHAT? No, you may NOT have an additonal $500 deposit - No, you do NOT need $800.00 to insure we pay our bill [our bill never exceeds $300, even in the winter] - So, we pay our usage each month and ignore the $500.00. They can't turn off our gas because we aren't paying a "request", right? I didn't use that amount of gas - I don't owe you that money. It's a scam.

Well, in lieu of paying on line I decided to CALL them and pay it to a live person, over the phone. The customer service person pulled up our bill, verified our info, etc. then told me that I had to talk to someone else because my bill was "so high". Um, NO it's NOT. It was $226.00 - but they were adding in the pesky $500.00. Sigh. I get the other Washington Gas yahoo on the phone and he says that he can only accept $726.00. I told him I didn't owe it...'round and 'round this lil' convo went and I finally hung up.

Fine. I go to pay it on line. I have done this before. No problem. I go through all the keystrokes, type in the amount and click "SEND". Anyone who pays online knows you NEVER click twice because it will post twice and take twice the money, right? No, no...I didn't click twice, BUT a new screen pops up and it says "UNABLE TO COMPLETE TRANSACTION. THIS TRANSACTION DID NOT PROCESS. PLEASE MAIL YOUR PAYMENT TO Blah, blah, blah" Something like that.

Okay...third attempt. I am not too sure about writing a check. Suppose it DID go through? I wait two days...no email confirmation, no money missing out of my account - I write it, assured that the first payment didn't go through and I DO mail the check.

Forward to Friday. I am balancing my bank account and I go online and there it is!!! Electronic transfer!!! And not for the original $226 - it was for $350.00. HUH? Well it is too late to call the freaking gas company - so I call my bank to stop payment on the check - you know - the one I mailed after it told me it didn't go through online?

My bank says that they can't stop payment on that check because it has probably already posted at W/G's bank and I would lose my cancelled check fee if it comes through. Okay, now I hate my bank. I hung up.

So, long story short - they are theives. They want that deposit and come hell or high water they have $350 of it now....There is no way for me to get it back [until I move and if I do I will make sure my WHOLE house is electric]. Nor is there anyway to PROVE that it said "TRANSACTION FAILURE" or that I actually typed in $226, not $350. Bless it all to $%^& I am so mad. I was so mad Friday night I told Pooldad that I was going to transfer all the money out of that account and put in my other account and let that stupid check bounce like a big ol' rubber ball. I would've paid the $35 NSF fee and W/G doesn't repost them....hahahaha! Unfortunately I can't because I wrote two checks on Friday to our daughters' schools for fees and I don't want those to bounce. :(

Our hot water, stovetop, dryer and heat are all gas. We all have to bath [but we only wash our whites in hot water], I have to cook and I can't hang the clothes on the line in the winter [trust me it is way too cold here for that]. That leaves heating our home - which is the biggest part of our bill.

Well, Skippyfamily?

It's going to get cold. Bundle up. Layer. Sleep near the fireplace. 'Cause Skippymom doesn't care. I am tired of giving our money to this crooked company.

[sorry that was really long! :D]

Also ETA: Pooldad was with me the entire time I was paying bills on Monday. In fact, he talked to them on the phone first. He also saw the "FAILURE PAYMENT" screen.