Or the man could be paying his bills.

The natural gas to Davis's house was disconnected on June 8, 2006, because of $573.24 in unpaid bills. The inquiry has already heard that Davis called four times asking that the service be turned back on.

Davis's mother paid the bills on Sept. 6, but the gas was not reconnected until Nov. 27 - three days after Davis's death.

The gas was turned off in the middle of summer. They took their jolly time in paying the bills, then get pissed/dead when the gas company takes their jolly time reconnecting the gas.

Not exactly a clearcut case.

Crosshair: Not exactly a clearcut case.

Don't some companies keep it on under extreme circumstances?

And who cares if it's the man, the mother, or Santa Clause that pays it. It was paid and didn't go on for almost 2 months.

This level of dickbaggery seems pretty clean cut.

I Said: Don't some companies keep it on under extreme circumstances?

Not in the middle of June.

I Said: And who cares if it's the man, the mother, or Santa Clause that pays it. It was paid and didn't go on for almost 2 months.

They took 3 MONTHS to pay the bill. Then complain when it takes two months to reconnect the gas. Had they paid the bill right away the gas would have likely been back on in time for when it got cold. I am curious as to what the average time is for reconnect across the whole company. Is this length of time normal? How many calls were placed before the bill was paid and how many were after? Too many questions.

I Said: This level of dickbaggery seems pretty clean cut.

Yes, the man for not paying his bills and the mans family not caring enough about him until he is dead, then they are looking for a payout.

If you don't want to pay reconnect fees then pay your bills. Turn the heat down to 50 degrees or something so your bills aren't that high.

It's quite simple. Pay your bills and your heat stays on. Utility companies exist to provide a service at a profit. The only person who has you best interest in mine is the person in the mirror.

If the man needed help there are organizations that can help, but you can't wait for them to come to you.

Crosshair: It's quite simple.


No, but you appear to be...

pwhp_67: Crosshair: It's quite simple.

No, but you appear to be...

Yes, when I provide services or do work, I expect to be paid for those per the agreement that was made beforehand. If I am not paid, then I stop providing goods and services to that person. If my boss stopped paying me for two months, should I continue to come to work for him?

If I consume goods or services from someone else, it is perfectly reasonable for them to expect payment for those goods and services per the agreement. If I do not pay then it is perfectly reasonable for that person to stop providing me goods and services.

A business and a charity are two different things. I donate to charities that I feel provide services to the genuinely needy and expect nothing back. I give money to a business and expect services and goods in return. Expecting a business to be a charity in perpetuity is unreasonable and unrealistic.

I know the gas/electric companies where I live give you several months at least before they turn off services. So this mans bill was unpaid for quite a long time before the gas was cut off. $500 in gas is several months of usage.

Does the asinine tag have the day off?

BunkoSquad: Crosshair: The only person who has you best interest in mine is the person in the mirror.

And I'm asking him to change his ways.

Sham-on.

Yeah but does he owe rent?

I think everyone here doesn't understand the concept "gimme gimme gimme".

1. Give me gas service. I'll pay for it, or not, whenever I feel, or don't feel, like it.

2. Don't cut off my service, even if I haven't paid for it. It's my right to have service. Says so right in the Constitution (or whatever the Canucks use).

3. Even if I'm a bad customer, as soon as I pay my outstanding bill you should jump at the chance for me to go right back in the hole. It's the North American Way!

Lando Lincoln: If she paid the bill on September 6, the gas should have been back on by September 13th. The gas company was losing money for every day that gas wasn't being used.

Is this in the gas companies service agreement? I would like to read that.

The company is saving money by not providing services to deadbeat customers. It happens in every business, the good customers get higher priority.

Again, I wonder how many phones calls were made once the bill was paid. TFA only mentions him calling 4 times. I would have been calling FAR more often that than if I was without heat. I also would have been scouring the phone book calling everyone that might be able to light a fire under them.

There is not enough information to fully decide either way, but the problem started when they guy did not pay his bills.

GoodyearPimp: I think everyone here doesn't understand the concept "gimme gimme gimme".

1. Give me gas service. I'll pay for it, or not, whenever I feel, or don't feel, like it.

2. Don't cut off my service, even if I haven't paid for it. It's my right to have service. Says so right in the Constitution (or whatever the Canucks use).

3. Even if I'm a bad customer, as soon as I pay my outstanding bill you should jump at the chance for me to go right back in the hole. It's the North American Way!

Africans...when will they learn?

Crosshair: The only person who has you best interest in mine is the person in the mirror.

Unless he's an alcoholic.

No silver bullet?

Lando Lincoln: Crosshair: They took 3 MONTHS to pay the bill. Then complain when it takes two months to reconnect the gas. Had they paid the bill right away the gas would have likely been back on in time for when it got cold. I am curious as to what the average time is for reconnect across the whole company. Is this length of time normal? How many calls were placed before the bill was paid and how many were after? Too many questions.

If she paid the bill on September 6, the gas should have been back on by September 13th. The gas company was losing money for every day that gas wasn't being used. There's no farking excuse for waiting two months to turn on a gas line, unless they weren't home for two months straight.

Read the whole article.

They paid the past due balance. They did NOT pay the ~$80 reconnection fee...so it didn't get reconnected.

Meh, brought it on himself.

He had Hep C.

If they never turned the gas off...

Why would ANYONE pay the bill?

If you can't pay your bills on time, you shouldn't be living on your own. Bottom line. There are shelters for people like that. Mental health facilities for those who need it.

FWIW the supermarkets don't let you keep taking and eating food if you don't go to the cash register each time. Why aren't they under the same pressure to keep providing food to people who can't pay? Food is even more essential than gas as the alternatives are less (extra clothing, sleeping in your car don't help).

Bottom line is if the guy isn't competent or capable of paying his bills... he shouldn't be living on his own.

This is like blaming an ER doctor for someone who died on the scene. Yes they are in the life saving business, but this isn't their problem for many reasons.

I accidentally the was MURDERED

Charge the company with negligent homicide. Then we will see changes.

Simple solution: if the government wants the gas to stay on after non-payment, the government can pay for it and explain that to the taxpayers. Then the government can come up with a way to extract the needed money from the client, rather than a private business with limited resources.

blankets rule. try them.

oh, and a message to old people. i know you're old, but you house doesn't NEED to be 85* all year round for you to live, that's why your bills are so damn high. Put your thermostat at 65-70 tops during winter and use a blanket if you're cold.

Inibrius:
They paid the past due balance. They did NOT pay the ~$80 reconnection fee...so it didn't get reconnected.

Reconnection fees are a screw job anyway. It's just another way the poor pay more for things than the rest of us do.

Shakespeare's Monkey: Approves.


/link is stone cold hot

That was my favourite movie growing up.

/skin that one pilgrim and I'll bring ya another.

Thisbymaster:
Charge the company with negligent homicide. Then we will see changes.

Pay your bills. Start pulling your own weight. Then we will see changes.

GoodyearPimp: I think everyone here doesn't understand the concept "gimme gimme gimme".

1. Give me gas service. I'll pay for it, or not, whenever I feel, or don't feel, like it.

2. Don't cut off my service, even if I haven't paid for it. It's my right to have service. Says so right in the Constitution (or whatever the Canucks use).

3. Even if I'm a bad customer, as soon as I pay my outstanding bill you should jump at the chance for me to go right back in the hole. It's the North American Way!



Well, actually here in Edmonton (and Calgary) turning people's heat off in the winter will result in death. And gas companies won't do that. What I don't get is why they couldn't just put the bullshiat reconnection fee on the bill and worry about it later.

I think what people are missing here is a farking "corporate policy" caused some guy's death. Direct Energy is a piece of shiat scumbag of a corporation and I would heartily cheer their demise. Unfortunately we don't really have another gas supplier (So much for our deregulation making things cheaper and giving us choice.)

Sure, the guy couldn't pay, but have a little compassion. The guy may have been laid off from the job he worked at for 30 years, we don't know. Would you re-possess a pacemaker for non-payment?

How does one freeze to death in the summer?

Jormungandr: Well, actually here in Edmonton (and Calgary) turning people's heat off in the winter will result in death. And gas companies won't do that. What I don't get is why they couldn't just put the bullshiat reconnection fee on the bill and worry about it later.

What time is winter in Calgary? Is it in June when his service was cut? Given that he was (just guessing since he had a $500+ bill) months overdue, sounds like they waited for a warmer month to finally cut service.

Turning someones heat off in the middle of winter is very different from not turning it on.

I see no negligence on the part of the gas company.

Lando Lincoln: Crosshair: They took 3 MONTHS to pay the bill. Then complain when it takes two months to reconnect the gas. Had they paid the bill right away the gas would have likely been back on in time for when it got cold. I am curious as to what the average time is for reconnect across the whole company. Is this length of time normal? How many calls were placed before the bill was paid and how many were after? Too many questions.

If she paid the bill on September 6, the gas should have been back on by September 13th. The gas company was losing money for every day that gas wasn't being used. There's no farking excuse for waiting two months to turn on a gas line, unless they weren't home for two months straight.

If they didn't pay the reconnect fee in addition to the past due bill, it didn't have to be turned back on.

Direct Energy is a poison company if there ever was one.

Avoid them like the plague.

/had to threaten to call the cops to get them to leave the last time they showed up with one of their "government enabled savings plan for your energy bills"

Thisbymaster: Charge the company with negligent homicide. Then we will see changes.

Changes? Like the changes in your gas bill which will be going up as you pay for everyone else who chooses not to pay.

Change we can believe in!

"Direct Energy, an energy retailer that sells natural gas distributed by ATCO Gas."

Direct Energy is NOT a gas company. It's a shop of flim-flammers. They go door to door misrepresenting themselves as employees of the gas or utility company asking to "see your bills". Anyone stupid enough to provide them is signed up under a new contract with Direct Energy to get their gas provided at a fixed (as opposed to market) price which is MUCH higher than the market rate.

(ie "Show us your bills to save money, you stupid old or immigrant person! And by save money, we mean not save money!")

So bear in mind that this guy's gas bill could have doubled recently and he was either too poor or angry about it to pay.

No Such Agency:

Reconnection fees are a screw job anyway. It's just another way the poor irresponsible deadbeats pay more for things than the rest of us do.

FTFY

Gas was cut off in June, he died in November. I wonder how much he spent on booze in that time period.

I came to support bashing the stupidity of businesses and arbitrary policies and lousy support, I left because of the freeper BS at the begining of this thread...

I'm with the gas company on this one.

No Such Agency: Reconnection fees are a screw job anyway. It's just another way the poor pay more for things than the rest of us do.

It costs the company money to send someone out there to reconnect the service. If you pay your bills and don't get disconnected, you don't have to pay that extra money. I see nothing unreasonable with reconnection fees as long as they are listed in the service contract.

Kareeshus: So bear in mind that this guy's gas bill could have doubled recently and he was either too poor or angry about it to pay.

Bear in mind your only source for this is your ass.

If only he had someone who gave enough of a carp about him
to take him to a place where there was heat.
Charge the MOTHER with negligent homicide.
Then we will see changes.

Handsome B. Wonderful: Kareeshus: So bear in mind that this guy's gas bill could have doubled recently and he was either too poor or angry about it to pay.

Bear in mind your only source for this is your ass.

Yet Google turns up 618,000 hits for "Direct Energy Scam". I must have a big ass.

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=direct+energy+scam&meta=&aq=f&oq=

sdtangler: Would you re-possess a pacemaker for non-payment?

luckily in canada that is a non-issue

No Such Agency: Inibrius:
They paid the past due balance. They did NOT pay the ~$80 reconnection fee...so it didn't get reconnected.

Reconnection fees are a screw job anyway. It's just another way the poor pay more for things than the rest of us do.

A while back I worked at ATCO as one of their billing guys and I'm pretty sure not a lot has changed since I was there.

ATCO doesn't disconnect people in winter since they don't want people freezing to death, but this guy was disconnected at the start of summer.

The reconnection fee if I remember it right was the cost of sending a guy down to the property to turn the gas on (ATCO paid people fairly decently and then there's the equipment costs etc)

ATCO isn't really out to get poor people, hell if someone calls up and says that they're poor, can't afford the reconnection fee or whatnot due to whatever reasons, the billing person would probably go see what he could do for the guy, chances are the gas would get turned back on. I remember a case where a welfare family had their gas turned back on in winter, and then didn't pay their bills, just to have it disconnected in summer and then reconnected in winter again where they wouldn't pay the bill, I think that went on for a couple years and then the family got its stuff together, paid what was owed and were pretty loyal to the company in the end.

Also I'm willing to bet that this guy wasn't dealing with the for-profit part of ATCO back in 2006 and instead was dealing with the regulated rate service which was about as nice of a company as you can get, it calculated charges to be nice to the customer rather than gouge them for the sake of profits.

This was one of the few companies that I worked for that after seeing how things worked internally, I was still happy with.


Basically I'm saying the guy was a bit dumb and had he only said what his situation was he'd probably have had service reconnected fairly quickly whether he could pay or not.

So, let me get this straight, this guy lived in a major city, and it didn't occur to him in the months after his gas was cut, to get a farking space heater?

The Troll is strong in this thread. (those defending the company)

Kareeshus: Handsome B. Wonderful: Kareeshus: So bear in mind that this guy's gas bill could have doubled recently and he was either too poor or angry about it to pay.

Bear in mind your only source for this is your ass.

Yet Google turns up 618,000 hits for "Direct Energy Scam". I must have a big ass.

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=direct+energy+scam&meta=&aq=f&oq=

Hmm...let's see how many hits I get on Google for "Bigfoot"? 6,270,000! It must be true!