Originally published at: Man learns he's been paying his neighbor's utility bill for nearly 20 years - Boing Boing
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So I have to wonder, what was the neighbor paying? Were they paying each other’s bills? Or was this guy paying both? (And the neighbor paying nothing, then, in that case?) Sounds like they just had their accounts switched, basically - which seems like correcting the mistake is going to be quite difficult. What are they going to do, go back 20 years and compare the two accounts and credit him with the difference? Seems unlikely… (Given the nature of PG&E, I can imagine them giving him some token amount - “10% off your next bill!” - and then telling him they’re not liable for the mistake, while publicly claiming they’re going to “make him whole.”)
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This song suddenly sprang to mind
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they’ll “make him whole” by offering a 15% discount on either the disconnection or reconnection fee to get his meter wired to just his house, whichever is smaller. oh, but the rush processing fee will add 20% to the total bill, of course.
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I never had anything like this happen, but my first apartment after college did have a wiring problem that made my electric bill sky high the first winter after I moved in. I noticed once it got cold enough to turn the heat on, the apartment got super, super dry and the static electricity was ridiculous. I just though, “Well, it’s an older apartment. Maybe that’s it.” Then, a month later, I got my electric bill. Holy shit, that was kind of high. Again, though, I thought…older apartment. Then one day when I was walking to my car, I noticed the outdoor air conditioning unit outside my apartment was running. I though, “Huh. I didn’t realize I had a heat pump. I would have thought that would be more efficient.” Over the next few days, this kept gnawing at me. Finally, I thought, “I wonder if the thermostat is miswired. If it’s wired for heat pump, and it’s not a heat pump, then I’m running the AC and the electric heat at the same time. That would explain the super dry air and the electric bill.” So I opened up the thermostat, and that’s exactly what was wrong. I have no idea how long it had been like that. If I hadn’t been an engineer working in the HVAC industry, I might not have figured it out. It might have been like that for years. I never told the complex. I just fixed it myself, and had no problems after that.
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Given their nature, maybe they’ll start a wildfire to get rid of the past bills
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I once was stupid enough to not pay my utility bill for two years. I got away with it!
Until the day I got caught and had 24 hours to pay the full bill. NOT A GOOD DAY.
(I’m on time with my utility bill now.)
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Were his neighbours originally from Hammersmith?
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