MGE Sucks
 

So I am leaving the house today, and there is an MGE vehicle parked in front. I drive over to see a woman standing next to my gas meter. She explains she has turned off my gas due to non payment. WTF? She also cannot turn it back on, as she is a collector (although I was home and there was no knock on my door to collect), and that I have to call to get it turned back on.

I pay my bills via a bill pay service, meaning they get the bills, scan them in, and send me a notification of amount and due date. It has worked very well for years now. As I am calling to get my service turned back on, I find that I received a bill on 11/12 and paid it (received in their office today). When I actually looked at the scan I find it says final warning, cutoff, blah, blah. Then I look at history and see that I have not received a bill from them since June. WTF?

So I am told they will not turn on my gas until tomorrow. I say no way, get passed up to a supervisor, and I start to try and find out what has happened.

She basically says it's my fault because I didn't pay...I say I paid every bill I received, and then it's my fault because I didn't notice I wasn't getting bills. We examine further...I am set up for e-bills. Now it's my fault because I signed up for e-bills and didn't pay. I argue I haven't done anything different in years, and that the fault is theirs, and they need to turn my service back on today.

Finally we find out that I did sign up for e-bills so long ago that I used an email address from a provider I haven't had in 5 years or more, and that I was receiving both e-bills (although I wasn't) and paper. Now it comes to light that in June they announced (via a slip of paper in the bill) that if you have e-bills set up they will discontinue your paper bills unless you respond. Well, of course I didn't respond...because even if that was scanned in by my bill pay service, I didn't look at it...and realistically it came with all the other junk they send...trying to sell return address labels, rubber stamps, checks, etc. who would look at it?

NOW THE FINAL KICKER...her system shows failed attempts at email delivery on June 4th and 5th! So it's my fault I was not paying bills they were only sending to an email address they knew I was not receiving!

Still, they are not going to come turn on my service today. Throughout these calls, I am pretty agitated and tired of the condescending 'but sir, you signed up for e-bills, we have no control over that'. So I end with my only recourse. Since MGE is a monopoly and I have no other option (excepting propane I suppose, if there is no city ordinance against it) I explain to her I will be calling every radio and tv station in the city this afternoon (not a bluff btw) and seeing if anyone wanted to pick up the story...that they probably would not, but I was committed to making the calls since I felt it my only recourse.

"I'll send in the order to have your gas turned on today."

Of course she wouldn't guarantee when, so it's likely to be as late as they feel they can go, but it's just so damn ridiculous that through a series of errors primarily on MGE's part they did not feel responsible to turn my gas back on today. It's also a sad state that to get these monstrous monopolies (gas, electric, insurance, etc.) to do anything you have to fight and fight, and the lesson learned is that customer service doesn't matter, but the squeaky wheel gets oiled.

Ok, done now...just wanted to vent.

No offense, but if you signed up for e-bills and gave them an email addy that you don't check, how is it not your fault?

And people wonder why I prefer not to use the net to pay bills.

According to CP members, everything is always your fault. Accountability lies with no one but you.

I suspect I did sign up for email bills IN CONJUNCTION with regular bills probably 5 years ago. Since I was getting regular bills (via my bill pay service) all this time, I never gave it a thought. Apparently they changed their policy with (imo) inadequate notice, and forced change based on customer inaction vs. customer action (a recipe for disaster). Further...they KNEW I was not receiveing the bills since June.

That is a shitty deal. However, how do you not notice you haven't had to pay a gas bill in months? Even if I didn't get a bill I know that the gas bill is a due every month and it is in my budget. Just sayin'.

Even if you didn't get the bills... didn't you notice you hadn't paid for gas in 6 months?

And you didn't notice that funds weren't being withdrawn all those months for your gas bill?

I've been using Quicken since 1999. No complaints or issues from me.

I was paying bills on line.

I had the online receipt for a bill paid that the company said I didn't pay, and it took me months to clear up that mess.

Not doing it again.

These.

Well, this is why I said in my post they are primarily to blame. I pay bills by looking at what bills are there (in my email via bill pay service), verifying the amount seems correct, and just paying them...so I don't really pay attention to the recurring ones that are within normal range (i.e. gas, electric, water, trash removal, etc). This is how I missed it.

They missed...knocking on my door today (as the collector was suppose to...I was home). Verifying my email when they changed their policy. Addressing the fact they knew my email was incorrect. (They found a way to contact me for the final bill, which I paid right away....imagine that)

was she hot?

Sorry, not a video phone...no pictures. :)

there's no lower profession than bill collecter, all they do is hound you, hello it's a resession idiot! pick up a frickin news paper people are out of work!!

How in God's name is that their fault?

Did you think gas became free all of a sudden?

Sorry that happened. There will probably be a reconnection fee. Maybe keeping records in Quicken or Excel or some other document of what bills are due each month would be good.

You should have sexually harrassed her.

Shoulda stuck with the USPS..............

As a programmer I can tell you that changing a policy to rely on emails that are multiple years old without verification is pretty inconceivable. To then have the information of what emails are not working and doing nothing about it is equally atrocious.

This is at best horrible programmer and/or corporate negligence or, as I suspect, an intentional policy to be able to charge late fees, cutoff and reconnect charges.

This

This is exactly why (even though i pay online) i still have the paper bill sent every month.

Sorry Big Dog....you should have known you haven't paid your gas bill for 6 mos.

Sorry, but it was your responsibility to give them a working email address. And, it was also your responsibility to read the notice they sent out. What exactly did you expect them to do? Send you registered mail or something?

No, as I said, I don't really pay attention to my basic recurring bills...I truly did not notice I hadn't paid one since June until today.

We are only talking about $190 total here over the time frame...so the impact on my budget did not alert me either.

I think we have found the problem.

I did, 5 years ago, and to my knowledge they never used it. Further I disagree with your premise. When a company fundamentally changes the way they communicate with their customers, it is not the customer's responsibility to ensure the communication will succeed.

I've done this before. And it was my fault. I took the blame for it. But in all actuality it wasn't. The bank wasn't sending the checks to the right account....and they were sending me paper bills, but I didn't check them because I knew I had been paying them online, just didn't know it wasn't to the right account. There was another person with the same name. I thought it weird that I had always done it that way and it was fine from the inception....figured out that when the other same named person started her account, my account ended up being the new one while hers was mine.

I find it odd they don't send a notice in the regular mail to someone they know isn't getting their email bill. It could be so they can charge all those fees. That would be bullshit if true.

Bottom line is you need to change how you pay your bills if you aren't noticing one as regular as the gas bill missing for months.

Well, why didn't you update the email address to a working one? That's your responsibility, not theirs.

And, they DID send you a notice regarding the change. You chose to throw it away without reading it.

This

Learn the lesson and move on.

I don't see how they are at fault in any way, shape, or form, let alone "primarily".

but it's a whole lot easier to blame someone else.....Silly Donger

Fair enough, I obviously need to put more attention to this, or change my system so things like today wont happen.

But really, I am wondering if someone was passing cool-aid around.

1. Big Dog pays bills regularly for 11 years
2. Company changes billing practices and KNOWS Big Dog is not receiving bills, and KNOWS Big Dog has not paid a bill since their change.
3. Finally they send a notice to Big Dog via the method that has worked for 11 years.
4. Big Dog pays promptly (payment received in office 5 days after receiving bill)
5. Company still discontinues Big Dog's service.

And this is somehow Big Dog's fault?

um...this

Yes. They were sending you a bill. You signed up for e-billing and gave them an address to send the bill. It's not their fault that you weren't receiving them, nor was it their fault that you didn't read their notice.

They're a gas company not an IT shop.

Well, let's add a little insult to injury. MGE service rep just showed up and turned my gas back on. I profusely thanked him for squeezing me in on his packed schedule (or so I was led to believe). He looked at me quizzically and suggested it really wasn't that packed, and upon leaving let me know he was 'just about done for the day'.

5 years ago (or thereabouts) while trying to view my MGE bill online I agreed that they could send me an e-bill and a regular bill concurrently. With a slip of paper positioned with all the trash mail sent by MGE I was (supposedly) notified that the email address I had given them years ago would now be the solitary billing mechanism. I was not called, or contacted otherwise about this change, even when they knew I was not receiving the emails they did nothing. For those of you who truly believe this is even a majority of my responsibility I have one word for you.


Mooooooooo

You stated that they showed bounced email delivery on June 4th and 5th. Did they attempt to send you emails to the address you gave them in July, or did they simply not send the bill after the failure in June?

They either never sent a bill, or continued to send it to the bad email address, I don't know which. The only time they attempted to use my mailing address after that was with a final cutoff warning bill, which I paid promptly.

I was unaware of all of this until today...they now have the correct email address, one I have been using for over 4 years now. The other was cancelled when I switched away from cable as my internet provider.

I should clarify, the other email has been bad for at least 4 years. (probably more, I am not certain of the exact date)

Well, the onus was upon you to give them a correct email address. Honestly, I'm surprised that it took them that long to proactively contact you.

did the collecter say "IF YOU CAN'T RUN WITH THE BOG DOGS STAY ON THE PORCH?" Cause I love big dog t shirts

Ultimately it is your fault albeit a circumstance that could have been prevented by either party. Yes, MGE could have simply called you and asked for an current email address since the one they had on record was no longer working. You could have updated your email with parties that you actually do business with before this happened and this could have been prevented as well. I also would recommend browsing through all correspondence you receive from any party you do business with. Here is a example I just ran across that could have cost me. My credit card company recently changed hands and they have sent new cards, notices etc. No problem, they didn't change any of the terms I had previously. I get our first statement and nothing looks any different than it did before. I file it in my bills to be paid. I then look at all the crap that they always send, you know the clock radio for 19.99 type of stuff and stuck in between all these other BS ad things was a notice to send this payment to a different place than before. I pull the statement out and look at the address that is on the statement, you know the part you tear off and send back to them that shows through the little window of the provided envelope. It had the old address still on there. Glad I caught that. I can just see the late fees, increase of interest rate, etc. Kind of pissed me of. But it would have been my fault. Don't expect others to be responsible for what you owe, they don't give a shit unless you don't pay.

quit bein a bitch about it and put your man pants on 'big dog'. JFC.

Another order of kool-aid please. You really think this is YOUR responsibility? When a company purposely preys on basic human behavior in order to unethically charge you outrageous fees?

I can understand opinions like, 'even though they are unethical cheating bastards it's hard for the little guy to win', or 'they do this because they have lawyers and lobbyists who find a way to make wrong things legal'...but when we all start lining up and suggesting that this is 'ok' or 'acceptable' business practice, and that it really is the consumer's responsibility...well, mooooooooooo

So to summarize:

You haven't paid your bill since July.
You got a statement saying the billing method would change to e-mail.
You signed up with said email 5 years ago.
You haven't paid your bill since July.

And this is the gas companies fault?

Ultimately I did...heat is back on today.

only cause ya had ta.

You left out 2 important steps.

-I have not received a bill since June
-The gas company is completely aware of this and had an easy remedy available

Add these, and yes...it's the gas company's fault.

Did you not recieve notice that your bill would be emailed to you?

You act like they didn't inform you. They did. You threw their notice away.

How is that "preying" on basic human behavior?

YOU HAVEN'T RECEIVED A BILL BECAUSE YOU GAVE THEM A BAD EMAIL ADDRESS.

Well yeah, but he didn't bother to read it so it's someone elses fault.


IMHO this is what's wrong in America today. Nobody wants to accept responsibility for his own actions. It's always someone elses fault.

It's the gas companies fault that they didn't connect with each of their thousands(millions?) of customers to ensure they had a correct email address(which likely was stated in the announcement stuffed in one of his bills).

No, I did not. I am not arguing that they did not send it though...again I heard about it for the first time today. My bills go to a bill pay service and they scan in the bills for me to view and pay over the internet.

OMG I just reviewed what they scanned in...and they sent me a letter in June saying my email was bad and they would begin sending bills via the US postal service.

NEVER HAPPENED....lol. And today I was 'chastised' by customer service for not dealing with my e-bills...wow.


I did not find the original notice of the switch to e-bills only though.

Not saying Big Dog is right here at all since he should know he hasn't paid a gas bill in a few months, but how about a call, knock on the door, or shutoff notice mailed to the home before shutting off someone's heat right after the first snow of the year.

When an entity changes the way they do business, specifically billing, with its customers they do indeed take on a responsibility to notify each and every customer of that change, and ensure the change was understood. Given the new information I mentioned in my previous post, I now see that MGE did in fact notify me and had a plan in place to act if they could not confirm I received their message. Kudos to them for that.

Of course their plan failed miserably, and they did not do what they said they would. First I was complaining the company did not have a proper plan in place and I felt it was completely irresponsible of them. NOW, however I see they actually did have a plan in place, but failed to implement it properly in my case.

As to taking responisibility for my own actions...well I could defend myself till I am blue in the face, but since there is only one or two people here who know me personally, it would be pointless. Fact is...many bad things happen due to failures by multiple people or entities. Yes, had I realized I had not actually paid a gas bill in months, or had I kept an email up to date with a company I do not communcate with via email, this would not have happened. At the same time there are many corporate failures in this scenario as well, and although I admit my transgressions...I felt (and still feel) theirs are more significant.

I'm going to board up my mailbox, and then tell my creditors I don't owe them any money. When my car is repossessed I'll post a new topic here about how unfair they are.

Have you checked to see if they did indeed send the bill via USPS and your bill pay company didn't drop the ball?

It may cost you some money to upgrade your electrical service, but you might want to cut your gas appliances over to electric. Tankless water heaters and such have come a long way.

Throwing away junk mail without reading it is not basic human behavior?

Sorry to hear about that.

Well, it would appear that it wasn't junk mail, was it? If something comes from my utility, I open it, period.

Yes, I have, and they did not. They even told me over the phone they had not sent one since the last one I thought I received.(June) My bill services also scan in 'notices'. I suspect they end up missing some, just like anyone else would, as they weed out the junk mail. I went back and checked notices from MGE this year and found the one telling me they would not be e-billing me since they could not confirm my email address dated June.

Well, I don't...but it seems I may have to start. Actually in my situation I seldom look at the scans of the actual bills if the amount seems right. I just look at the due date and pay it. In essence that carefree attitude is the summation of my negligence, and obviously behavior I need to change or risk another scenario like todays.

That in no way absolves MGE for their various transgressions, and I still suggest that in comparison, theirs are far worse.

No. A worse transgression on their part would have been cutting off your gas earlier or sending eleventy billion PSI gas into your home.

You made a mistake and they eventually found the mistake for you.

I'm willing to bet you can sign into MGE's website and view your balance due. Did you never attempt to do this?

I guess I am doing some kind of Olympic hurdles, checking balances if something seems awry

1. Their 'collector' doesn't follow policy and knock on my door to ask for payment, but just turns off my gas.

2. (As I have just found out) They say they are cancelling my e-billing and sending me bills via usps but do not. (until the final cutoff notice...which I pay promptly)

3. They recieve payment in full today, but cut off my gas anyway.

4. They lie about not being able to turn my gas back on today because of full schedules.


But I didn't:

1. Update an email address with a company that I don't use email to commincate with.

2. Notice that I had not paid a gas bill in months


And my trangressions are worse?

Wow...just fuggin wow.

Really, I do agree with you. I understand that the billing for gas during the summer months is hardly noticeable at all. It sucks that consumers must be so diligent to avoid being screwed over due to bad customer service. But what else are you going to do. I would rather make sure my ass is covered.

I suspect I did that years ago when they got the old email address...nothing seemed awry to me until today.

Did they put a lock on it?

Again, this all started with you giving them a bad email address. None of the rest would have happened if you hadn't done that.

Aye, and it was removed by the service guy who came back and turned it on.

Do you not get it, or are you just helping me with post count? :)

The email address was perfectly fine when I gave it to them many years ago. Since we NEVER communicate via email, it did not occur to me that I even needed to update it. I suspect I signed on originally to view a bill for some particular reason and they had an automatic option asking me if I would like to receive e-billing in addition to regular bills and I said yes. I couldn't tell you if I got emails from them 4+ years ago, but I wouldn't have paid much attention to them if I did since the regular bills came via my bill paying service. I can tell you the I have not received an email from them ever at my current email address.

So I did not give them a bad email address, nor is it unreasonable to see why I did not update it with them as a matter of course...hell I didn't even realize until today they had any email address of mine.

Big Dog, do you own a car or house?

Both Big Dog and MGE should accept some responsibility for the problem which Big Dog has, but once it was found out that the bill was paid he shouldn't have had to threaten to contact the media in order to get his service cut back on. This is the problem with big companies in general in that they should have promptly gotten somebody out there tonight without the hassle.

Anyway, I am done for the night....so this thread can die. :)

I have learned or confirmed 3 things from this post

1. I don't post much because inevitably discussions I end up in lack the satisfaction of having them face to face with people.

2. There are always people vehemently opposed to your point of view.

3. Some poeple's view of acceptable corporate behavior I find troubling.


P.S. Maybe a pipe dream, but wouldn't a win over Pittsburgh be cool?

This I can agree with. I can't believe people get notice of a change in policy(read or not) then not pay for a service received for 5 months then get upset that said service is canceled.

Oh, and I checked around the MGE website, e-bill is an opt-in option. I'm sure they opted you in without asking you.

This. Sorry.