[ale] [OT] utility billing errors

[Jim Kinney]

In the past 3 months I've been closely watching my utility bills just get
screwier and screwier. Makes me wonder what version of Windows 3.11 they are
running their accounting on.

Ga Gas co screwed me over by cutting off my gas when I paid my bill in full
the day before the due date. They issued the cut order the day after I paid
the bill and their records supported my claim they cut first and queried the
payment database later. It took 2 hours of phone calling and I finally got
the consumer affairs dept to credit me back the reconnect fee which was not
on any bill.

Dekalb h2o must be using the same billing process. Last statement bill was
due 4-24. Prior statement was paid in full before the due date. The
statement had a 0 balance carried forward. So they cut me off on 4-20!!! I
paid them _IN_FULL_ and the reconnected me the next day.

this months bill arrives and it has no record of last months bill being
paid. There is a balance carried forward of an exact $90.00 prior balance.

Why is it I smell crappy database programming in all of this? Maybe I'm just
jaded with all the financial crap having puked itself to pieces, but a loud,
insistent voice in the back of my mind keeps saying "public company should
be required to use publicly auditable software".  It's not enough that their
"financial records" be available for viewing (although we all know they all
pretty much keep two sets of books) but every bit of software they use,
especially the ones in the regulated utility realm, should be source code
available so anyone who wants to verify they're not getting hosed by the
code can do so.

I caught the power co fudging the bill 10 years ago and yelled at them. So
now I have a internet capable power meter that send the usage to them
automatically. OK. So it saves them the poor slob who had to walk around and
read the meters. Maybe I'm just suspicious, but if they can _read_ it from
40 miles away, what else can they do with it?

-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III
Actively in pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness
Doing pretty well on all 3 pursuits
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20100506/20da7037/attachment.html