Gas Bill Wonky

[korme]

So I just went to pay my gas bill. And it's outstandingly large.

I haven't done anything out of the ordinary. It's been cold, but so have the other past months. Should I call and complain or is there nothing I can do?

[cartman]

You can have them verify the amount used, since the beginning meter reading is shown as 'Estimated'. Does that match up to the Ending for last month's bill?

[henry296]

Compare the supplier charges per CCF. There have been a number of reports about how these 3rd party suppliers dramatically increase prices after a year.

[TroyF]

If you have any gas sources outside the house like a fire pit, BBQ, or something else, make sure everything is 100% off. didn't turn my fire pit off one night and caught it a couple of days later (it was on REAL LOW, but it was still on) I ended up getting a bigger bill because of the mistake. (not that big though)

[sterlingice]

I'd find it hard to believe that you used 4x as much as in January or December

SI

[Lathum]

Did you change providers recently with the promise of lower rates? A lot of stuff happening in Ohio right now with people switching providers with lower rates promised, their rates being lower for a few months, then the new provider jacks the rates through the roof.

[JediKooter]

A possible leak somewhere? But I think you would probably smell it though?

[CU Tiger]

No clue on Ohio but locally there is a similar phenomenon.

In a cost cutting measure gas and water companies have gone to quarterly meter readings. So they estimate based on historical usage 2 months then correct for a single month. So the dramatic shift you see (44-130) could actually be a shift expanded over 3 months.

Its posible you had a total 217 cfh for the quarter compared to a 132 last year first quarter. Still a dramatic jump no doubt. But 80cfh = an extra 18 cfh/month or about a 30% usage increase.

Any new appliances, furnaces or water heaters?

if not it may be time to search for a slow steady leak

[Alan T]

Your base CCF of gas used is pretty expected with just one outlier, this month.

It is very unlikely that you used 130 CCF this month alone. That is enough to meet the requirements of an average house for about 70-80 days. And based on your previous months, you don't usually use as much as what is classified as an average house usage of natural gas in a day.

This doesn't seem to be an issue with someone playing with rates, or dishonest rates. The actual measurement of how much gas used is through the roof this month. Either a reading error somewhere previously or an error this month.

I would recommend doing what Cartman suggested

[henry296]

I agree with the usage questions, now. I was reading the chart backwards thinking the last bar was the most recent.

[korme]

I called and they said the previous two months were estimates and this was an adjustment. So apparently this is legitimate.

[stevew]

Yeah...they will eff you on the estimate. Only thing you can do is to call in an actual reading if that is permitted.

[cartman]

Send them in a check for $0.23, and tell them that is your estimate for how much you used.

[dacman]

They've done that to me too. One month two winters ago my gas bill was over $600 because they hadn't gotten an actual reading in 3 months.

[CU Tiger]

Of course if they read the meters every month then those costs would be passed on and your per unit rate would increase.


The power companies have all gone to wireless meters that self report their usage, not sure why gas and water wont do the same...

There is the electricity to consider but it could be resolved easily enough we are talking microscopically small demands

[dzilla77]

Actually, what is probably going on is a reconciliation of low estimates in February (and possibly January and December). Your March 13 usage looks almost the same as Dec 13 so they may have estimated that one too. If you have access to your old statements, you can see when the last real reading was and figure out how much you used over the time period. If not, a call to the utility will tell you when the last actual reading was and what it was.

[TRO]

Originally Posted by dzilla77

Actually, what is probably going on is a reconciliation of low estimates in February (and possibly January and December). Your March 13 usage looks almost the same as Dec 13 so they may have estimated that one too. If you have access to your old statements, you can see when the last real reading was and figure out how much you used over the time period. If not, a call to the utility will tell you when the last actual reading was and what it was.

I agree with this. You still deserve an explanation though.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by TRO

I agree with this. You still deserve an explanation though.

Especially if the price per CCF was lower than the current month.

[Sun Tzu]

I clicked on this thinking it was about a person named Gas Bill Wonky.

Disappointed.

[Shepp]

It probably wouldn't hurt to go out and look at the meter and see if it reflects the ending amount. I once had an issue with my water bill where the meter reader misread it.

[molson]

Originally Posted by Sun Tzu

I clicked on this thinking it was about a person named Gas Bill Wonky.

Disappointed.

I'm pretty sure Gas Bill Wonky was an 1840's prizefighter. He had a record of 143-85. Including a 108-round stalemate with Jersey James Jansen.

[Sun Tzu]

Originally Posted by molson

I'm pretty sure Gas Bill Wonky was an 1840's prizefighter. He had a record of 143-85. Including a 108-round stalemate with Jersey James Jansen.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by dacman

They've done that to me too. One month two winters ago my gas bill was over $600 because they hadn't gotten an actual reading in 3 months.

Yeah, this absolutely destroyed me one month.

[stevew]

I met this dude's brother once and his name was Electric Bill Wonky. They put me on some sort of budget plan at a reasonable rate, and I obviously had zero idea how it worked. At the end of the 6 months I had exceeded their budget plan by like $600, which then led to this everlong struggle with the electric company and just a bunch of outrageous electric bills paying arrears. Obviously my fault, I don't think they calculated the AC usage in the house since it had been dormant for like 10 months before we moved in. I would just pay the amount due and I wasn't really paying attention to the amount of overage we were building on the plan.

[path12]

Man, that bill makes me think my gas up here is super expensive. Winter months are regularly $150 and that is with the thermostat set to 64, plus it's been nowhere near as cold as the rest of the country this year.

[Alan T]

Steve, that reminds me of when I lived in Dallas-ft. Worth back in the 1990s. The first apartment I moved in to, the first several months I kept getting electric bills for $0. They kept saying that I was using zero electricity for the month.

My first thought was that was pretty cool, especially with my AC usage during the summer. But after I thought about it for a while, I started becoming afraid that some day the power company would realize the mistake and come for the back owed amount. I spent weeks and weeks trying to ask them to come do a read manually to verify it was correct, as I did not think that I was using zero electricity, but they kept insisting that it was correct.

After my 6 month lease was up, I actually moved to a different apartment in the same complex specifically to not have to deal with that anymore. I just had a bad feeling it would come back to bite me some day.