-
Website
http://www.tornelements.com/ -
Original page
http://www.tornelements.com/2009/02/12/hydro-one-dirty-rotten-blood-suckers/ -
Subscribe
All Comments -
Community
-
-
Top Commenters
-
Popular Threads
All Comments
The only downside there is they will keep adding late payment charges for the unpaid balance. :(
It's amazing that a corporation which is ruled by the Ontario Government can treat people like this. They just seem to do what they want and nobody can do squat about it.
I still haven't found any help in this matter. Guess I should pay up or shut up. :(
Hydro is a basic necessity. Hydro One treats it like an optional luxury item.
Good luck to you (and all of us) with this. Hope it all works out.
Long time no see.
Disconnect notices on Dec 24? They are dirty, rotten scoundrels.
Would be SO nice to get off the grid! I've heard of new systems that force them to pay people because people's wind/solar systems provide power to them. I wonder how quick they pay... I bet they take their sweet time.
Do you know who else needs serious reform? 407ETR. They seem to be above the law in terms of collection policies, charging exorbitant interest rates and being able to collect beyond 7 years, even!
Revolution?
Too bad most of us Canadians are so passive about being royally screwed over repeatedly that change never ever happens.
It is sad that we pay this debt retirement charge while they
lavish huge salaries and bonuses on Executives. And just
what do they need high priced Executives for? - are they
a leading edge tech company or deal with tough competition?
Judging by my site logs, there are many people searching for solutions to this unfair deposit. I get several search hits every day to this post by people having the same problems we are.
This appears to be verging on 'income discrimination' as far as I'm concerned.
It just doesn't appear there is anything we can do about it either.
Good luck to you on this.
just opened my bill that arrived today and what do you know, $300 easy... last one was almost $400... I was recently let go from work myself only living on my spouses pay...
We moved to this house in November, not once was my bill ever past 200 at the other place and now its hitting almost 400 here.....
ridiculous.
The only way their outrageous security deposit policy will ever be changed is by a large media spotlight pointed at it. We aren't the only people that have been treated like low life hydro prisoners. There are thousands upon thousands of us out there who just can't believe a company is allowed to do these things. Especially a company that has been so mis-managed over the years and is linked to our goverment!!
Remember when we only had Bell for phone service? Remember how they treated people before they had competition? And how expensive long distance was? Before cell phones? Monopolies just shouldn't be legally allowed, it just creates monster corps that feel they can stomp on us at will.
I wrote the original post back in February. I've just NOW (end of May) got the cash together to pay this bill (and security deposit) They were actually late in issuing the disconnection notice plus I got a month extension.
In that time I've received an additional bill bringing my total to over $1000! For 5 months of usage! I live alone and run minimal lights, etc. WTF! I froze my nuggets off last winter because I had my heat either set ultra low or off.
But, if you look at your bill, you'll see that less than HALF of the billed amounts is actual kWh usage. The rest is delivery, regulatory, debt retirement charges, this charge, that charge, and let's not forget my absolute favorite... Adjusted Kilowatt Usage.
Your Kilowatt usage is multiplied by 1.078 allowing Hydro One to charge their customers for power lost in THEIR lines and THEIR transformers before it even hits your home. Yes folks, this is power we're paying for that we DON'T EVEN GET TO USE!
Also, I have debts too! (Mainly hydro! lol) Why can I not add a "Debt Retirement Charge" to all my invoices? Hydro One is the only corporation that seems to be allowed to do this legally. And the best news is, WE get to pay this debt for them until 2016!
You mentioned the word 'criminal'... as good a word as any to describe this monopolistic menace!
Just when I thought I was starting to get things on an even keel with all of the household bills. I get slapped with a letter saying that they require us to pay a 600 security deposit for "poor" payment history. I have already cut back to bare bones to try and get the bills paid and put food on the table. They were "kind" enough to spread this deposit out over a six month period, but I have no idea where I am going to get this extra $100/month out of my already meager food budget. I guess we will have to learn to make kraft dinner without the milk........because we are not going to have any:0(
This post gets more hits by people looking for help in this matter than you can shake a stick at. Over 500 Google Search Hits since writing this in February.
People searching for things like:
"Help my Hydro is being disconnected"
"Complaints Hydro One"
"Unfair Hydro One Billing"
"Can Hydro One cut me off for not paying deposit"
"Outrageous Hydro One deposit"
and so on...
And these are from people WHO STILL HAVE THEIR POWER. (for the time being) What about people who are currently sitting in the dark because they couldn't "Pull it off"
There is also another menace out there who piggy-backs Hydro One. This is Ontario Energy Savings corp. These are the hydro retailers who try to sell you your power at a fixed rate (about 9 cents/kWh).
I had one of these idiots at my door the other day. He tried to make it sound like paying MORE for my hydro would help me out. Be careful here. These people work on Commission and will tell you anything to get you to sign up. Many people have been suckered in, and once signed up, there is no way to get out of their 5 year contracts. It's a legally binding arrangement that will send you to the poor house.
I only mention this here as a warning to others who may be so desperate in saving money on their hydro that they'll believe these people are actually trying to help them. Well, they aren't. It's just another commission to them.
Good luck to you, Jen. And everyone else at the clutches of this vampire corporation.
Seems there is no real advocates to help people,the hydo has a motto pay what we say, when we sayand on our terms and time , or cut em off, we have rules but we don't need to follow them
Get this , I had 1 month of thousands my wife and pay on time !! last month I was late getting my $143 bucks paid, so, I got the next bill yesterday June 11 / 09, it said pay the new baclance of $398, that to cover the existing and last mnoths, and pay by the end of June
Today June 12 no further talk no notice at the door, my power was shut off, and my wife called and said she will go there now andpay cash so my fish don't die , and food won't rot
So as you see they win right, strong arm, big shots, fat cats, scew the public, raise taxes in a depression that will help, cut poor people off when they need a break,
Hey Larry hope you see this, and some day maybe I can give you a job, post to this again and let me know were you are, and to Hydro 1, Tillsonburg Hydo, Town of Tillsonburg
Your real good to your people, you raise tax, you do not collect our trash properly, you nit pic in council, you have no business savoy to get govenment funds into our town, you do not have a clue what type of business suits our town, well I do but f it , I think I'm heading out
And I have a new surprize, I am not broke, our company is in discussion to re loacate a factory and the town of Tillsonburg was on the list, I will see the town never see's us there, I live there FOR NOW , but maybe once house markets get better, a move is in order, as it will likely be a ghost town sooner than later
So in close, to my friends without jobs, keep your head up, try and make a job for yourself, always talk and fight the man any way you can, lots of pokes add up to punches, post your thoughts, get them were you can, And Good Luck
Terry
I'd love to send my logs for this article to a TV news station or Newspaper. It clearly shows many people are struggling to keep up with Hydro One's demands. I don't really follow TV or radio news, so I'm not sure if anything has ever been said about Hydro One to this point.
It's been over 3 years since I've been able to pay a hydro bill on time. My payment cycle looks like this:
1-Receive bill. Too broke to pay it, ATM. Put it aside.
2-Receive cutoff notice. Call them. Get 1 month extension. (Effectively 6 weeks from receipt)
3-Starve for 6 weeks. Cut back, panic, skip meals, lay awake at night worrying. Lose mind.
4-Pay bill. By now it's anywhere between $400 - $600. (It was $800 last time!)
5-Breath sigh of relief. Open mailbox - receive new bill.
6-Repeat!
So far I've been lucky. Managed to squeeze things enough to make it. Luck runs out though. I get about a month to gain back both cash flow and weight before the cycle begins again.
I actually get worried now if the disconnection notice is late in coming. The last time the notice was late I had the urge to phone them to see if everything was okay. LOL
Take care and good luck with the relocation of your company.
(Contact me privately for my location. Thx)
I copied a link to your blog and sent to a newspaper too...
I came across this forum and made my comment out of desperation for my situation with being served with a hydro penalty (security deposit)
This forum and everyone's comments just sickened me and gave me the courage to make one more attempt to negotiate some kind of compassionate reconsideration on the outrageous request for more money from a family who is obviously already struggling.
I phoned hydro one and spoke with a representative and explained that I just wanted to be able to pay my bill and that the additional monthly payments toward the security deposit were making it very difficult for me to keep up with the payment. The request could not be handled at the base level and I was transferred to a senior representative who listened to my appeal. She immediately said that she could not change a decision that was already made with another representative. I continued my appeal stating that I understood that but that I was struggling and that I was not aware of the "poor payment" consequences until I had been informed of the security deposit. I explained that I was just very proud of myself for keeping our heads above water and now they have forced me back down a road of struggling to come up with even more money. At this point I had already made one monthly payment towards the security deposit with 5 more to go. The representative asked me to hold on for a moment and came back on the line about 2 minutes later and said that she had removed the penalty and had applied the $100 "security payment" toward my next bill.
THAT SIMPLE!?!
I believe I was very fortunate to have just got the right person at the right time, but this proves that they have some amount of flexibility.
Larry, I also agree with your warning for people to be aware of the "Ontario Energy Swindlers" These people are pushy and convincing and taking advantage of naive people. They visited my 80 yr. old parents just last week and my mother was quick enough to turn them away before they got their foot in the door.
There's no doubt your reply will help the many people currently searching for solutions to this unfair deposit. Hopefully they will keep that 'one person' on staff who has a heart. ;)
Too bad I just caved in and gave them their blood money. Too late now, I guess.
It's nice to see a positive reply to this post. Thx. :)
Get close to relatives if you have some but better yet. leave the cities and come together in a rural atmosphere. They do want you gone. Do some research. Don't believe anthing they tell you. God bless ..please learn to pray
Now, my husband and I are quite ill; he is on chemotherapy and is wasting away, and quite cold all the time. I was in a serious car accident (hit by a drunk driver, with no insurance, and who was never charged!). I am unable to work. We have had to go on welfare and at $989.00/month, we are losing everything! Hydro is disconnecting us again! We are in a rural area, and apparently a vehicle and insurance and phone are luxuries. So is hydro. My argument is that hydro has become a necessity, especially during an illness. Hydro ONe is refusing to accept a payment plan that we can manage. My hydro consumption is minimal - wood stove for heat, and a microwave oven to cut costs. I pay more for the delivery charge, the Ontario Debt Retirement Charge and Regulatory charges, plus taxes, than I do for the electricity I consume. It is criminal!
We all need to start registering our complaints with the Ontario Energy Board, and our MPP's. I have. If enough of us do, maybe they will listen. - good luck all!
join the world freeman society. God did not mean for us to live this way. The world is controlled by evil and greed. i hope you will check it out.
sorry about the lack of caps, my shift key isn't working.
I told them I couldn't pay it until I was working again in Sept. 2009
They said it had to be paid within 48 hours and to ask a friend. Something I will not do. Actually I thought it quite rude of them to say that. I live on a tiny ammount of money in the summer, I teach and am self employed and can't collect EU.
So I am on a strict budget. I pay my bills, but not often ontime, sometimes I have to wait a month because other bills come at the same time and I have to cut them into months. I did not have any EXTRA to give them. I told them I can't go get electricity anywhere else, that hydro was not a priviledge but a necessity and that they always get their money within 2 months, not only that, my bill's don't run over 160.00 every two months. So the large deposit seems strange. I've also been getting calls from Enbridge I'm 3 days late paying. It's frightful. My father, years back only paid all the bills twice a year, all of them. He said there was no way they were going to take his interest away that he made within those months. It was a great savings for the family. Now adays, that is not the option. I called a house builder to set up an appointment to build an ecohouse with windmill, solar panels, etc...
I'm also writing my MP and many others. This is nuts, we do not live in the tropics, and our homes would be destroyed without electricity. Our business our sanity, our health..
They are treating citizens of Ontario like dogs and loosers if they can't see there is a rescession on. I want legislature that says that you can't turn off the lights in the winter months if there are children and if there has been a slump in income.
I want this Deposit crap to disappear. You can't get blood from a stone!
If someone has been paying the total off within 2 months, I want this Deposit crap to disappear. I've been at my address for 18 years, I'm not a flight risk, they get there money, I am not 1Cent behind on any electricity I've used. I don't get it.
Are they starving or are they vultures? I'm not done with this, I'm only starting.
In the meantime, I am looking for property to build on while others are looking for work, others looking to just get by and being forced to pay UNOWED money.
It makes zero sense. A late fee is already on the bill, but "DEPOSIT" ?
It urks me, to think I live in a country that does this to it's citizens.
I'll keep you posted.
I'm anxiously(?!) awaiting yet another Disconnection Notice. Yup! It's time to dance with these wannabe mafia executives once again. And... Once again I have no cash to work with atm.
Like you, I am not willing to borrow cent-one just to make them happy. If I can't raise the cash to pay them, then I am certainly not going to borrow from family or friends if I am unsure of my ability to pay it back. I'll sit in the cold and dark before that happens!
I mentioned this in earlier replies: "Hydro is a necessity. Not a luxury!" Disconnection simply should not be an option; especially in winter months.
If it was just a case of paying simple kWh usage it wouldn't be so bad. Give us a break on all that other crap that appears on the bill. Usage accounts for LESS THAN half of the amount due. It's all the other crap they tack on our bills that makes Hydro outrageous.
It's funny how they took over $200 as a deposit when I first got connected then refunded it to me 3 years later. Then they turn around and want it back again shortly after.
Who runs this corporate empire? Darth Vader? "I find you lack of willingness to pay... disturbing" :)
I kept phoning them and telling them there was something wrong and asking them to come to my home and check what was up....they just kept telling me that I must be using more hydro...more people in the house, more appliances, electric heat...the list just went on and on....they didn't care that I kept telling them that everything was the same as it had been the year before...but because I had only purchased my house at the end of Aug'07 they didn't have enough historical data I believe they said to make a judgement....I was told to keep paying, phoning in my meters and eventually they may be able to do something. They just wouldn't come out to my home to investigate to see if there was a problem with my hydro supply or anything.
Now as it turns out I have figured out what the problem was! I live in the country on an acreage and therefore have a drilled well. The end of June I was outside working in my yard doing the flower thing...and there was one of those big tire planters around my well...and while I was cleaning up the debris from there I noticed that I could faintly hear the submersible pump running and throughout the day everytime I went near there I could hear it running. No one was in the house, no laundry running, nothing on...no reason for my pump to be running. I called in a well specialist and when he checked it he told me that my pump was pretty much "pooched" and that it was "stuck on" and apparently had been running for some time (I'm guessing about 8 months! GRRR)! I've changed out the pump, added a swimming pool pump and a water treatment system to my hydro load....and am in the midst of writing to HydroOne and showing them the comparison and demanding my deposit back! If they would have listened to me from the beginning and come out and did an inspection they would have found the problem and both my family and HydroOne would have been "happy" so to speak! I believe that it is their right (or apparently legal so to speak) for them to request a deposit if a customer is new or has been late paying on 3 bills....but if they would have investigated like I requested the problem would have been solved.....So we'll see what happens!
There is light at the end of the tunnel, though. You can't fight Hydro (not alone, anyway), but there are programs to help you out.
In the Toronto area (there is a list of other communities that qualify for this), there is the Emergency Energy Fund that can help, but if you're like me and in a small northern community, go to Ontario Works (welfare)- they will assess the situation and pay the bill for you (you don't have to be receiving OW to qualify).
the call centre is outsourced to this cheap-ass company from the u.s. called Vertex, and is ridiculously understaffed..can you imagine how stupid I feel saying "oh sorry sir we dont have the fax you sent three days ago" that would never happen in a normal company
tip -if anyone gets slammed with a security deposit you can push the agent to give you up to 6 installments..hope this helps a bit
If you would like to wish a Happy New Year to our Prime Minister and his team, you can contact Prime Minister Stephen Harper at this email address: pm@pm.gc.ca
The Government of Ontario and their Energy Board,can be reached by sending Premier Dalton McGuinty a message at the following website address:
www.premier.gov.on.ca/feedback/feedback.asp?Lan...
But, before you wish them a Happy New Year, you should read the following text...
During the Christmas season, many of us may pay our bills later than planned. While doing my monthly bill payments, I took the time to read some of them closely. I found that the late payment interest on Bell Canada is 26.82% annually. I looked at my other bills and noticed that the annual interest rates are the following: Bell Mobility 26.82%, Enbridge Gas 19.56%, and Hydro One 19.56%. Oddly, when you deposit money into your own bank and if you are lucky, you receive 1% interest annually.
In these economically hard times, many people have found out that Hydro One collects a security deposit, if you have a history of late payments. The Ontario Energy Board approves this practice and sets the guidelines. The interest rate on the security deposit, that is held for a minimum of one year, is the "Prime Business Rate" less 2%. This means the interest paid will be 0.25% annually, on your security deposit...Imagine if you are obligated to give a security deposit to all of your major suppliers: Telephone, Gas Suppliers, House taxes, Utilities...pleasant dreams. To make this more clear; Hydro One will charge you almost 20% if you are late but they pay you only 0.25% when they take money from you without your consent. Something is clearly wrong with this picture and our Government approves this policy.
Regretfully we vote for people at the head of our Government who little by little, aggravate the misery of Canadians, who already suffer in today's difficult economy.
Remember this letter when you send your New Years wishes to the head of our Government. Also keep it in mind when election time arrives, as it is not certain that the opposition will do any better.
Happy New Year to all Canadians, and bear in mind that you will be supported by our Government,when it is solely in their own best interest.
Get close to relatives if you have some but better yet. leave the cities and come together in a rural atmosphere. They do want you gone. Do some research. Don't believe anthing they tell you. God bless ..please learn to pray