So the energy company in our area is called BGE (Baltimore Gas & Electric).
And FYI - BGE is whack!! *newsflash!* Seriously, though... they're this monopoly of a company and no one can do anything about their price hikes. It's totally INSANE!!
So after 3+ straight months of being charged over $400 each month for electric (now remember - we live in a 2 bedroom townhome, people... NOT Barbie's dream house, okay?!), I did some investigating.
We had done almost EVERYTHING we could, without spending an arm and a leg for windows and doors (though that's next on our list!), to try and reduce our costs. We even had BGE install our FREE (count 'em... $0) programmable thermostat and setting it way low - freezing through the nights, and cuddling at dinner to stay warm.
But nothing - our bill was INSANE!! It made no sense!
Ahh... but it did. I started looking over our bills and saw that they were pulling our payments out of their butts estimating our payments. So naturally, the thought occurred to me that they maybe... possibly... were over-estimating JUST a bit.
Well, let's just say that "just a bit" was to our energy bill over-estimation about as much as the Osbournes are to a "normal" group of people. Yeah - it's THAT ridic! ...I'm just sayin'...
So this month, we literally left our gate (which does tend to get stuck, at times) WIDE frigging open, cleaned up every POSSIBLE ounce of dog poo, and moved every stinking imagineable thing OUT of the way in our 12' x 12' hugeness of a backyard (yeah... it's almost the size of our bedroom, people... massive indeed!) to make a nice clean path for the Meter-Reader Man-person.
And as a result, BGE has now granted as a credit to the grand! amount of *drumroll please* $835 and some change!!
Yes - you read that correctly. We've been charged over $800 dollars way TOO MUCH in the past few months. How insane is that?! And the best part - our "actual/normal" reading for this past month would have only ACTUALLY been about $98. A WHOPPING $98!!
So please - for the sake of the economy, for the sake of your sanity, and for the sake of all electric company's customer service representatives across the nation, go check your bills. If they're "estimating" your payment as well, put an end to it.
You'll thank me for this someday.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Let This Be A Lesson
Labels: BGE, budgetting, good grief, holy goodness, holy snot, learning, money, No freaking way, pure insanity
Posted by - Sarah :-) at 2:25 PM
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8 comments:
wow. just wow.
I'll have to let my brother know about this. BGE is raping him. He shares a townhouse with a couple friends and they are going broke. I feel for him and you, BGE was the thorn in my ass when I lived in Balt. Co.
Our energy bills up here come every two months (thats a fun bill to get) and they estimate one reading and then the next reading they actually do. So one bill is sky high and the next is low. It annoys me. But they dont seem to care.
Holy CRAP! That's AMAZING! Good for you for investigating! You should call Oprah and tell her about that...or Rachael Ray...I'm dead serious! They'd put you on tv! And then I could watch you and be like "I TOLD HER TO GO TELL OPRAHHH!!! WOOO! SHE'S ON TV!!!!" (and of course you'd be helping America save money!) lol
*side note: I've had 3, going on 4 coffees today....*
Holy mother....wow!!! I am so glad you guys stood up for yourselves and are getting that credited back!
the best thing is that ou actually reads the meter and it may behigh one month but we have used it............its better than estimating thats for sure. not having as many people showering is a help too.
Well all I gotta say is that the cuddling at dinner was probably not because of the cold...
:)
HOLY CRAP. Our bills get like that in the Summer but it's also like 120 degrees and I think there is something wrong with our air ducts because when the rest of thouse is at 70 our bedroom feels like a freakin' sauna!
I will be double checking our bill the second it moves over $150 a month! Thanks for the tip!
That is insane!! We had that happen to us too about 4 months after we moved into our house. Luckily I caught it right away because our bill went from $100 to over $200. I called our electric company and they said it was because the estimate was based on the past year which would have included the use of an 8 person family that we bought the house from. So they re-estimated based on the four months we lived in the house and it went right back down to $100. I don't think they should be allowed to estimate. If I have to use real money to pay them, then they should have to use a real reading.
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