Deezil.us

Reading the other side of the meter.

http://www.theflynnfile.com/2009/03/lge-billing-changeor-how-e-on-will-fund-kentucky-derby-festival-sponsorship.html

Saw this shared in items from my Google friends inside of Google Reader, and I couldn’t read it without shouting things at my computer screen. A transcript of the shouting follows.

First off, the author makes several good points, and I feel that the objections are warranted. No one likes having pay a bill on a faster schedule than they have before. But for me, I also get a sneak peak into almost 300 utility districts and their monthly rituals. So let me enlighten you as to what I see on a monthly basis.

For most utilities I know, the bills are due in anywhere between 10 and 20 days, with the majority falling at 15 days / 2 weeks, but as I’ve seen, several of our customers are going with 10 day billing cycles, especially if they are smaller. With that, I don’t think 12 days is unreasonable. Sure, E-ON/LG&E is a huge corporation with lots of customers, so why the need to run things tighter? They want what everyone else does, a steady stream of revenue so that they don’t have surges and droughts in the income, when the out-go is fairly even throughout the course of a month.  As for them not being able to tell you what your bill is by looking it up on a website, that’s ridiculous.  Some of the most sophisticated adoptions of technology I have seen in my line of work have come from the most inept of people.  Tell LG&E to get their shit together.

Something not mentioned directly in the article as a point of contention was the late fee. When I saw 5%, I laughed. In my experience again, 5% is a godsend of a late charge. Most I deal with are 10%, and another common trend I am noticing is 18%. And yes, these are on bills as large as what LG&E are charging.

And the third thing on this is the issue of LG&E paying for a main sponsorship of Derby, and then complaining they have no money. This, I have a problem with, and rightfully so. Don’t blow everything you have, complain you have nothing left, and are left with a massive pile of debt when it’s all said and done. If everyone did that we’d have total economic collapse. Oh wait. Shit. Already happened.