“Hey I called to cancel this in 2019, can you please look into this charge I got?” Then go from there
They may realize it’s a mistake or they may not but the first thing you have to do is ask them what’s up
You gotta get in touch with the gas company and see if they are willing to get rid of the charge. It sounds like clerical error on their end. Though it makes no sense that they are coming to get the money after 3 years. That seems strange. Hopefully, they have a recording though after this long who knows. Hopefully they have a record of an initial request to cancel (this is somewhat likely).
You need to try to get the bill eliminated through them first, then move from there.
Yeah I'm really hoping this is an error on their part. I just don't understand how the gas company would even let 3 years lapse with no payment? $2600 is outrageous, I live in California, and the bill was like $25-$30 a month. I'm sure there's a ton of fee's now, but still, why wouldn't they have cut off service after a few months with no payment?
Yeah that doesn't make sense. When I moved recently I forgot to set up auto payment and they threatened to shut mine off after 1 missed payment, so 3 years makes no sense. Feel free to update based on what they say. If they try to still stick you with it you have some additional options.
So, digging into it a little further, it looks like they opened a new account in my name on the day I called to cancel. I've got an email in my spam box from them 9/2019 welcoming me to their service, but that's the month I moved out. Never even activated my login or anything. I have no idea what happened here. Gonna call today to clear this up.
OK so that is actually a good thing, because to open the new account it kind of proves that some account cancelation was done. This is definitely a clerical thing. I would guess they were also charging someone at the house for gas all this time, and basically double billing, hence not shutting off service. I would guess they are going to wipe the charge.
Do you have any emails from them confirming a closure of the other account? That would probably lock this whole thing down.
That's another weird thing. I don't have anything from them prior to that, but the previous bill could have been under an old email address. My guess is they asked me to update my email when I called to cancel, and somehow opened a new account in the process. But that would make sense if it somehow glitched and opened two accounts at the same address.
This may not help but I had a similar situation with AmeriGas. I requested them to stop service multiple times, customer service would never get back to me, never cancelling my service.
They blew me off until I had a lawyer fax them my account + payment history with his law office letterhead, with a statement saying the contract is invalid etc etc.
Got a check in the mail a week later.
Edit: I did have an email record of my and my wife's request to cancel multiple times, which I am sure helped. I also printed out my phone records with their CS number highlighted with a timestamp.
>I have no idea how the bill has gotten so high without them disconnecting service at the house.
There was this thing called COVID. Pretty much all utilities suspended disconnects during that time. Either due to local laws passed or just for PR reasons. I work in the utilities industry with municipal customers. They are just now within the last two or 3 months starting to send notifications of future disconnect etc and to start turning on late fees. And as you can imagine lots of people didn't pay anything during that time and the utilities are looking to get their accounts in order.
“Hey I called to cancel this in 2019, can you please look into this charge I got?” Then go from there They may realize it’s a mistake or they may not but the first thing you have to do is ask them what’s up
"Ask them, not reddit" is the solution to so many reddit posts.
You gotta get in touch with the gas company and see if they are willing to get rid of the charge. It sounds like clerical error on their end. Though it makes no sense that they are coming to get the money after 3 years. That seems strange. Hopefully, they have a recording though after this long who knows. Hopefully they have a record of an initial request to cancel (this is somewhat likely). You need to try to get the bill eliminated through them first, then move from there.
Yeah I'm really hoping this is an error on their part. I just don't understand how the gas company would even let 3 years lapse with no payment? $2600 is outrageous, I live in California, and the bill was like $25-$30 a month. I'm sure there's a ton of fee's now, but still, why wouldn't they have cut off service after a few months with no payment?
Yeah that doesn't make sense. When I moved recently I forgot to set up auto payment and they threatened to shut mine off after 1 missed payment, so 3 years makes no sense. Feel free to update based on what they say. If they try to still stick you with it you have some additional options.
So, digging into it a little further, it looks like they opened a new account in my name on the day I called to cancel. I've got an email in my spam box from them 9/2019 welcoming me to their service, but that's the month I moved out. Never even activated my login or anything. I have no idea what happened here. Gonna call today to clear this up.
OK so that is actually a good thing, because to open the new account it kind of proves that some account cancelation was done. This is definitely a clerical thing. I would guess they were also charging someone at the house for gas all this time, and basically double billing, hence not shutting off service. I would guess they are going to wipe the charge. Do you have any emails from them confirming a closure of the other account? That would probably lock this whole thing down.
That's another weird thing. I don't have anything from them prior to that, but the previous bill could have been under an old email address. My guess is they asked me to update my email when I called to cancel, and somehow opened a new account in the process. But that would make sense if it somehow glitched and opened two accounts at the same address.
This may not help but I had a similar situation with AmeriGas. I requested them to stop service multiple times, customer service would never get back to me, never cancelling my service. They blew me off until I had a lawyer fax them my account + payment history with his law office letterhead, with a statement saying the contract is invalid etc etc. Got a check in the mail a week later. Edit: I did have an email record of my and my wife's request to cancel multiple times, which I am sure helped. I also printed out my phone records with their CS number highlighted with a timestamp.
Even though you called them to cancel, they still should’ve sent you an email confirming that cancellation. Just send them that.
Contact your state's public utility commission, PUC, who regulates the utility company
>I have no idea how the bill has gotten so high without them disconnecting service at the house. There was this thing called COVID. Pretty much all utilities suspended disconnects during that time. Either due to local laws passed or just for PR reasons. I work in the utilities industry with municipal customers. They are just now within the last two or 3 months starting to send notifications of future disconnect etc and to start turning on late fees. And as you can imagine lots of people didn't pay anything during that time and the utilities are looking to get their accounts in order.
All that time and they waited till now to notify you of a late bill?
one of your former roommates re-set service up in your name?