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Rhonda of St. Louis MO (09/03/08)
My gas had been disconnected for 11 months and when I qualified for assistance from HDC, a bid of $1300 was made on my account. I was told by HDC to make a $500 payment, which I did. After 3 weeks of checking with Laclede Gas about the pledge, they kept telling me it wasn't in the system yet. I finally spoke to a nice young lady who told me my gas should have been back on because of the $500 payment.
Well my gas was turned back on but the pledge from HDC was never paid because Laclede Gas told them I didn't have an account (but I did, where did they apply the $500 if I didn't have an account); not to mention I went down to the office on Olive to get the account information before making my payment. Yet I don't have an account. The payment plan was unreasonable jumping from $200 to $400 a month. My bill remained high and was disconnected for $1700.
I noticed that I was being assessed a deposit of $158 per month or more making my bill for one month over $200 (that doesn't include the $200-$400 payment plan amount). Thus making it impossible for my bill to ever go down. In the past I've had trouble with them not crediting my payments as well. The new bills are very hard to understand (which I think was intentional).
My gas was disconnected for an amount that could have been avoided if they had not intentionally given false information to HDC.
Harry of Black Jack MO (09/02/08)
I want to give a compliment to the crew that resodded My front had been dug up in two sections to put new lines in. The original replanting was not acceptable and several call were made. Finally I finally got a satisfactory from Jerry. The crew came today and in no time it was resodded and watered in a professional and satisfactory manner, will you relay my thanks to Lacledes supervisor on the job. His name is Dale. Again thanks for a job well done.
Linda of St. Louis MO (08/22/08)
I reciently recieved my gas bill again. The gas usage was only $45.86.
Because I am unable to pay my bill on time, they repeatly add on late pay after late pay. My total bill is $836.81!
They have added on a $493.14 to my bill. I have NO idea what I owe and what I dont owe anymore because they keep adding on and on. IF they were not stealing money from us. Id have no problem paying my bill. But because im poor and can't afford to pay a 100 to 200 a month in their late fees, I am getting stuck with their ungodly redicilouis amounts of late pay. This has to be stopped!
The consequences are, I do not have the money so I will loose my gas services because of this new Idea someone had. the Physical damage is I have lost alot of sleep and worried much and still do. I am not a well person at all. I have a heart condtion, it has made me very upset, Im diabetic and I just dont know how much more of this I can take.
Lakeefe of Saint Louis MO (06/03/08)
Contacted leclede about my bill at one point was over $500.00 I let the rep. know that I had not been using that much gas could they send someone out to check their equipment and to make sure that this appartment meater was being read wright. She told me that the averrage for this appartment is acurate. I exsplained that leclead staff is not accessing the bld. to read the meeter and those averages where not wright. This past month my bill has rose to $2058 and I have been here in this appartment less that 12 months last month I paid $450.00 trying to do the wright thing but leclead in not assisting me with my concerns about their over billing as if they can do no wrong I will continue to make payments until someone please help!!!!! Unfair. I did set up a payment arrangement with leclead but because of finacial issues I was only able to send in smaller amounts a couple months prior to last month but I have increased my payments but lecleade will not check their equitment or check to see if staff is reading the meeters correctly or if the meets reading equitment is working properly. Please help!!!
It is very stressful to know that I am making payments and still being threated with the gas being turned off. I have a immune disorder and stress works against me I was totaly disabled at one point. Now I work full time and no longer getting a disability check but still under the care of a doctor. I would not be able to take care of my needs without the gas being on please help.!!!!!
Jennifer of Florissant MO (05/05/08)
Laclede Gas company added over $600 to my bill last winter, and again approximately over $1000 last month. They said I had been on an estimated bill and this was the adjustment of an actual reading. They did this and it has caused a tremendous financial hardship, now they refuse to make payment arrangements unless I make a down payment of approximately $1300+, which is impossible, and as a result my service is being disconnected tomorrow.
I am a single mother with 4 children in the house, and gas is our heating, water heat and cooking supply source. We will not be able to cook dinner at home (I cannot afford to eat out or buy microwaveable tv dinners every day) or the kids take baths or myself a shower.
Jason of Fairview Heights IL (12/04/07)
My case with Laclede gas is similar to many others They estimated my gas bill, and I was overcharged. I sent in readings that were not noted on my bill, and time and time again we were overcharged. Can anybody fill me in on this Laclede gas scam?
Kamal of Chesterfield MO (12/03/07)
I have been in the same apartment for over year and half now. Since July, I had not been receiving any bills from them and upon calling, they have been sending me bills estimated at $24 a payment. Then all of a sudden, I got a bill for $702 in Oct for gas usage since July. That puts the avg bill per month to $180 when my average has been around $60, except for peak winter months when I have paid $110 max. I was on the phone for 50 min before I could talk to a rep and she said that they have not been getting accurate readings and had to come and replace the AMR device on my apartment. She could not explain why I got this excessive bill and said her supervisor will call me. I never got a call from them again. Upon writing an email to them, they called me and scheduled for a service man to check the appliances. This month I got a bill for $237 for a single month. I never received such a huge gas bill for a month ever. This is strange and Laclede still has no clue. I have been frantically trying to reach them over phone and e-mail without much success
My dues with them just for the last 5 months has run over $1000 now. This puts a real financial crunch and causes an emotional nightmare of not being able to pay the bills for the unreasonable billing charges. The winter is just around the corner and I am scared what my bils would be if this is not taken care of right away.
Sarah of Saint Charles MO (09/28/07)
We recently recieved an 'adjusted' bill from Laclede stating we owed $1500. They have NOT read our meter since April '06, at which time they had installed a new automated meter reading device. Also, we began budget billing 04/07, of $75/mo. They have sent me 3 documents yet no explanation of why our usage was estimate for 16 months. And I can't get a response to my question of 'how do I know what the meter began with, since there has been no actual reading since it was installed'.
Excessive economic burden completely unexpectedly and unexplainable.
Norman of St Louis MO (08/22/06)
I reacently recieved a Gas bill for $508.00 in August can anyone tell me how only a gas stove could use so much?
I called the gas Co they too said something was wrong so they checked in to it and here is their explanation
in March they put what they call an amr on my meter contacted me in July and said it was defective and came back in August to fix it I watched the young man put it back on as he changed the reading #s to a new setting said it would bring me up to where i was supposed to be?
I called laclede and they told me that they don,t know when but some time around 1998-1999 my meter was regestering incorrect and thatthis is what they think is owed.
Kennedy of St Louis MO (04/03/06)
They are refusing our customer reads. Claiming that we are reading them wrong just because we have an energy efficent furnace. They believe that we are reading our meter lower than it actually is. So as a result they are contining to estamate our bills. We requested that they send out someone to read our meter which they did. But they still insisted on estimating our bill. We have been paying all along but now we have $554.54 bill that we can not pay and do not owe. We have a 6 month old baby with a bad heart. Yet they have given us a disconnect notice for April 17 2006. We have asked them months ago to let us get on budget billing they refused because we owed at the time $50.00 on our bill. They will not accept our reading or the reading of their own employies.
Mary of St. Louis MO (12/15/05)
The first time I called laclede gas was for a first time set up of my gas service. The woman was very rude and put a bad taste in my mouth immediately. She consistly made me feel stupid and when I told her I felt she was being rude to me, she said that was impossible. When I received my first bill, it was for 2 weeks of living in my new 1000 square foot apartment. The apartment has better storm windows than my parents 2500 square foot home and better insulation than most homes I have been in. The bill total was $219.40 for just 2 weeks when my parents' home was half that for one month. When I called them to discuss the matter, Tammy was the woman I spoke to. I was interrupted over and over again although I am sure if she received that kind of bill, she would have been livid as well. I feel stuck in this monopoly and laclede has refused to hear me in this matter. Of course, they are the only company to provide gas service in the area. Sometimes I think it might be better to freeze.
They will not allow me to sign on to budget billing until the bill has been paid. I will not pay the bill until I get some answers about the obvious overcharge which they refuse to help me with. By the way, my heat is always on 60 when I work and doesn't go above 70 when I am home which is infrequent.
Angie of St Louis MO (11/15/04)
I own a two family flat. I use it as 1 home. It has 2 floors. I had a persons name taken off the bill and kept mine. After that, they treated like I was a new customer, and the bill became too high to keep up with. I have lived there for 7 years and nothing changed until then. My gas was shut off after disputing with them on making payments. I paid them something each month. Now, I owe $384.00 for the first floor in which I payed and called to have it turned on. After they took my money, then they told me that I had to pay both floors before they would turn the gas back on. It is now freezing in my home and I am working with just my oven on at night. I want the house billed as one in the beginning, they said no. But now when it comes to getting their money, it becomes one unit. They are refusing to work with me.
It is very cold throughout the house. I am taking cold showers, and have battled several colds and flus due to a freezing enviroment.
Gary S. Hodge of St. Louis MO (11/12/04)
A week ago the water company hit my gas line while installing a new water main. Laclede gas came out and made a temporary repair. They told me they could not replace the original copper with copper, that it would have to be plastic. They also told me someone would be out tomorrow or next week to fix it permanantly. It is a week later, and after a string of phone calls and emails today we were told that they don't even have a record that it needs to be fixed, and that someone will call in 5-6 working days to talk to us about it.
I have two small children ages 7 and 3 and an open trench in my front yard for a week, and possibly another week or two. This trench is a real danger to my children not to mention an exposed gasline which opens up all kinds of possibilites of vandelism. I also don't want this copper line replaced with plastic since it was damaged through no fault of my own.
A of St. Louis MO (05/06/04)
I wrote a letter of complaint about my gas bill being over 250.00 per month and explained that the only gas appliance that I owned was my hot water heater. They sent a representative named Larry and he said if she thinks this bill was high, wait until she gets the next one. Needless to say my adjusted bill was 1800.00 dollars! When I assessed my neighbors bills, none of them were near that high. I am being ripped off and I don't know how many other innocent customers are as well. Something needs to be done about this and fast. I am a single mother working one job and every penny counts. Please help me. Thank you.
My bill has been astronomical, as if I am being penalized for my concern.
Nadine of St Louis MO (10/17/03)
My gas bill is extremely high due to the back payments from a home I use to own in the county, my current bill at my present address is around $30.00. My service has been disconnected due to the balance owed of $2161.00. I donot qualify for assistance and Laclede gas will not let me particpate in a catch up plan. How can this utilitie company expect to get their moneys due if you can not work with the customer and implement plans to help us?.They were very rude when I called and I really dont want to fall in the hundreds of people filing chap 7.
Cherie of Berkeley MO (08/14/03)
Since I moved into this house I purchased, every bill was estimated. During the winter months, I was billed $160 per month, then when things got out or control, I phone them to prevent disconnect and try to get someone out to read the meter inside of my house. With working full time and going to school full time, they didn't have any appointment times outside of normaly business hours. Last month, after finally being frustrated with paying $99 per month to catch my self up, I made an appointment to have my meter read and to cancel budget billing. The woman I spoke with refused to cancel my budget billing and said after I received my adjusted bill, I could call again and cancel. When I received the adjusted bill, the gas company showed the amount I was pasted due, subtracted the total amount they had estimated me, subtracted $10 in late fees, noted my last payment, then charged my for the actual amount that my meter indicated was used, charged my the tax that my county would have, and already taxed me, and told me that I have a balance of $182. I do not understand if they can charge me for the total that I used, why they wouldn't deduct from that total everything that I have paid to them. The manager that I spoke to was rude and cut me off several time throughout the conversation, then I heard him place the phone down while I was talking like he was tired of doing his job. I told him since he wanted to place the phone down while I was talking then he could hear me do the same, and I hung the phone up as loud as I could. Laclede Gas takes advantage of the people because they are the only gas company in the area, but what ever happen to customer service? Do you no longer have to be polite because the cosumers have no other options?
Anita of Florissant, MO, writes:
I'm aware that the entire country suffered a significant cost increase in their gas utility. Thus the nature of my complaint. Laclede Gas Co. is the local "and only" gas utility servicing the area in which I live. Since the gas increase I have been unable to pay the full amount of the monthly bill so I have been sending them $70 a month (which is all I could afford). My monthly (30 days) bill from Laclede has averaged $170.
I recently received a disconnection notice from Laclede so I phoned them and spoke with a Ms. Williams. Ms. Williams explained to me that it does not matter that I have been paying "somthing" on the bill, but that since I have not been paying the amount due they "Laclede" WILL disconnect my services.
Ms. Williams went on to say that I have one of two options to prevent service disconnection. She explained option one as pay the past due amount of $168.00 before the disconnection date. Option two, pay $105.00 before the disconnection date and then send them $95.00 a month. I informed Ms. Williams that I can't afford to do either, that I continue to pay them $70.00 a month until one or two things happen: 1) the bill is eventually paid in full, or 2) my financial situation miraculously changes for the better. Ms. Williams reiterated the two available options. I thanked her for the information and promptly hung up the phone.
Short of applying for a loan to pay this bill, I am completely out of options. I don't qualify for any energy assistance programs which base their qualification criteria on family size and annual income using 1960 cost of living indicies. Thus the need for deregulation of these monoply utilities. The problems California experienced when it deregulated its electric utility have not discouraged me in the least. I think all such monoplies should be deregulated to allow for competition thus creating consumer choice.
There is probably nothing your agency can do for me and that ok. However, if possible, I would like to receive information on the the deregulation of major utilities, gas and electric. Also, any information you may have with regard to pro deregulation organizations would be appreciated.
True, deregulation has created vast savings for big users of telecommunications services and it's already working well for big buyers of electricity and gas in some parts of the country. But in a free market, small users are the tail that gets wagged by the big dogs. We seriously doubt that retail deregulation of such commodities as natural gas and electricity will benefit individual consumers.
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