[quote name='Antheus' timestamp='1301448020' post='4791985']
Some utilities are billed on estimates.
They take your average use and bill for that every month. Then, when they read the meters, they adjust for actual consumption when they take the actual reading from the meter. Utilities often do that since it would be to complicated to take readings once a month.
unless it costs them money. My old electric company read the meters in january and used the same estimates through may even though we complained each month resulting in them coming out and reading the meters.
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But not in the long run, since the next time they come to read the meter, they will get the right amount anyway, and will debit/credit the resulting bill. Mine here read the bill once in two month. So it's not a problem.
If you are the kind of person who nearly runs out of money before every pay cheque (thankfully I'm not, but lots of people seem to be), then the "long run" fairness is less important than avoiding the large bills which such a practise creates.
Your meters are read every two months? My energy bills come every two months, and meter readings are 6-12 months. This is particularly annoying in winter where you can get a bunch of "normal" bills even though you are using more heating than usual. When they read the meter you get a bill for your entire winter's worth of heating in one lump sum.
But not in the long run, since the next time they come to read the meter, they will get the right amount anyway, and will debit/credit the resulting bill. Mine here read the bill once in two month. So it's not a problem.
But I want my money to invest in the things I want to invest in. I don't care if they take my money and give it back to me later. It's my money and I want it now!
I recently had a not-so-fun situation with Toyota, or rather TMCC, a company that does car loans for Toyota.
We used our tax refund to pay off my wife's car. Had to send a check in the mail. Since we had no idea how long it would take to get there and for them to process it, we didn't cancel the monthly automatic payment. About a week and a half later, the check clears. The next day I try to access the credit account via the TMCC website to make sure everything was alright and to cancel the auto payment. I can't access the account as it says it is now closed. Fine by me. I figure everything is closed out.
Until 2 days later when they still withdraw the next monthly payment. What the hell. The loan was paid off, the account was closed, and I can't access the account to cancel the payment, and it still goes through. We call TMCC three times over the next 5 days, getting different answers each time. Eventually get the answer that TMCC will start the process of cutting a check 10 days after the monthy payment has been fully processed. Ends up being over a month since the loan pay-off amount cleared my bank account before we get the money back. My bank said in order to reverse the charge we'd have to fill out a ton of forms and it would take just as long to get the money back.
I'm not in a position where I need the money, but it's the principle of the whole thing. They took a nice month-long loan from me without my permission and without paying me interest. Bastards. I filed a complain with the BBB against them for it.
