Adamski
05-10-2008, 10:17 AM
To All:
I recently received this month's gas bill. It was for $4,898. Now that's pretty high for me when you consider that we shut our furnaces off a couple of weeks ago and my April bill was just $2,237 with the furnaces on.
Naturally, I scrutinized the bill and noticed that they cancelled my March and April bills which I had already paid. Then they rebilled those 2 months using the same meter readings but with an added "pressure factor" of 1.5461 which changed the cost for those 2 months from the $4,781 that I had paid to $6,559. Then they added my May bill (for gas used in April) which, with the new "pressure factor" came to $3,120. Next, they added the 3 months together for a new Grand Total of $9,679 and allowed a credit of $4781 for the 2 checks I sent them in March and April. Hence the balance due on this bill of $4,898.
Naturally, my next move was to call the gas company. I was sure this new "pressure factor" had something to do with this outrageous bill but I didn't know what it was. I had never encountered a pressure factor on a gas bill before. Well, the girl I talked to told me that the pressure factor had changed from 1.0 to 1.5461 because "they increased my pressure from 1 to 8.5 lbs." She also said that they recently "recalibrated" my meter and then went back the 2 months and rebilled me. Yikes! Now I'm thinking that, best case scenero, I get the charges taken off the 2 months that I already paid but from now on, I'll be seeing gas bills 50% higher than I'm use to. Also, I'm suspicious about her statement that they "increased my pressure from 1 to 8.5 lbs". I doubt my gas valves would even open at only 1 lb water column pressure. None of this makes sense to me.
The next day, I called the gas company again. This time, another girl answered. I wanted to find out more about this pressure factor. She assured me that the pressure factor had "nothing to do with the charges on my gas bill." She went on to say that the prior 2 months' bills were "cancelled". I insisted on talking to whoever cancelled my fully paid bills. She said it was the accounting department and she would check into it and call me back.
She called back a half hour later. The pressure factor has been changed back to 1.0. The prior 2 months of paid bills are reinstated and marked paid in full. The current month's bill is changed from $3,120 to $2,025. A crisis has been averted ... this time.
I finally figured out that the pressure factor was actually nothing more than a multiplier of the ccf's recorded by my gas meter. With a pressure factor of 1.0, the meter reading is the ccf's that I'm billed for. With a pressure factor of 1.5461, the meter's calculated ccf's are multiplied by 1.5461 and that result is stated as ccf's on my bill.
Lesson learned: Beware of the stealthy "pressure factor" on your gas bill.
Larry /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif
I recently received this month's gas bill. It was for $4,898. Now that's pretty high for me when you consider that we shut our furnaces off a couple of weeks ago and my April bill was just $2,237 with the furnaces on.
Naturally, I scrutinized the bill and noticed that they cancelled my March and April bills which I had already paid. Then they rebilled those 2 months using the same meter readings but with an added "pressure factor" of 1.5461 which changed the cost for those 2 months from the $4,781 that I had paid to $6,559. Then they added my May bill (for gas used in April) which, with the new "pressure factor" came to $3,120. Next, they added the 3 months together for a new Grand Total of $9,679 and allowed a credit of $4781 for the 2 checks I sent them in March and April. Hence the balance due on this bill of $4,898.
Naturally, my next move was to call the gas company. I was sure this new "pressure factor" had something to do with this outrageous bill but I didn't know what it was. I had never encountered a pressure factor on a gas bill before. Well, the girl I talked to told me that the pressure factor had changed from 1.0 to 1.5461 because "they increased my pressure from 1 to 8.5 lbs." She also said that they recently "recalibrated" my meter and then went back the 2 months and rebilled me. Yikes! Now I'm thinking that, best case scenero, I get the charges taken off the 2 months that I already paid but from now on, I'll be seeing gas bills 50% higher than I'm use to. Also, I'm suspicious about her statement that they "increased my pressure from 1 to 8.5 lbs". I doubt my gas valves would even open at only 1 lb water column pressure. None of this makes sense to me.
The next day, I called the gas company again. This time, another girl answered. I wanted to find out more about this pressure factor. She assured me that the pressure factor had "nothing to do with the charges on my gas bill." She went on to say that the prior 2 months' bills were "cancelled". I insisted on talking to whoever cancelled my fully paid bills. She said it was the accounting department and she would check into it and call me back.
She called back a half hour later. The pressure factor has been changed back to 1.0. The prior 2 months of paid bills are reinstated and marked paid in full. The current month's bill is changed from $3,120 to $2,025. A crisis has been averted ... this time.
I finally figured out that the pressure factor was actually nothing more than a multiplier of the ccf's recorded by my gas meter. With a pressure factor of 1.0, the meter reading is the ccf's that I'm billed for. With a pressure factor of 1.5461, the meter's calculated ccf's are multiplied by 1.5461 and that result is stated as ccf's on my bill.
Lesson learned: Beware of the stealthy "pressure factor" on your gas bill.
Larry /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif