HORROR STORIES #1

There are so many now, they need to be here all together. No names will show here.

From: http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/hydro-one-c301140.html#c660430

Hydro One billing is excessive and unreasonable. How is one to live and attempt to dig themselves out of debt when they cannot get ahead due to hydro ones pricing. The government needs to step up and reduce the amount of money it is STEALING from innocent people trying to make a living. Hydro is a necessity in todays world and therefore should be more reasonably priced. $900 for a single month? their excuse is a reading error? They demand this money or your cut off. Oh and god forbid you have a late payment or else they will add a $800 security deposit. If one is struggling to make the usage payment, how are they suppose to come up with the funds for a security deposit. Going to have to sell the house I guess. What kind of economic stimulus are these outrageous hydro billings?

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We are in the same boat. Hydro One scam is what they are. Don't turn to the OEB either. Their all in bed together. Our billing every month is like another mortgage payment. Call the customer service "rep" and you get "that is normal" we estimate based on previous years. When we asked if perhaps a problem was happening in previous years, the rep stutters and then offers us advise on how we can conserve. Well, our method of conserving is to freeze our butts off in the winter not because of a "green" initiative but because we can't afford to be warm in our house but thankfully we are contributing unwillingly to a greener tomorrow. We owe over 1400.00 to Hydro for two months worth of wearing extra sweaters, using one heater to heat our entire home and telling our kids...well at least you will be warm at school---you can de-thaw there. I've complained to Hydro so many times and get nowhere...my last question, I paid 8000.00 last year to you people for hydro that we barely even use...can you at least use part of that money and send someone to check out if the problem might be on your end...nope, afraid not. We are a monopoly...we can do what we want. Good luck...no one wants to take on the HYDRO company...OEB - NADDA, they file a complaint and then close it. Check out the complaints statistics on their website. It has increased every year. Someone there is not doing their job either. TOO busy approving the increase in delivery rate charges and loss line charges because THAT is money in their pocket. So sell the house and move to an apartment. Some poor sucker will buy your house and because kwh usage is based on previous years, they will continue the trend. Good luck everyone - Write to the ONTARIO Ombudsman...the more complaints they get, the more it becomes a provincial problem and they have to investigate.

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So true and so frustrating!! HOW can you budget with bills like this!!!???????

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Well, we got that dreaded call today they are disconnecting us... after trying to make payment arrangements and slipping through the hydro system a couple times during the winter months they finally caught up to us ..This story I imagine is some what like so many who have lost their homes etc because of the economy etc ..My husband's EI ran out there are no jobs out there .. the odd small reno here and there basically pays for gas in the van and a few meals.I'm working 3 days a week that's suppose to be full time... How in the hell can we live our morgage payment is 1200.00 and we get this 8000.00 hydro bill yearly thats more than I make at the 3 days a week I'm making ...We have asked them to look into our hydro ...maybe change the metre maybe check the lines I don't know but we dont run anything different than anyone else a PC washer dryer hell we even unplugged our freezer, we have a stove a fridge a tv .. no hot tubs or central air..we dont even us fans in the summer if we can help it anything with a motor runs up your hydro ... coffee pot is limited as well were getting disconnected because back in Feb they wanted us to Pay 6000.00 and we told them we could give them 2500.00 they said yes please do but we unfortunatly will still have to disconnected you so we opt out of paying and purchased a generator ..and 2 tanks of gas fror when that days comes ..we cant pull money out of our asses and these bills are outrageous...who can help us talk to your MP they cant do shit ... Hydro one just passes the Buck so to speak ...were getting disconnected and there is nothing we can do and no way of coming up with money to pay this ...I dont want to go back to oil lantern days but we may have no choice ...it cost us 270.00 a month just to get hydro to our place ...and we live 3 miles outside of a town and we have neibours their bills are no where close to mine ...OMG someone help us

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I have the same problem as all of you. A vicious circle of high bills and charges, late payments, extensions, disconnection notices and ultimately a security deposit of $750! I did eventually manage to get the money together for the last bill. They called me at 1.30pm and told me if I didn't pay them $872 by 2pm they would disconnect me. I had no vehicle and am 7 months pregnant with very little cash so I had to go through the embarrasment of asking a neighbour to lend me the cash and take me into town to pay the bill. So I did all that and faxed a confirmation of the payment. I called them to see if they got the fax and they hadn't. The next morning they turned up to cut me off! So even when you do things their way the paperwork gets lost and you're still under threat. I don't need the stress right now on top of everything else. I'm wondering if you are, in a legal capacity, able to ask for your security deposit back. Does anyone know?

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ohhh my, i am so in the same boat. im renting an apartment for $550 plus the food prices here in northern ontario is crazy and outrageous. guess how much Bill i have? $1429 for two months. because they "estimated" my previous bills too low the previous months.well it wasnt my fault that their "people" are too lazy to check on the meter.only me and my 5 year old daughter live in this small house. we sleep early so as to save the energy. we turn off all the lights and only keep one heater on during the rigid nothern winter.after all my budgeting, i realized that i have $20.50 left to buy for my groceries for the month. this is soooo unfair. i am working my A** off for hydro. this is outrageous.we are not even in the house during the day as my daughter goes to school and i work.

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I am writing like everyone else about my extremely high hydro bills. I am renting a small 3 bedroom home in a very small village 15 min outside Shelburne Ont, I've been here for just over four years, and it seems just over the past 2yrs my hydo bills are just way to high. Every month my bills have been well over $250.00, even in the summer I still pay well over $200.00 a month(total bill). Last winter I went through 5 tanks of oil, had my deep freezer plugged in, and a extra heater plugged in., and I maybe payed the most just over $300.00 a month (still too high). This winter was mild, I'm still on my second tank of oil, my deep freezer has not been plugged in for about three months, and I have a small energy saving heater, and since my bills are high, we as a family do pretty good with trying to cut back on hydro, but I guess not good enough, my bill for one month Jan to Feb was $721.38, they say the actual reading was 151(kwh)average electricity used per day. Over the past few months I was giving hydro $200-$300 a month to get caugt up, now I owe over $1400.00, and I will never get caught up, I fell behind in other bill just to make them happy. I do my washing always in cold water, I work midnights so I sleep all day while my kids are at school, so for over 6hrs only very little hydro is being used.It's not doing any good to talk with hydro, because they are right, and my smart meter is never wrong, my MPP is no help, and I know I will be recieving another disconnection notice soon, I don't know what else to do? Denise from Honeywood

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Unreal! Reading these complaints at least lets me know that I am not alone. They say to me - it is my useage - not the cost. Although my house is 18 months old, all my appliances with the except of one small chest freezer are 18 months old, yet the $340 per month for hydro is because we are excessive in our use of electricity!! They refuse to send someone out to check the "Smart" meter...where the hell do we turn with this problem? All my other neighbours are paying a fraction of what I am paying...are they not cooking or washing and drying their clothes ? The rep at Hydro One said - everyone uses their things differently. My last house was 1000 sq feet bigger, was 110 years old, and there were 5 of us living in it - there are only three living here now and my usage is apparently twice as much as it was there. What are we supposed to do???? They are impossible to deal with!