huh?
At any rate, my parents have some friends who use gas in the burbs. It's tough b/c in PA houses built in the 1970's and early '80's were forced to have electric so a lot of people don't have gas. At any rate, although electric is a less efficient way to heat a home, my parent snever had a $400 bill ($270 yes). Also, a friend of mine in Phoenixville had gas for his stove. He paid $14/mo while I was paying $35 for the same service. I'm curious as to why dereg has bee so bad. Yes it never gave us the choice as promised but certainly it gives us a good picture of the true cost of gas. Out in the burbs we used to lose power a couple times a month. Since dereg. it only happens a few times a year. I'll see if I can ask around for pricing but I do believe that PGW charges $12/mo for covering expenses not paid by deadbeats. I also know that only collecting 85% is pretty bad. And why do I have to go to a service ctr to pay my bill? Should't I be able to pay it at a drug or grocery store? with such high rates, why is the co broke? other natural gas companies are doing pretty well.

I have an ongoing problem with pgw and any advice on how to handle it would be appreciated...

Here is the timeline of events...

We purchased a house in April '03. We did renovations through the summer and moved in in late Sept. '03. An electronic reading device was installed in December '03. The account was transferred into our name, from the old owners, in April '04 (I'm not sure whose fault this is as every other utility was transferred immediately...) At the time of transfer we had a debt of $2200+, which reflected maybe six month of use in a 1000 sq/ft house. We are on a payment plan to pay off the debt, but we haven't seen a breakdown of usage for the debt. I do now that from the time the electronic device was installed, December through April, our bills were under $200. So thats $1000. I have no idea where an additional $1200 dollars could of come through since most of that time we were not occupying the house!!! I also don't know what if any recourse we have to get the debt adjusted. I believe that the reading at closing did not match up with the intial electronic reading.Can anyone offer advice???We had a lawyer at closing and I have tried to contact him...

that's my average bill in the summer months, when the heat is not on and we're barely using the oven/stove. Every winter my bills get higher and higher--I think our biggest bill was about $300, for our one-bedroom apartment. I must admit the landlord still hasn't replaced the huge front window of the apartment. That thing creates such a draft.

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Philadelphia Metblogs | Potterdelphia

I had a monthly bill for $600 on a 1500-sf one bedroom and a number of 300s and 400s.

Totally unacceptable. I'm still fighting the bastards.

LM has done a number of legal cases with PGW - you might PM her.

And El, PGW was turned down on their proposal to charge paying customers for those who had not paid their bills. PUC said NO.

Also El, your parents having more reliable power (I'm assuming you're talking electricity here) had nothing to do with deregulation. Only power generation has been deregulated. Distribution is still a monopoly game.

It's either just luck or PECO might have made some improvements to its infrastructure. Also, putting lines underground solves those problems (as does a simple tree trimming around transformers, etc.

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“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” - Jane Jacobs

bingo. infrastructure improvements. they hadn't occurred prior to 1996 though. as far as I can tell, PA dereg hasn;t done much of anything one way or the other. it wasn;t done well. Fumo made out pretty well though.

Sadly, chris, most of my clients ended up paying because they were elderly and couldn't afford to keep fighting the City (PGW, same thing) - they fight dirty. I don't litigate outside of Orphans' Court, so these weren't "gas" cases so much as they were closings or estate disputes. Unfortunately, in cases like the one davidz described, it's hard to get satisfaction especially if there was an actual error made at closing.

That's my big complaint with PGW. It's not simply that they make mistakes - what giant bureaucracy doesn't? It's that they're so incompetent that it's impossible to fix the mistakes. Incredibly, until a few years ago, PGW oversaw its own complaints - really! There was no agency that monitored it. PUC didn't start monitoring PGW until about 2000. The errors and waste that goes on there is such a product of the way things were. I can't imagine when it's going to change. That's why I have no sympathy for them now. If any of us ran a business like PGW does, we'd be out of a job now. That's the beauty of government sponsored agencies (more or less).

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www.taxgirl.com

Having gone up against them, I couldn't agree more.

The sad thing is that PGW gives public power a bad name.

Across the country there are truly wonderful publicly owned energy providers. Most have local roots, energy districts where people know who is running the provider, etc.

But PGW gives the whole public power movement a perpetual black eye.

Here's a five year old report that was pretty interesting:

And if I remember right, when they did get the new computer system in, it didn't work.

Here's a challenge for all you google experts or just good reseearchers:

Can you find the names and positions of the members of the Philadelphia Gas Commission. Also, terms of office, etc.

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“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” - Jane Jacobs

An interesting historical perspective (from 1996)

http://www.maykuth.com/Archives/pgw96.htm

also, right here on Phillyblog.com

http://www.phillyblog.com/mark_cohen/000395.html

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“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” - Jane Jacobs

chris, I think it's a combo of PGW and landlord that keeps our gas bills so high in the winter. I ran into the previous tenants before and they said their bills were in the $400 range. They had a baby, so I'm sure they wanted to keep the apt warm and comfy at night. My husband and I sleep in sweats and socks, with two blankets over the sheets. I'm currently shopping for a new comforter.

I think our apt is about 750 sq.ft. I'd like to move to a new apartment that's the same size or bigger, that has newer windows, or at least no cracks or peels around the windows. I'm almost positive that our bills will go down in a new apt. It's getting that "down payment" ready :?

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Philadelphia Metblogs | Potterdelphia

agreed. you can feel the cold when you walk by those older windows.