laws on shutting off heat?

jikini8

I have been using this one company for the 3 years I've lived in my home. I am on a budget plan. recently I apparently (about 5 months ago) missed a payment. I had no idea this happened and was not given a notice or warning of any kind. It is now January and it's freezing out and they put a hold on my account. I understand that it happened but I was not told that I missed that payment. If I was told I would have paid and there would be no issue. I'm extremely angry with these people for not letting me know or warning me that my heat would be cut off. I have a son who is almost 2 and I'm pregnant. I was told there was some law against shutting of heat when there is a young child in the home but I haven't seen anything like that. Is there any law? How can I handle this? I plan on paying the past due amount but I'm angry and just want some sort of closure I suppose. Am I wrong to feel that way?

Tim McElwain

What fuel

do you heat with oil, propane or natural gas?



The best thing to do is call you local government office and ask for a ruling. Then I would try to reason with the provider to restore your fuel source. Different areas have different rules.



What is your location?

VictoriaEnergy

The other side of the fence

I used to work for the service dept of an oil company.

The oil company wants to sell you oil. 

The one I worked for had accounts staff that sent at least 2 late payment notices and phoned the customer before cutting them off.   The computer system was set up to to tell them when to send notices and make the calls with a data entry requirment in it for the operator to note when they did it, and the result of the phone call.

Even with all of that, there are customers who simply never get the message.  Unfourtunatly they sometimes get confused with those who disregard thier responsibility to pay.  I suggest you phone the manager and ask him or her to review the situation.  If you have a clean payment history, they'll likely offer you a nice discount on your next delivery as an incentive to stay with them.

Legally, they can't stop an automatic service without making a reasonable effort to warn you first.

But, really they are more motivated by the desire to sell you more fuel, so keep that in mind when you phone the manager.

Post the result.