ULPT hate your neighbor? Call the gas company to set up an account at their address, then cancel it next week!
Posted by Soupcop22@reddit | UnethicalLifeProTips | View on Reddit | 206 comments
Pretty much the title. The people who moved into the building infront of us accidentally set up a gas account using our address instead of theirs. We weren't notified that this automatically erased our account at our own place. And because they cancelled it, our gas was shut off without notice and it took us 3 days to get it turned back on. Such a major pain in the ass that we considered doing it back to them lol
GrowlingPict@reddit
what if I live in a sane country that doesnt pump flammable gas into your house by pipe?
ipokecows@reddit
Condolences to you culinary convinces.
GrowlingPict@reddit
lol, well congratulations, you get the award for the most ignorant thing Ive read on reddit this week
ipokecows@reddit
How so?
FlyingSpaghettiFell@reddit
Donate to your favorite political campaign in their name… so much spam!
VixenTraffic@reddit
I hate that setting up utilities is SO simple.
My ex used and sold my name and SSN to set up electric, gas, trash, and water bills all over the U.S., even after he went to prison.
I had proof I never lived in any of these cities/states, but I couldn’t prove I had not set up the accounts, so I had to pay the bills, move, and go to court to legally change my name to make it stop before I could buy a house.
They didn’t care that I had frozen my credit or that I’d never lived there.
Drunkenaviator@reddit
Yeah, that's... Not at all how that works. You got taken advantage of. A lawyer would have made short work of that case. Fraudulent billing is criminal. You don't have to prove you didn't set up the accounts, THEY have to prove you DID set up the accounts.
VixenTraffic@reddit
Trust me, I know it’s criminal. He is in prison.
The utility companies, however, know they cannot get blood from a turnip and did not care.
Bertanx@reddit
Did he go to prison for selling your SSN etc?
VixenTraffic@reddit
He did a lot of other, much worse things. The authorities declined to waste time prosecuting the misdemeanors when they had enough felonies for a life sentence.
Bertanx@reddit
I am so sorry you had to go through something like this. Was setting up utilities under your name or exposing your SSN a misdemeanor?
If you don't mind sharing, what were the felonies?
VixenTraffic@reddit
This was long before the days of “identity theft” being criminalized, so it was pretty much just laughed at.
As for the felonies. Attempted murder (multiple,) rape, torture, assault, plenty of others. 194 total.
Bertanx@reddit
Holy shit. Glad to hear it's all behind you now.
Drunkenaviator@reddit
No, No, I mean trying to charge you for accounts that are not yours. That's highly illegal, trying to make you responsible for someone else's fraud.
MedicalButterscotch@reddit
You had a bad lawyer or no lawyer if you actually paid those bills. Sorry my friend.
fehurihi@reddit
Also your lawyer was probably shit and didn't do shit.
cyrusthemarginal@reddit
With no chance of a big payout? No way!
howlongcanthisevenb@reddit
Whats your law background?
fehurihi@reddit
Corporate litigation mostly
Ryan_D_Lion@reddit
If this were the situation there is 0% chance I'd be paying.
PsychologicalDebts@reddit
Yeah this is a lie, most likely. Every single jurisdiction in America has safe guards against this. It's as easy as sending a notarized letter 90% of the time.
VixenTraffic@reddit
I sure hope there is now, but back in the 80’s-90’s there were not safeguards, or google.
UnhappyImprovement53@reddit
Yes, this happened to a family member of mine, and yes, it is not difficult to remove it from you, and no, you do not have to pay the bills.
VixenTraffic@reddit
Well if you ever want to have electricity, water, a cell phone, a job, or a place to live, I assure you, you will.
Ryan_D_Lion@reddit
Um...no.
Not sure what country you live in but that's not the case in the US
duncanjewett@reddit
lmao faith in US bureaucracy
Ryan_D_Lion@reddit
Lmao no clue what you are smoking but it must be good.
Where did you get the impression there is faith in US bureaucracy?
You are making a wild and incorrect assumption.
cerrabus@reddit
Yea it’s not like you wanted to pay but being stubborn about it just means you would have suffered even more
N0Z4A2@reddit
I really wonder what tough guys like you think they're going to do in this situation.
DampTowlette11@reddit
Contact a lawyer and have them send a letter lmao. Its baffling how clueless you people are.
Ryan_D_Lion@reddit
You are not the brightest bulb in the pack.
Being tough has nothing to do with it so you're not understanding.
I got to a point in my life long ago where I refuse to be pushed around, intimidated, or taken advantage of.
In this situation it's simply standing up for yourself.
I've dealt with situations like many times in the past and I think most people aren't aware of their rights and what sort of things they should do in these situations.
I've fought off HOAs trying to steal my condo, the IRS (multiple times), Chase Bank, PayPal, credit card companies, "debt collectors", etc.
I've had judgements against people for 5 figures but it doesn't matter if you can't collect.
spritelyone@reddit
This happened to my mom. To this day her utilities are in my name. She had a friend that went nuclear after she wouldn't let her move in and set up utilities in her name in random states. It's wild. If somebody has your social security number it's over.
Katzoconnor@reddit
And now 2.9 billion people—including everyone living in the US—has had their name, address, and social security number (or national equivalent) breached all in one fell swoop.
TheBlacktom@reddit
What were you billed for exactly?
StephanieCitrus@reddit
Electric, gas, trash, and water bills all over the U.S.
IamREBELoe@reddit
Why would you pay those?
Remarkable_String280@reddit
paradisewandering@reddit
This is an identical sentence to one posted above by u/VixenTraffic.
“I had to pay the bills, move, and go to court to legally change my name to make it stop before I could buy a house”
vs
“I had to pay the bills, move, and go to court to legally change my name to make it stop before I could buy a house”
User u/Remarkable_String280 is another account owned by the same commenter.
Action_Bronzong@reddit
☝️🤓 "Finally, my time to shine!"
__thrillho@reddit
Nothing gets passed Reddit detectives
No wonder Redditors found the Boston bomber
obamaprism3@reddit
This is an identical sentence to ones posted above by u/VixenTraffic and u/Remarkable_String280
"I had to pay the bills, move, and go to court to legally change my name to make it stop before I could buy a house"
vs
“I had to pay the bills, move, and go to court to legally change my name to make it stop before I could buy a house”
vs
“I had to pay the bills, move, and go to court to legally change my name to make it stop before I could buy a house”
User u/paradisewandering is another account owned by the same commenter.
Just wanted to point that out.
mgquantitysquared@reddit
...you realize they were using
to indicate they were quoting someone in the thread, right?
voxalas@reddit
I’m crying
Remarkable_String280@reddit
lol
Nice work Sherlock 🤪
Remarkable_String280@reddit
Or maybe we’re both owned by the OP?
SINCE IT’S STRAIGHT FROM THE POST
Nice work Sherlock 🤪
StephanieCitrus@reddit
The original commenter said it was necessary to secure a home loan
DoingCharleyWork@reddit
Sometimes it's easier and faster just to pay them in that situation. Fighting it can take time which you might not have when trying to buy a home. No reason they couldn't fight it otherwise.
VixenTraffic@reddit
They started garnishing my paychecks.
IamREBELoe@reddit
American fucking justice...
TheBlacktom@reddit
That was literally in the comment, so it's not helpful at all to repeat it.
AbroadPlane1172@reddit
Clearly, you are capable of reading. What is it that you need assistance with?
TheBlacktom@reddit
Having a name and SSN is not enough to create a bill requiring payment. There needs to be electricity usage that is billed.
I am paying electricity bills, and the amount is based on kWh numbers. The fact that I have a name and SSN is not enough.
StephanieCitrus@reddit
The various people who bought her info from her ex created fraudulent accounts, then used electricity at their various homes.
hereforpopcornru@reddit
They sure as hell don't have an account for some common sense
_lemon_suplex_@reddit
My moms ex did this to her and even used his sons SS number for bills etc and fucked his credit before he was even like 7
TrueNorth2881@reddit
That shouldn't even solve possible to happen. A 7 year old has no need for credit and they obviously don't pay bills
VixenTraffic@reddit
Fortunately my credit is frozen now. My score isn’t going under 800 again.
bemused_alligators@reddit
do they not require proof of address? I had to show my utility company my lease before they would fix the account
siradmiralbanana@reddit
That sucks buddy. It saddens me to hear that such a vile person took out their issues on you like that. Hope things are better now.
ass_pineapples@reddit
Idk that I'd ever give my partner my SSN
StephanieCitrus@reddit
It's almost like that's a number that is on a little piece of paper inside your home which is the same place your partner lives
lolpostslol@reddit
Yeah SSNs being presumed secret is stupid, you have to say that all the time.
ass_pineapples@reddit
Yeah I'd keep it to myself if I could, get a safe or something
eznukezilla@reddit
There is a point in relationships where you trust that person with everything. If you are setting up a safe for you it shows distrust and that will in alot of cases spiral and cause un needed tension in a relationship.
StephanieCitrus@reddit
Unironically, I would think there was child porn or burner phones (for cheating or drug dealing) if my partner didn't allow me access to their safe.
_itskindamything_@reddit
No wonder so many people have shitty relationships. They think they can just never give a partner their SSN and that life will just go along fine?
StephanieCitrus@reddit
They didn't think that far ahead, just doubled down on on their shallowly considered comment.
People who haven't experienced hardship or betrayal tell themselves it's because they're smart when really it's because they're lucky
Piratey_Pirate@reddit
I don't think it's because I'm lucky. I think it's because I chose a partner that is trustworthy. It's not like I met her and gave her my SSN, but I was smart about my decisions and relationship and we have complete trust with each others personal information.
StephanieCitrus@reddit
You should go and tell your partner that you weren't lucky to find them 😂
Piratey_Pirate@reddit
I get what you're saying, but I still don't think it's the case. It's not luck that I made a decision.
I feel like luck should be attributed to something like walking under a tree and a bird shit splats right next to you. There was no conscious decision to avoid the bird shit, but you still did. The decision to be with my wife wasn't luck.
Romantically, yes, I'm lucky to have her. But realistically, we chose each other and advanced our lives based on choices made.
StephanieCitrus@reddit
You reduced your chances of something bad happening to you, but you didn't eliminate them. Even if you picked the most incredible loyal individual on the planet who was immune to addiction, she could have a stroke or brain tumor and wake up a different person tomorrow.
VixenTraffic@reddit
We were married 10+ years and had 3 children. Joint taxes made it impossible not to know.
PrettyAd4218@reddit
Believe it or not I can relate
winothirtynino@reddit
My fuckin idiot neighbors did this with the electricity. Then they realized it, and the electric company put it back in my landlord's name. Then he was getting the bills and we ended up with a huge electric bill once it got sorted out. And the neighbors never even told us. Idiots.
Thr0wnF4rAw4y@reddit
My new neighbours literally just did this with my internet.
eltegs@reddit
Rare proper use of ulpt, for a change. How refreshing.
+
Won't work in many circumstances, where the company need access to the property to shut it off for example. The resident is going to tell them to shove it.
Quite despicable though, and will work in most cases I expect.
Rialas_HalfToast@reddit
Having been the resident, I can confirm that telling them to shove it is ineffective. They will come back with police and the police won't give a fuck that the company is at the wrong house.
Another time they just broke in. Fuck you, Comcast
dancingpianofairy@reddit
And did the police have a warrant? Otherwise they can fuck off, too!
Rialas_HalfToast@reddit
If you think a warrant is the only legal way police can get inside your house, you've got some disappointment/frustration ahead.
vintage_93@reddit
They would need a warrant in this case, they don’t wouldn’t meet the threshold for exigent circumstances.
savvySRE@reddit
The problem is telling the trigger happy ego maniac that they don't know how to do their job.
ItchyBackScratcher@reddit
Please elaborate.
eltegs@reddit
You live in a weird place. And how does internet compare to gas?
Where I live people understand that communication can get a bit mixed up, and listen to explanations.
dancingpianofairy@reddit
My neighborhood doesn't even have gas.
dongbeinanren@reddit
Wait until I move in
MuchCrumby@reddit
Does not work here. Utilities and internet each wanted a lease or mortgage to prove you lived at the residence sadly. It was hard enough to turn all my own stuff on
Katzoconnor@reddit
US? East coast?
MuchCrumby@reddit
Yeah. Very annoying
theodoretheursus@reddit
This is the real ulpt
Siilis108@reddit
Works for broadband too. You can use any address you wish to cut off and tell them you moved out.
Siilis108@reddit
The reason this works is because the sales person gets a bonus for clicking 'place order' and the company only cares about the number of sales. Doesn't matter if the sale gets cancelled or causes issues. Some of the biggest ISPs have the most broken systems that barely function dude to the sheer amounts of patching done on them over the years.
Clackers2020@reddit
When I moved into my new rented house I ordered broadband and then one of my housemates said he could get a much better deal so I cancelled and he ordered the other deal. The router for the better deal came and we set it all up. A few days later the router for the original deal arrived. We currently have a spare router which I'm assuming won't work that I have no idea what to do with.
DukeOfGreenfield@reddit
You will most likely have to return it to one of their stores. If not, they can charge you a fee for the loss of the equipment.
notmynaturalcolor@reddit
I didn’t return mine in the absurdly short window they gave me and then I was billed over $1,000. They took it off once I returned but still.
DukeOfGreenfield@reddit
That's a common tactic, a big bill gets the message across very well.
notmynaturalcolor@reddit
Yea definitely figured that’s the case.
Clackers2020@reddit
It's been 2 months and I've heard nothing. I think the delivery company was a third party so the broadband company must've cancelled the order but not the delivery.
DukeOfGreenfield@reddit
It will go to collections with fees and a blotch on your credit. Even if they haven't said anything, when they do their next inventory, it will show up that the last place was your adress. I would call them and inquire, the worst thing you could do is ignore this. Source: I work for a telco
110101001010010101@reddit
I've had the same thing happen to me. 6 years later I still have the router, for some dumb reason since it's useless as i've since moved and Comcast doesn't have service in this area.
qwertypotato32@reddit
cause its Comcast theyre huge. but they'll eventually consolidate and sell of all their outstanding debt off to collections company with highest bid that operate in your area. if you idiots truely think companies are willing to send you shit and not give a fuck, please do not reproduce.
110101001010010101@reddit
lmfao, no man. They aren't coming after me. These devices aren't that expensive that they need to recover 100% of them. It's disposable tech. I returned one gateway when I closed my service, they don't even know about the second one they sent me.
qwertypotato32@reddit
no one said anything about coming after you. jts in there best interest not to. and as I stated, jts because Comcast is huge but eventually they will sell there outstanding debt to a collection agency. instead of assuming shit your dumbass could do a Google search.
110101001010010101@reddit
lol show me the google search then, my searches turn up the same info that I'm talking about.
qwertypotato32@reddit
https://fairshake.com/comcast/equipment-return-fees/#:\~:text=If%20you%20don't%20return%20the%20equipment%20you%20get%20charged,mark%20on%20your%20credit%20score.
https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations/customer-service/returning-equipments/637dc8d639eb3658cfbb056e
https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations/billing/sent-unpaid-bill-to-collection-agency-in-less-than-2-months-after-cancellation-request-without-contacting-a-client-first/6529ebc796e42961f0823ebb
https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations/billing/billed-after-being-disconnected-for-months-now-bill-has-been-charged-off-and-sent-to-debt-collector/65d027abafe75b042e47086f
https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations/billing/unnotified-bill-then-collection-notice-from-credit-management-company/6179bf6224e8282ebaee6bc7
https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2020/01/09/new-york-congressman-inquiry-spectrum-debt-collection-practices/4419990002/
Wazzasnazza@reddit
Not sure if you realize but if you communicate like a child your replies get automoderated.
110101001010010101@reddit
All these tell me is if they don't notice within a few months i'm in the clear. Bro it's been 6 years. They aren't coming after me.
2_minutes_hate@reddit
Lol I was a tech support director for one of the larger cable/Telco companies in the country. Their asset management was absolutely abysmal. Our counts of asset shrinkage were in the thousands annually for a region covering roughly 2 million clients.
I don't only think that billion dollar companies do this, I've signed the tax documents to prove it.
UnhappyImprovement53@reddit
This just reminded me that we had AOL dial-up internet growing up. We eventually upgraded, and about 15 years later, we received a bill from them for an unpaid bill. Lol definitely wasn't paying that, but they definitely didn't forget
reptilesni@reddit
This is a common scam. It's good that you didn't pay.
thermal_shock@reddit
sucks we can't just send companies to "collection" or some consumer equivalent when we get shafted.
MiaYYZ@reddit
Send them a late fee next time the technician shows up late and take them to small claims for your $4,000 charge. They won’t show up, you prove you served them properly and receive a default money judgment.
firelordling@reddit
They all have bullshit in the fine print protecting them from you suing in any form other than arbitration or something 😤
Which should be illegal and invalidate the contract since you're not supposed to be able to legally sign away rights like that but oh well.
Nathexe@reddit
You could just not use the Internet. Didn't think of that one huh?
/s
thermal_shock@reddit
ive thought about setting up some templates for things like this and sending them out when we get shafted. at least get a paper trail and some attention at the very least, tired of paying to be abused by companies that just don't give a shit about you, only your money.
TheGoodBunny@reddit
It will eventually show up in collections
thermal_shock@reddit
i posted this before, but i'll say it again.
when i moved, i left comcast and joined verizon. cancelled everything properly, but about 2 months later they're saying i owe them money. didn't have the patience to deal with it, as i was dealing with the new property i bought, so i logged in and literally charged pennies to my card each day.
you couldn't charge the same amount back to back so quickly, due to it thinking it was a mistake, so i'd charge $0.01, $0.02, $0.03 to get to almost a dollar a day if i had the time.
on about the 3rd day of me doing this, the account was completely deleted, couldn't even login anymore lo.
mrbigbluff21@reddit
Eli5?
thermal_shock@reddit
they get charged for each credit card transaction, usually pennies, but more than they were getting for me paying $0.01 each transaction. when i did credit cards, it was minimum $0.05 per transaction. not much, but also a headache for accounting. so instead of fighting me for legally paying, they just closed the account and left me alone.
mrbigbluff21@reddit
But how. Do you call your cc and say charge me for .03 to ISP company?
thermal_shock@reddit
just login like I was going to pay the bill, then put custom amount, let it process, reload page, rinse, repeat.
PersonalAd8831@reddit
You just taught me something new. Understood it a lot better when you responded with the eli5 for the other person. Thank you!!!
Additional_Rooster17@reddit
lol the AR person wasn't having it.
ChuckieThunderRod@reddit
Spectrum hit me up after a year for an extra router they sent due to an order cancellation. I told them I’m not taking time out of my day for their mistake to return it to a store so they sent packaging and postage. Guess I should send it back now
MrWhite86@reddit
They wait till you close or cancel the account. Spectrum just asked about a router I still had after they upgraded me from years ago. They want you to put your guard down and get rid of it lol
ChicagoGiant6000@reddit
Yeahhhh, enjoy that collections letter in 6-12 months bud. They'll probably charge you $150 for it
just drop it off at typically a local UPS store and they'll return it for u (varies by provider).
mahlok@reddit
Depends on contract terms. I'd bet $20 that the ISP has already written it off
Fdeecgggv@reddit
I called to cancel my comcast after a promotion period ended so I could get a new deal. When I cancelled my old router was still working a week later while waiting for the new one. I called to confirm that my old service was cancelled and they confirmed and just asked to return the old router. The new router came two weeks after canceling but I was still getting internet. So I gambled and cancelled the new service and paid $150 for the router I was supposed to return hoping I could ride out free internet for a couple months which would have been the break even point. I’m at two and a half years later and still getting free service.
Tjm385@reddit
A month after I set up my internet in my first apartment I randomly got a new modem/router in the mail that said it was my new one and I should just throw away the old one. I called and questioned this and they said yea, just do what it says. A month later, and any time I call them since then they question me about why I have 2 modems on my account and where the other one is and why in the hell would I throw it away but they never remove it from my account, but I don't get charged for it so I don't care right now.
FIContractor@reddit
This is probably why I got signed up for trash service when calling around checking prices. Sorting that out was a PITA. You could probably get a whole bunch of trash cans delivered to a neighbor that way.
PleasePlayInTraffic@reddit
I used to make 8-10 thousand dollar pay checks doing inbound direct tv sales and the way the metrics were set up to achieve those numbers were crazy to reach unless you were slamming sales.
Customer: “I can’t have a satellite dish at my apartment”
Me: “Just let the tech come out and look at any problem you have you can cancel up until you sign the dotted line with him”
If he’ll is real I’m paying a visit for my sales career part of life but at least realized how predatory some industries can be and didn’t want to continue to be a part of that.
CrispyHoneyBeef@reddit
The old Enron special
joyfulNimrod@reddit
There are actually entire companies that just put APIs in front of provider APIs... Looking at you AT&T...
sroop1@reddit
Yup. When a sales guy came by to tell us that they were offering fiber in our neighborhood, I naturally signed up but they had to put our address as a different house.
When we had an outage (due to a salty Spectrum rep disconnecting us at the demarc), the tech went to the wrong house and closed our case twice before we figured it out.
leviathan_stud@reddit
Yep, I can confirm because this happened to me accidently a few years back. Someone moved into the apartment next door, and gave the wrong apartment number so Verizon came and turned off my internet since a new account was opened at my address.
Quizzelbuck@reddit
Not around me.
My ISP will verify you live there to avoid this.
I've seen them sign up people for a second service instead of cancelling the existing service.
Siilis108@reddit
It depends on the sales person I guess. I've seen plenty of instances where orders were placed when they obviously shouldn't have been. Mostly due to lazy/clueless sales people.
firelordling@reddit
Yeah my downstairs neighbor couldn't set up internet for like a month because the old neighbor forgot to cancel their service.
Weebman47@reddit
You should kudzu them
101_210@reddit
https://youtu.be/W8C-ro0klnI?si=lS9OM43g78RtaVOV
Made me think of this.
o2slip@reddit
Do you not need a social security number & all sorts of personal information for that?
PeterTato@reddit
no, do you? I've only ever had to deal with this in Kansas but looking at the comments it seems like it's a lot easier to do this in the Midwest lmao.
o2slip@reddit
For electric I think I remember needing a social security number & more than just an address. Maybe it's different for gas.
btfoom15@reddit
Where TF do you live?
In all of the places that I've lived in, you have to prove that you live at the address, and they won't just switch it over to another person/account without your agreement.
This sounds like a child thought up a good story and posted it here.
moochir@reddit
Similar happened to me in Indianapolis. A developer was buying up properties to rehab and flip. I refused of course.
Someone in the developer’s office inexplicably figured I sold my house to them. They had the utilities switched over to them.
I figured it out when I tried to pay my bills the next month. I made a few phone calls and got all switched back to me. It was only a mild annoyance.
But yeah, in a lot of places, the utilities just assume that no one would start paying someone else’s bills without a good reason, so they do not check residency.
Kinda similar to how you can deposit any amount of money into anyone’s bank account no questions asked. It seems weird that you can do that, but you can.
cjw7x@reddit
You should have let them keep paying your utilities.
talanisentwo@reddit
I live in the Midwest, have moved several times, and managed apartments for years. I have called to have gas shut off more times than I can count, and have never had the gas company verify it with anyone. They just do it. I've also never been notified when someone switches an account to their name, I just get the final bill a couple of weeks later.
Soupcop22@reddit (OP)
See that's so insane to me. They never once called me and were like "hey is it cool that we're shutting off your account?" or even just a heads up would've been cool.
110101001010010101@reddit
We sold a house in TN and a couple days after signing I called the companies to turn off the utilities only to find that the new owners had set up the utilities for power and city services in their name three weeks before the signing. It was fine since we had vacated the property a few months before the sale but it was pretty wild to me that they were able to do that.
talanisentwo@reddit
I've actually been kind of thinking about it for the past couple of hours, and the more I think about it the weirder it seems that they don't do some sort of verification. But my gas company still doesn't even have an app, so...
Soupcop22@reddit (OP)
Right?? thats literally what I said to them over the phone. I asked if they needed any personal info of mine to cancel the account and if there was anything I could do to stop it from happening again, and the lady on the phone said no LMAO. The company is people's gas
enwongeegeefor@reddit
That actually sounds like a big time regulation violation. Maybe contact your state's utility regulatory agency and bring this up to them.
Daan776@reddit
Otherwise find out the most basic information of the company owner and do this shit to them lol
simplyTrisha@reddit
I love THIS!! I wonder if that would change their policies; however, in hindsight, probably not. Someone in the office would give them a heads up and tell them that their account is being shut off. Lol.
Recent_Obligation276@reddit
That sounds like like the only way to make a change
btfoom15@reddit
That's crazy. Are you in the US?
zflora@reddit
Same in France for electricity ( gaz I don’t know). Actually they have no authority to ask proof of your address. And even worse: you can use their bill to proof your address.
Sorry for words redundancy: too tired to search a better phrase.
Soupcop22@reddit (OP)
Yeah, in the Midwest
bassgoonist@reddit
I could see spire pulling a move like this
btfoom15@reddit
WOW, I better check in with my utilities (Eastern US) as I've never had this happen. Good call.
AmblinMadly@reddit
You need to broaden your horizons a bit, not everything that happens on this planet fits into the narrow scope of YOUR point of view. You're a speck. Jesus Fucking Christ
moochir@reddit
Similar happened to me in Indianapolis. A developer was buying up properties to rehab and flip. I refused of course.
Someone in the developer’s office inexplicably figured I sold my house to them. They had the utilities switched over to them.
I figured it out when I tried to pay my bills the next month. I made a few phone calls and got all switched back to me. It was only a mild annoyance.
But yeah, in a lot of places, the utilities just assume that no one would start paying someone else’s bills without a good reason, so they do not check residency.
Kinda similar to how you can deposit any amount of money into anyone’s bank account no questions asked. It seems weird that you can do that, but you can.
moochir@reddit
Similar happened to me in Indianapolis. A developer was buying up properties to rehab and flip. I refused of course.
Someone in the developer’s office inexplicably figured I sold my house to them. They had the utilities switched over to them.
I figured it out when I tried to pay my bills the next month. I made a few phone calls and got all switched back to me. It was only a mild annoyance.
But yeah, in a lot of places, the utilities just assume that no one would start paying someone else’s bills without a good reason, so they do not check residency.
Kinda similar to how you can deposit any amount of money into anyone’s bank account no questions asked. It seems weird that you can do that, but you can.
punkwalrus@reddit
Wait until you have a spouse die! My gas company LITERALLY had no policy for swapping her name to mine (after misspelling it twice in her lifetime), death or no. The best they could do was shut off "her" gas, and then turn it on again as a "new homeowner." BUT the service who shuts it off and the service who turns it back on are TWO different contractors! And there could be a wait of up to 30 days between them! Yes, I escalated to management. They told me, "well, if you two switched it while she was still alive, you wouldn't have this problem."
After this conundrum, I called back a few weeks later, pretended to be my wife as a blonde ditz, and "put the name in my husband's name who does all the money things, I don't even know how to do gas, tee hee," and the utility was put in my name. Easy peasy.
what. the. fuck. Washington Gas.
When i remarried, her husband's name was on everything, and she had such a shitty time of it, the guy's been dead over 10 years and he's still paying for stuff. As long as they get paid, they don't care or even check.
EatMyPixelDust@reddit
I would be surprised at this except for the fact that I know how stupid companies are
My_Clandestine_Grave@reddit
I also live in the Midwest and didn't need proof to set anything up, except my library card.
In fact, the electric company setup two accounts for my house. Their system got confused when I registered on their website so I could pay my bills. It had two different accounts under the same damn number and name. One showed up as payed, the other as delinquent...somehow. They never contacted me about any of it. It was absurd. It wasn't resolved until I called about an unrelated issue and they realized the mistake.
mercyfire@reddit
I didn't have to prove anything when we bought our house. when I called, I told them we had just moved in. no proof asked, just proceeded with account setup. 🤷♀️
ParticularCraft3@reddit
In my area I didn't even need to call anyone, I could set up an account with their app.
meetthefeotus@reddit
I live in California and you don’t have to show proof. Just a couple buttons online
826172946@reddit
Similar thing happened to me when my brother moved in next door and mixed up our addresses. He was confused why his house didn't have gas, I made the connection when my next gas bill was in his name.
thisistherevolt@reddit
You're discounting the fact that a lot of folks are stupid, and the ones who are doing the stuff like scheduling probably hate their job. That will be sloppiness and disinterest every time.
BelethorsGeneralShit@reddit
I'm a landlord and if one of the properties is going to be vacant between tenants, I call all the utilities and have them put in my name for that duration. They never ask for anything more than my name and address and don't verify any of it.
There's nothing to even really verify. The name and address on the account don't need to match the name of the people living their or the address of the property. Landlords that include utilities frequently set the account up under a different address.
Mr_alto19@reddit
I just moved and shut off my utilities, WiFi, and insurance with just a phone call
zebrasmack@reddit
no, but a child probably thought up their utilities system.
In my area, I keep getting the notifications and confidential information of the previous tenant at their new address, and i still get my own bills at the current address. all emails and phone calls go nowhere and nothing gets done about it.
It's insanity, i could really ruin this person's week if i wanted to. no idea what the heck happened.
locke314@reddit
In my area, we had squatters breaking into places and then establishing utility accounts. It was then because of tenancy laws, they were considered a tenant and needed legal eviction. It was not a fun mess to navigate.
catalytica@reddit
I set mine up with no proof I lived there. just a phone call to establish my account.
createry_@reddit
I've never had to prove residence when setting up utilities in Australia.
_synik@reddit
This happened to me with electricity. Came home on a Friday afternoon to no power. It was Tuesday before it was back on. Had to set up new billing and everything, from their mistake.
Moby1029@reddit
This is such a pain to deal with, though... we were set to close on the sale of our first house and purchase of a 2nd. A couple of weeks before close, I called up all the utility companies to schedule a change of service and closing of the accounts. A week before close, our buyer called the gas company and said he was the new owner and changed the service over to his name. What this did, was shut down our account, and cancel the order to start service at the new address, but at the ti.e, I didn't know ow this, and never got any emails or calls from the utility company telling me this hapoened.
The day after the move, I go to take a shower and cannot get any hot water. My wife also couldn't get any hot water for the sinks, so we checked the pilot on the water Hester and can't get it lit. Call a plumber to check the water heater. He can't either but says nothings wrong with any of the components for the igniter so I check the gas account and am met with all manner of red banners and warnings about my service account being shut down, and my web portal account being suspended so I had to call the customer service line to find out what happened. That's when I learned what the buyer of our house did. Gas company resolved the issue but it was a headache to deal with
agelorock@reddit
Yea something like this happened with our cable bill during the Superbowl like...10yrs ago. Our new neighbor put that they were apartment 2 when that's what we are. In the middle of the game our cable just turned off and when my brother called the cable company they thought we had moved bc the name was different on the address. They ended up charging him a cancellation fee that he never did his best to try and get removed. Shit was $175.
outer_fucking_space@reddit
Reminds me of when I got an Uber (first and only time) and half way through the driver is like “why did you cancel the trip” and I was very confused. My phone somehow canceled the trip while it was in my pocket.
I ended up just giving him cash, and I later noticed I got charged a cancellation fee. Like, wtf? Why am I being charged for your stupid app’s mistake?
Kamurai@reddit
Gus Sorola (of Rooster Teeth) had a great story where someone had (accidently?) shut off his gas and the company wanted to charge him to turn it back on when he didn't have it turned off.
He then requested to shut all the gas off for the entire street. Since anyone can turn off anyone else's gas, then that means he could do it, per the company policies.
After a brief hold, they turned his gas back on, no charge.
biisama@reddit
Diabolical
dracotrapnet@reddit
The same thing happened to me with my electric. Some dumbass fat fingered my address to sign up for power.
Nobody checked the meter number. Either the address was wrong or someone looked up a meter number for another address and fat fingered the meter number and I got unlucky. My account was closed at 6 am but power was still on (digging through emails on my phone late that night). Around 2 pm my power was cut off. I did not find out until after I got home at 9:45 pm. I angrily eat my burger and 10 pm I haul out my generator and start the noisy monster up to maybe save my freezer and fridge contents (Nope).
I called my power company and they said I no longer have an account. It took talking to them until 2 am to get them to figure out what likely happened someone signed up for power at another address with another company but my address was entered so they stole my meter. When they got to their place with no power they figured out their fuckup and had the address corrected. Since the new power company had no customer at the address they remote disconnected the meter for non-payment. The power company wasn't going to just turn power back on remotely though. They had to send a crew out to inspect and turn it back on. "They will be there in the morning to turn the power back on, likely after their safety meeting. They start at 6 am" Ignoring the fact I'm an hour outside of the big city. They got their fancy pants over to turn the power back on at 8:30 am. 10 minutes after my generator ran out of gas. 2 hours after I should have been up for work. I went to work 2 hours late after fixing everything and packing up the generator.
IcyEmployee6706@reddit
Live in a condo complex and have a neighbor reports a leak. One of our buildings was out of service for a month (because there was a real leak that took quite some time to diagnose). True story.
Icy-Copy1534@reddit
Ha - here (east coast us) you feel like you need to give them your back teeth to get things setup. Between proof of living in a residence plus about 3 other types of proof it’s nuts.
Unsure what was worse, cable & internet or sewer. I’m still fighting with the darn sewer company!!
Soupcop22@reddit (OP)
Interesting, another comment was saying the same thing. Guess midwesterners just don't fucking care lol
OvergrownGnome@reddit
My guess (as someone who's lived in the SE for a long time) is that to many times have people set up an account and just never pay, then get a relative to set up an account for them and repeat. Free utilities until you run out of relatives.
bryanisbored@reddit
yeah im wondering about the west coast.
KO0330@reddit
Live in Texas. Free market electric 😒 someone did this to us only our electric service this last December. I don’t think they did it intentionally to us, but it still sucked. We were out trying to celebrate our anniversary and the babysitter called saying that the power was out. They shut the power off within 45 minutes and it took hours to get it turned back on.
Rooftop-Hound@reddit
Fun fact, in some places you can shut gas off at the meter and only a tech from the company can start it back up. Could be weeks before they get hot water again
lurkslikeamuthafucka@reddit
How to do this untraceably?
MrJeromeParker@reddit
I would do this to the old fat "see you next Thursday" of an old hag neighbor but her adult sons aren't burdens and don't deserve the hassle. Alas we must wait for a heart attack as we always have. Unfortunately she'll probably live to 100+ with our luck...
dashboardrage@reddit
this is diabolical I love it. and you can use it for anyone not just neighbors!!
pagman007@reddit
https://youtu.be/W8C-ro0klnI?si=sGY-E2kgr5x_IGiT
This actually true
fubes2000@reddit
Sounds like you need to get revenge on the gas company, not your neighbour.
Mr_Gaslight@reddit
Hey Siri? What is uttering a false instrument?
iWORKBRiEFLY@reddit
as someone who worked for a gas company in customer service for 3yrs, you'd be surprised at how many times this happens (it's a lot), most are "accidents" or so they always said
Nodebunny@reddit
I mean that could be deadly in the wrong season
weehawkenabstract@reddit
FYI this also applies to internet. had a version of this happen when i moved into a new place. units weren’t labeled well at the time and the landlord put the wrong unit on my lease by mistake, so when i set up my internet using the apartment number i was given, it shut off their internet until i cleared everything up with the provider
penapox@reddit
Why are so many ULPTs here "something bad happened to me so you should do it to someone you hate"
distortion-warrior@reddit
Evil!
Bst1337@reddit
Someone did this with my electricity provider. Suddenly we got letters to a person who never lived on our address. He ended up paying for my electricity nearly half a year though.
Empty-Swing@reddit
Can confirm it's as easy as giving a SSN and name in the south, but it's extremely hard in New England to get utilities set up without proof and also a deposit if your credit isn't good.
The reason is because laws are different regarding credit, collections, and consumer protection in different states.
BJntheRV@reddit
YA know the last time we moved this crosded my mind. It's so easy to transfer utilities into your name. And so easy to cancel it early and fuck the landlord /next tenents.
VinacoSMN@reddit
This one, right there, is a true ULPT.
Known-Skin3639@reddit
Considered? I would not have considered it. I would be setting up accounts quarterly.