GasBuddy Blog

Message Forum - Read Message

Category: General Gas Talk > Topics	Add to favorite topics Post New Topic

Author	Topic: Why is Columbia Gas trying to confuse and rip off their customers?	Post a Reply Back to Topics

altlandf Sophomore Author Pennsylvania Posts:247 Points:24,345 Joined:Aug 2003	Message Posted: Feb 10, 2012 9:52:10 PM Ignore altlandf Report Abuse The residental customer charge in October was $12.25. November the price jumped to $16 and change. Now the customer price is a whopping $18.73. They never told us this. Usually when Columbia Gas want to rip us off they put a insert in the bill. Eversince I have had to use natural gas the way they measure usage was in Ccf. In February they converted to bill to something called therms? What the hell are therms? To convert to therms, we multiply the british thermal unit value of the gas in your area by the volume of gas(Ccf) consumed that month. What? I can only imange if they have the people like Met Ed. They tried to rip off York City Schools to the tune of $1.9 million which they paid back when it was proved. The city actually had to prove Met Ed was wrong. They had a contracter come in and had the proof. The meters were correct. It's in the billing department is where Met Ed really messed up. They tried the same thing with West York School district. They over billed them almost $900,000. This is just the cost you use the wires. West York uses Hess electric for their supplier. What crooks!

altlandf

Sophomore Author
Pennsylvania

Posts:247
Points:24,345
Joined:Aug 2003

Message Posted: Feb 10, 2012 9:52:10 PM

Ignore altlandf Report Abuse

The residental customer charge in October was $12.25. November the price jumped to $16 and change. Now the customer price is a whopping $18.73. They never told us this. Usually when Columbia Gas want to rip us off they put a insert in the bill. Eversince I have had to use natural gas the way they measure usage was in Ccf. In February they converted to bill to something called therms? What the hell are therms? To convert to therms, we multiply the british thermal unit value of the gas in your area by the volume of gas(Ccf) consumed that month. What? I can only imange if they have the people like Met Ed. They tried to rip off York City Schools to the tune of $1.9 million which they paid back when it was proved. The city actually had to prove Met Ed was wrong. They had a contracter come in and had the proof. The meters were correct. It's in the billing department is where Met Ed really messed up. They tried the same thing with West York School district. They over billed them almost $900,000. This is just the cost you use the wires. West York uses Hess electric for their supplier. What crooks!

REPLIES (newest first)Ignore Short Messages

PithyOpiner Champion Author Stockton Posts:16,220 Points:1,599,495 Joined:Jun 2008	Message Posted: Feb 17, 2012 2:02:45 PM Ignore PithyOpiner Report Abuse They're at it again. Every few years they do this to you people. They treat you like filthy dirt, like pond scum, like pigeon droppings on a sidewalk on a hot summer evening.
Michael29644 Champion Author Greenville Posts:4,975 Points:844,250 Joined:Jan 2011	Message Posted: Feb 15, 2012 1:19:56 AM Ignore Michael29644 Report Abuse "Hey Maxstar when I go out and take notice of the gas prices I memorize them but I don't post them if the price is already correct on the site." As others have pointed out, that is not helpful to the value of the site. Posting prices, even if they haven't changed, helps keep prices current in the system, which helps the users comparison shop without wasting gas driving around. "If this helps there's a Gulf gas station on the square in York New Salem I was going to stop at because the gas price was $3.49 when all the crooks were at $3.65 a gallon. I didn't stop because most of the pumps had an out of order bag over them. I can only imange what they were selling." You sure they weren't simply out of certain grades of gas? If they were, you could have zeroed out the prices for the grades that weren't available and posted a message in your local forum about the situation so that other members in your area would know about the issue. If all the pumps were bagged, then the station may have needed to be marked as temporarily closed in the MSL, especially if the pumps remained bagged for a lengthy period of time.
ricebike Champion Author New Jersey Posts:10,043 Points:1,857,670 Joined:Oct 2005	Message Posted: Feb 14, 2012 11:30:07 PM Ignore ricebike Report Abuse what does this have to do with gasoline prices?
maxstar Champion Author Chicago Posts:18,496 Points:811,495 Joined:Feb 2011	Message Posted: Feb 14, 2012 10:06:11 PM Ignore maxstar Report Abuse altlandf: your replies to my comments do not make any sense to me. Nowhere did I mention the type of fuel you were discussing. My comments were with respects to this being a local discussion topic. A discussion of the Columbia Gas has more meaning to those living near Columbia Gas than other throughout the rest of the US and Canada. My other issue had to do with the lack of updates. Even with your explanation, it is hard to understand that after eight years you have earned less than 20,000 points. Members that joined only a few weeks ago have made more updates. Going out and memorizing prices is great but posting those updates is important, even if a correct price is already there. Prices can change frequently (even within the same day) so the more current the updates are the better. And after time a price update will expire and no longer display, so updating even a correct price will reset the clock. Start updating prices more. All will appreciate it. Others have made comments with respects to the type of fuel you are talking about and I agree with them so no need for me to rehash. [Edited by: maxstar at 2/14/2012 11:09:48 PM EST]
Edpap Champion Author Pennsylvania Posts:4,342 Points:508,875 Joined:Oct 2011	Message Posted: Feb 14, 2012 6:54:20 PM Ignore Edpap Report Abuse direct your complaint to the PUC...they probably won't do a thing but you can at least vent some anger
PithyOpiner Champion Author Stockton Posts:16,220 Points:1,599,495 Joined:Jun 2008	Message Posted: Feb 14, 2012 5:26:27 PM Ignore PithyOpiner Report Abuse Yes, they are crooks. But, what do you expect. You live in the heart of where the crooks all live. Come out there to California and live the good life. No snow, no gas crooks, sunshine 24 hours a day, gorgeous girls all over the place. If you choose to continue to live in PA, be careful of that guy Sandusky. If he gets you in one of his famous bear hugs, you're going to limp for a while after he is finished with you.
bluenvoy Champion Author Nashville Posts:14,985 Points:1,878,615 Joined:Oct 2005	Message Posted: Feb 14, 2012 9:13:27 AM Ignore bluenvoy Report Abuse We have Piedmont Gas here. They announced price reductions here.
jcpatriots Champion Author Massachusetts Posts:3,903 Points:601,195 Joined:Sep 2011	Message Posted: Feb 13, 2012 7:59:29 PM Ignore jcpatriots Report Abuse On 13 Feb 2012 at 4:49:16, altandf said: (btw, ALT + F is the greatest thing ever) "Hey Maxstar when I go out and take notice of the gas prices I memorize them but I don't post them if the price is already correct on the site." See, I don't understand this mentality. Updating the prices keeps them CURRENT and helps members out by realising the price is a lot more likely to be reliable than a price that may be 2 days old. Gas prices for awhile weren't changing for weeks around here (even a few months ago). So if every member followed your mentality, this site would be totally empty or have prices that are several days old. That's not reliable. I just don't understand why people don't just update and keep them current. [Edited by: jcpatriots at 2/13/2012 8:59:58 PM EST]
Gas_Buddy Champion Author Maryland Posts:25,986 Points:3,036,015 Joined:Aug 2004	Message Posted: Feb 13, 2012 7:43:55 PM Ignore Gas_Buddy Report Abuse I doubt maxstar would get mad if you posted avgas and mogas prices, but the moderators would. The primary purpose of this website is for posting of prices for fuel used in personally owned cars and trucks. Most people on this website aren't using kerosene, or off-road diesel, let alone avgas, in their cars or trucks, let alone paying fleet prices for fuel used by the trucking industry. Not to the best of my knowledge. It doesn't appear that this thread is concerned with fuel used in personal vehicles. As for posting fuel prices, just because a posted price hasn't changed is no reason not to update the post. Your posting a price that hasn't changed (in your words, "is already correct"), will extend the length of time the price remains visible to other members. As for "If this helps there's a Gulf gas station on the square in York New Salem I was going to stop at because the gas price was $3.49 when all the crooks were at $3.65 a gallon. I didn't stop because most of the pumps had an out of order bag over them. I can only imange what they were selling." I have no idea what that means. Pumps out of order is one thing; you haven't said that the gas station was in operation or it was not. But I have not idea what you said means, or why it's relevant. As a long standing member, you've averaged about one gas price a month during your membership. Rather than complain about what the natural gas industry is doing to home owners and to city school systems in a thread dedicated to general talk about fuel, oil, and gas stations, it might be a little more useful and helpful to your fellow Pennsylvania Gas Buddy members to post a gas price periodically. Even posting just one gas price a week would increase the amount of information and help you're providing them by more than 300 percent a year. But that's just a suggestion. That's all. Just a suggestion.
altlandf Sophomore Author Pennsylvania Posts:247 Points:24,345 Joined:Aug 2003	Message Posted: Feb 13, 2012 3:49:16 PM Ignore altlandf Report Abuse By the way maxstar there are some columbia gas vehicles that run on natural gas. My complain was they never let a person know like they're suppose to. What's the difference what form the gas is in it burns inside an internal combustion engine. Would you get mad at me if I started to talk about the difference between avgas and mogas. This is the lingo that pilots use when talking about the fuel used in small airplanes not jumbo jets. I just wanted to let people know that columbia gas was messing with people. If I could get cheaper gas I would. I run the cheapest fuel in my cars with fuel injection.
altlandf Sophomore Author Pennsylvania Posts:247 Points:24,345 Joined:Aug 2003	Message Posted: Feb 13, 2012 3:41:07 PM Ignore altlandf Report Abuse Hey Maxstar when I go out and take notice of the gas prices I memorize them but I don't post them if the price is already correct on the site. If this helps there's a Gulf gas station on the square in York New Salem I was going to stop at because the gas price was $3.49 when all the crooks were at $3.65 a gallon. I didn't stop because most of the pumps had an out of order bag over them. I can only imange what they were selling.
TrixieNY Champion Author Buffalo Posts:2,703 Points:656,650 Joined:Apr 2008	Message Posted: Feb 11, 2012 1:34:50 PM Ignore TrixieNY Report Abuse Gasoline genius, not natural gas! Post some gas prices instead of complaining all the time!
kookiwoogi Champion Author Indiana Posts:7,753 Points:2,775,965 Joined:May 2004	Message Posted: Feb 11, 2012 12:11:12 PM Ignore kookiwoogi Report Abuse I think you are complaining to the wrong people.
ZZZoop Champion Author Virginia Posts:16,387 Points:3,128,285 Joined:May 2004	Message Posted: Feb 11, 2012 11:12:45 AM Ignore ZZZoop Report Abuse >>This thread is where it's suppose to be maxstar. Natural gas is a gas is it not?<< Notice that this website is not called "EnergyBuddy." It's called "GasBuddy" and the "Gas" in "GasBuddy" is gasoline, not natural gas. You don't see anyone posting natural gas prices on this website (yet). As for the therm making your head spin, it's a measure of energy delivery that my natural gas company has been using for as long as I can remember. Glad to see that your gas company has decided to step into the 21st century.
maxstar Champion Author Chicago Posts:18,496 Points:811,495 Joined:Feb 2011	Message Posted: Feb 11, 2012 11:00:44 AM Ignore maxstar Report Abuse altlandf: please re-read my comments. This issue belongs in a local discussion board.
OceanArcher Champion Author Mississippi Posts:5,718 Points:1,330,325 Joined:May 2004	Message Posted: Feb 11, 2012 7:55:39 AM Ignore OceanArcher Report Abuse Actually, their moving away from the (Ccf) method to the (therm) descriptor is a result of 'truth in advertising'. Not all natural gas is created equal, and the amount of heat (BTUs) you get out of burning it can vary quite a bit. Anyhow, with the on-line evaluation and monitoring process used today, the use of (therm) is much more correct. Guess we will just have to get used to it ......
altlandf Sophomore Author Pennsylvania Posts:247 Points:24,345 Joined:Aug 2003	Message Posted: Feb 11, 2012 7:33:17 AM Ignore altlandf Report Abuse This thread is where it's suppose to be maxstar. Natural gas is a gas is it not? Way too many people just act like sheep in this world. They just go on in life just paying what they are told to.
maxstar Champion Author Chicago Posts:18,496 Points:811,495 Joined:Feb 2011	Message Posted: Feb 10, 2012 10:03:47 PM Ignore maxstar Report Abuse Outside of your local area I doubt if GasBuddy members throughout the US and Canada know or will ever visit this particular station. This question belongs on your local discussion board. altlandf as a member since 2003 with only 19,725 you should really try contributing more to the site by updating some gas prices. Prices is information others can really use. [Edited by: maxstar at 2/10/2012 11:04:50 PM EST]