Eunice Hooper (mother) and account holder died on June 11. On June 19 I sent in death certificate and letter of explanation that I (Robert Doss) would continue the account until the estate was settled and closed and at that time change the account into my name. The was no response from BG-E. June of this year my bill arrived and it was extremely high in charges. I called to investigate and when asked who I was, and told them I was the son of the previous account holder, they refused to talk to me about the account. I tried to explain the situation and got no where. I contacted my mothers estate attorney back in June of last year just after mom died and he advised me to wait until the estate closes, get the letters of admininstration and then do all the name changes at the same time. This I have yet to do. The estate should be near closing with in weeks. When the issues came up with BGE they refused to cooperate with me to correct the situation. After many calls to several internal offices I was finally able to get them to agree to give me a 30 day grace period to make the changes I needed to place the account in my name. Three days later a BGE tech showed up to turn off my services. The account is paid up to date with the exception of June. Historically my bill have ranged from $130 to $240 a month. The June bill was $470! (Thus the reason I called) to see why it was so high. Upon further investigation I was not aware of the fact that mom chose Washington Gas and Energy Services as an alternative energy supplier. This fact I learned from BGE. I called Washington Services and cancelled the services. They were charging me $100 to $300 service fees and hiding it in the BGE billing.
Then I discovered I am being charged for gas usage during the summer months which I argued against because the only appliance I have in this house that is powered by gas is the furnace which is not used in the summer months. They refused to give me credit for the over charges on the gas. Both Washington and BGE. However I made a partical payment of $150 on a total of $470 on July 20 anticapiting a correct balance on the next bill. August statement arrives and there is no correction, but the balance due is $840.! This is where the account is now.
My cousin moved in and helped me with moms hospice case last year and she and her son now live with me and we share expenses to be able to live here. After all my failed attempts to correct the issue with Washington and BGE, she calls and with in ten minutes they put the account in her name under the same address. And when she gave the address BEFORE the account was changed, she was asked if Robert Doss still lived here!?!
I also discovered from BGE that the files they have on this address include a gas water heater, clothes dryer, gas range and gas furnace. And that is why they are telling me I am being charged gas usage in summer months. This is not true, I have told them the records are outdated and they still refuse to help me correct this.
This is the basic problem and complaint I have and some of this information comes from a friend who works with in the BGE contractors and has given my information that would get them fired if it were known. But this friend tells me that this is a common practice of over charging customers and for the most part they get away with it because it is so difficult to get them to cooperate on an issue, especially when it cuts into the BGE profits.
I have exhausted my resouces and I am a recipient of Social Security Disability with a fixed income and very scrupulous of my spending habits. I think I am being taken advantage of I need to ask this office for whatever assistance you can offer.
BGE account # 8611251000
Thank You!
Robert L. Doss
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