We put the gas bill in our name last month. We didn’t know that we had to do it because the section on the utility agreement that we signed said “NA” for gas.

Anyway. I get it switched to our name, paid the mgmt company $20 for the bill that they had received and then set up our rent payment to cover the final bill that they got that covered the days between that bill and when we put it in our name. Another $28. Sort of high for a short time period, but I didn’t really think much about it.

When I set up the gas, I told them they could send the bills electronically. I kept waiting to see one. I finally checked online. I almost fell off my chair when I noticed that it said our current bill was for $84! Yikes! That’s a crazy high amount of money to spend and it was only for 18 days of use. I called their customer service number and they agreed that something seemed wrong. They said someone would come out and re-read the meter.

Let me give a tiny bit of background on the last three bills. Actually, I have no information on that $20 bill except for how much they asked me to pay them. I’m dying to see a copy of that bill because I really want to know what the meter reading said. The second bill (final one before it was put in our name) was for $28.75. It said that the previous reading was 747 and the current reading was 764. The bill that made me have a heart attack said that the previous reading was 764 and the present reading was 846.

This is what our meter looked like yesterday:

If you’ve never read a meter, you take the lower of the numbers between where the arrow points. Yesterday’s meter reading was 0746. That was confirmed by the meter reading who came.

So, let’s recap:

The bill for $20, I have no idea what they said that reading was. I need to see a copy of that bill.

The bill for $28.75 said we used from 747 to 764.

The bill for $84.10 said we used from 764 to 846.

Yesterday the actual reading of our meter was 746.

Does anyone else wonder along with me what the meter reader was smoking for the past readings?

We don’t have a new corrected bill yet and the bill for $84.10 will be past due on the 1st of May. Do I have to pay that? It seems like I shouldn’t have to. And that $28.75 we are sending with our rent this month? I shouldn’t have to pay that either, but I don’t have new documentation to send to our management company. If I send them that money, they will need to give it back when they get reimbursed for being billed incorrectly. I guess I could send them the photo of our meter, but that isn’t really official.

The cherry on the top of all of this is that we realized, over supper last night, that the only thing that runs on gas in our home is our fireplace. Hah! We have not used it except for a few minutes one day shortly after we moved in several months ago!