How does a company with an F rating from BBB come to monopolize the gas supply market and I would we be able to get out of this tyranny?
We bought a house with an abandoned swimming pool last year. In late July last year, we decided to tear it down and fill it with dirt. The contractor brought a bulldozer in. Because our backyard is lower than front yard and the pathway's width is just enough for him to drive through, he realize that this job is more trouble than he originally thought. This idiot decided after each time he dump the dirt to our back yard, he would scrape the ground with the tip of his bulldozer on his way back to make gradually the slope flatter.
He hit the gas pipe. I call Enbridge. The technician came. The first thing they did is yelling at me for not calling them ahead before I dig. (To paraphrase: "Oh, you are so dead! you didn't call us ahead and we are going to slap you with a big bill! ") I am pissed. I only wanted the pool filled, how was I to know the contractor will be digging? How was I to know the idiot would do what he did. He actually went in the ground for about 18 inches and hit the gas pipe.
After they fix the pipe and left, a couple of their subcontracted inspector came and looked. None of them are as rude as the Enbridge technicians. A couple days later, TSSA responded and start investigating this case, even they are friendly and realize this incident is not my fault and didn't give me any trouble. He went ahead and fined our contractor.
We held up the last $500 payment of this job to the contractor because the Enbridge's worker's warning/threat. Months went by, we called Enbridge several times and asked if there will be any additional fine. They never told us there would be any. Even though the contractor broke a few things in our front yard and did a terrible job fixing them, we thought we would still just be the bigger person give him the $500 we have been holding up without putting up any resistance.
FULL 6 MONTHS after the incident, guess what? Enbridge sent me a mail, it says how I am at fault and fined us $665.11 for what happened. It is due NEXT WEEK (Jan 29). The statement is dated Jan, 14 but the postage stamp is Jan 19. (They even kept the letter for 4 days before sending out!!!) I receive the mail on the 21th, which is a Friday night. It only leaves me 5 WORKDAYS to come up with this money. You have to realize this is even more than what we pay in gas for a whole year. There was even a fine print of a bill saying they will send us more bill if other charges comes to their attention.
We called the contractor and see if insurance will cover it. He said he will come over and talk about it. GUESS WHAT? He is not showing up. After all he has got all his money.
Yes, the contractor is an idiot plus bastard. However, what really stunned me is Enbridge - a dirty bureaucratic monopoly. Every person who works at Enbridge seems to have caught the same bug. The are all extremely heartless and arrogant. They seem to sincerely feel it is the right for their organization to blame anyone they like and rob them as they wish. Afterall, they answers to absolutely no one.
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