Eric Cramer

Review of Eugene Water & Electric Board ...

I am a new customer to EWEB and had stacked up 3 m...

I am a new customer to EWEB and had stacked up 3 months without a payment. (Shame on me) I had not received a bill from them during this time and mentioned it to my spouse earlier in the week. The next time I get an over due notice so I tell my spouse hey we need to contact them in regards to no bill. They put a door hanger three days later a Friday and it states I have to the end of Monday day to pay $500+ or they will disconnect. I get online over the weekend and make a $250.00 payment and follow this up with a call. (by the way if you request a new password it sends it to your spam filter because it looks like spam and eventually you get locked out of your account until the next day for trying too many times to pay your bill)

On Monday I call and they advise me that $250.00 will not due and unless they get the balance they will shut off my WATER & ELECTRIC! I explain to a customer service rep, three customer service supervisor, and the EWEB commissioner (via email), That I had $250.00 in my saving account and I gave it to you on the spot and that's all I have till I get paid on the 1st. Their response was sorry pay us the balance or we shut you off. Keep in mind I have only been a customer for 4 months at this point. They also advise me that if the services get shut off it will be $50 bucks to reconnect and a deposit of 3x the largest bill aprox. $260.00 x 3 =$780.00 (Thanks to a very cold winter) and I still have to pay the balance! I have seen TV mobsters with less aggressiveness then EWEB. I want to be clear I realized this is all my mistake and it's my responsibility to make the payment. My habits are to sit down with the paper bill and pay them at the beginning of each month and when I don't get a paper bill I don't realize I not paying my debts. My request for good faith grace of 5 days after paying $250.00 upon request was not good enough and I had ended up borrowing from my neighbor.

The moral of this story is mobsters don't just wear suits they wear EWEB uniforms. watch out!

Maybe I should have robbed a bank and got caught and told the news it was to pay my EWEB bill, because if I did not the alternative would be my family without power and water for 5 days as well as paying damn near $1000.00 to restore services!!!