Danks81
22 Mar 2005, 11:37 PM
I figured this place was as good as any to post this thread. I apologize for it being so long, however I wanted to include as much background as possible.
Late last week my roommates and I received an outrageous heating bill. I was hoping to get any insight regarding it as to how I should deal with the heating company as well as my roommates.
Here is the background information:
I moved into the house in mid-January. We have oil heating and I was told it costs about $20-30 per person, per month. My roommates had been living here since October and I was not wise enough to inspect this. In mid February we ran out of oil. It turns out that my roommates were supposed to have established an account with a heating company awhile back to take care of the oil supply. There was a 3 day period where we did not have heat, half of which I was out of town. Being out of the loop the entire time I did not intervene. (Mistake)
Yada yada, we get oil, we get our heat back. A few days later we get an invoice for 150 gallons of oil @ $1.749 per gallon for a total of $262.35
Split 3 ways and spread out over what I thought would be 2-3 months, it is quite manageable. That is until you recieve the 2 invoices we received last week.
One is for a delivery of 208.8 gallons of oil last week at a price of $2.499 per gallon ($521.79 total). Apparently my roommate had signed up for "automatic delivery."
The second is $169.95 for an insurance bill. Unbeknownst to me, one of my roommates had signed up for a monthly "service agreement" that is essentially a scam poised as insurance.
So in short I had expected to pay $20 a month for heat, perhaps up to $50 a month, and now I have received notice that I owe about $320 in a two month span. I have two battles on my hand. First, fighting the oil company over the bill that they are giving us. And second, smacking around my idiot roommates for ********ing this up. As well as myself for allowing it to happen.
It is not much, but here is what I think I can work with considering the bill. When we had agreed to receive the initial shipment of oil we had asked to have our oil tank filled. Since the first shipment should have been 100% of our tank's capacity, it should be impossible for our second shipment to exceed the first. However, the company is trying to screw us by shipping a lesser amount for the initial reduced rate and deliver a full amount for the higher, 2nd rate. I will maintain that by the fact that they did not uphold their end of the initial agreement that our agreement for automatic delivery is invalid.
It is kinda weak, but it is all I have to go by so far.
2). Concerning the roommate(s), I'm quite pissed to say the least. However I know that I ********ed up as well for not being more vigilant initially. I cannot see a reason why should not pay my end of the heating bill. But I do not want to pay a dime for the retarded insurance bill. Which will lead to obvious roommate strife.
Well I have more to say about the situation, but I think it'd be wise to get some feedback first.
Thanks much
Late last week my roommates and I received an outrageous heating bill. I was hoping to get any insight regarding it as to how I should deal with the heating company as well as my roommates.
Here is the background information:
I moved into the house in mid-January. We have oil heating and I was told it costs about $20-30 per person, per month. My roommates had been living here since October and I was not wise enough to inspect this. In mid February we ran out of oil. It turns out that my roommates were supposed to have established an account with a heating company awhile back to take care of the oil supply. There was a 3 day period where we did not have heat, half of which I was out of town. Being out of the loop the entire time I did not intervene. (Mistake)
Yada yada, we get oil, we get our heat back. A few days later we get an invoice for 150 gallons of oil @ $1.749 per gallon for a total of $262.35
Split 3 ways and spread out over what I thought would be 2-3 months, it is quite manageable. That is until you recieve the 2 invoices we received last week.
One is for a delivery of 208.8 gallons of oil last week at a price of $2.499 per gallon ($521.79 total). Apparently my roommate had signed up for "automatic delivery."
The second is $169.95 for an insurance bill. Unbeknownst to me, one of my roommates had signed up for a monthly "service agreement" that is essentially a scam poised as insurance.
So in short I had expected to pay $20 a month for heat, perhaps up to $50 a month, and now I have received notice that I owe about $320 in a two month span. I have two battles on my hand. First, fighting the oil company over the bill that they are giving us. And second, smacking around my idiot roommates for ********ing this up. As well as myself for allowing it to happen.
It is not much, but here is what I think I can work with considering the bill. When we had agreed to receive the initial shipment of oil we had asked to have our oil tank filled. Since the first shipment should have been 100% of our tank's capacity, it should be impossible for our second shipment to exceed the first. However, the company is trying to screw us by shipping a lesser amount for the initial reduced rate and deliver a full amount for the higher, 2nd rate. I will maintain that by the fact that they did not uphold their end of the initial agreement that our agreement for automatic delivery is invalid.
It is kinda weak, but it is all I have to go by so far.
2). Concerning the roommate(s), I'm quite pissed to say the least. However I know that I ********ed up as well for not being more vigilant initially. I cannot see a reason why should not pay my end of the heating bill. But I do not want to pay a dime for the retarded insurance bill. Which will lead to obvious roommate strife.
Well I have more to say about the situation, but I think it'd be wise to get some feedback first.
Thanks much