Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/06/2023

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  UnresolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  had an outrageously large hydro bill this winter.
  I have been making payments and explaining to hydro Kingston that I'll have to sell my house to pay the bill any faster.
  So after making payments - three totalling over $1000 in the last month - they cut my power off today . I just made $700 in payments last week. And have communicated to them last week that I will make payments as often as possible and likely will have to sell my house to pay any faster as they demand.
  
  I have a 70 disabled mother and a 7 year old boy who will suffer because of this action.
  Selling my house to pay the bill in total as they require will be incredibly hard as well with no power, as I work a lot from home office.
  So why is it that utilities Kingston can cut me off even though I've explained that I can only make payments and have offered to sell my house to pay them?
  Are they abusing their monopoly on energy supply? Are they hard up for money that my $2000 bill is hurting their bottom line?
  Like where am I going to go, they know where to find me? It's not like I am not paying what I can it avoiding paying? I am making a genuine and reasonable effort to pay.
  Yet they cut me off anyways as though I will somehow be able to go out and get a high interest rate loan right away today to pay them. Why can they not just charge me interest and take my consistent payments? Are they not supposed to accept payments?
  
  In the past I have had it cut off when I missed a payment and they have demanded the total amount that day to turn it back on which I would do in cash of over $1500 or more.
  I just can't do that anymore.
  I will be surely driven into poverty by this unreasonable bully tactic for sure. It is not community minded and it is deliberately wreckless and will only harm a boys life and a disabled seniors health and will yield no positive benefit for utilities Kingston for sure as I now will need more time and I'll likely not be able to make any income.

  Business Response

  Date: 16/06/2023

  Utilities Kingston provided written notice and email communications of the amount owing, and what the consumer could do to avoid a disruption in service. This consumer failed to provide a specific and definite plan that would pay off the amount owing on their account, additionally the consumer did not contact the support agencies that were identified as able to help.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 16/06/2023

   
  
  Complaint: 20174346
  
  
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  They never offered me any options to avoid disconnection other than full payment of bill which for months I had been telling them I couldn't do.

  They rejected and dismissed any offers and plans I made to make payments and never proposed any payment plan to me. 

  For months I had been explaining that I could make payments to keep the bill paid down and did make payments to keep the bill paid down and then they shut my power off after I made hundreds of dollars of payments the week prior to disconnection.

  After making several hundreds of dollars of payments in the days after disconnection bring the arrears down to aprox 20% outstanding I attempted to confirm power would be restored if I paid the rest of the arrears off at that time. But their demands took a detour and even more unethical and just plain humanly cruel. Instead of honouring their obligation to restore my power if I cleared the debt they went and added onto their cash demand the newly issued bill that wasn't even late yet. So now with only a few hundred left to pay I thought to get the power restored, I am faced with an $1800 cash demand immediately or remain with it power. 

  So for months I explain to them I can make payments but I can't pay a large lump sum due to the bill being double what I had expected and budgeted forz here I am again being asked to do exactly that - pay a large lump sum or have no power. 

  No options for payments ever are explored even though I have been promising to make payments and did make payments and never went a month without payments that kept up with the bills.

  So Kingston hydro continues to shut my power down because I can't make a lump sum payment of $1800 when I thought I was looking at paying a few hundred dollars of the arrears that justified their disconnection. 

  So I indicate I can't make a large lump sum payment so they shut my power down and demand a large lump sum payment. 

  So I promise to make payments and I do Infact make payments that pay the majority of the bill down every month but I still get the power shut off because I am only making payments and not making the large lump sum payment they desire. 

  Then knowing that I can't make a large lump sum payment they go ahead and demand a large lump sum payment holding my power as hostage.

  Twice before in the last 7 years they had shut my power off and demanded a total lump sum payment to restore power telling me that there is not any other option. No half payment immediately and the rest in a reasonable time frame, nonpayment options ever allowed. Only cash payment in full or no power restored is what they have told me. So I paid the large lump sum immediately. But this time I can't.

  Also, I found out that, according the the Ontario Energy Board, the crown agency who regulates Kingston Hydro:

  that they must provide options for payments. Rather than avoid suggestions of payments and dismissing my plea for a payment scenario.

  they can only ask for up to 15% of the total arrears immediately to restore power.  Not the 100% they bullied and tricked me and many others to pay in the past.

  They must provide up to 5 months of a payment plan to catch up on areas. Rather than demanding full payment and dismissing any offers I make of payments as being not a "firm proposal". I shouldn't have to make any firm proposal they should just follow the rules set forth in the Act that governs energy company's treatment of customers with arrears. If they had followed the clear and simple rules they they are supposed to I would have never been disconnected and without power 

  Because they have not followed the rules they have cost me hundreds of dollars in lost work, hundreds of dollars in lost food for 3 tenants and myself and my 7 year old. Hundreds of dollars in discounts I have to give to tenants for the inconvenience, hundreds of dollars for getting people fed without power. And cost my disabled senior mother who suffers from diabetes her health. 

  And this was all because I was 20% short on the bill by a few days. 

  My bills used to be approx $500 with 6 people living here. Now they are $1000 with 3 people living here.

  Inhavr two new tenants here now this last month who likely will leave after this going show exposing the unreasonableness people who have "power" over you will display when they feel like it whether warranted or not.

  At this rate, I'll have to sell my house with no power to pay this and be driven into poverty and everyone will have to move out. 

  I pay taxes and I pay my bills. All I asked for is a small bit of leaway and leniency glad to pay late fees for the trouble as any other company would be happy to do in order to keep you a happy customer who had been and will continue to give you money, but kingston hydro doesn't care if they destroy someone's livelyhood in the process of getting their $500 and get it when they say and how they say while holding your power hostage and affecting everyone inhumanly and negatively. 

  
  Sincerely,
  
  **** ******