Life in High Def – An Artists perception

Tsk, tsk…the fun just continues it would seem.

I read a story about a family whom Hydro Ottawa cut off for late payment or something in June 2009 and how Hugh Adami of the Ottawa Citizen appeared to work magic for them and had big bad Hydro Ottawa reconnect their service.  So I thought to myself….hey all we want is for Hydro Ottawa to remove their so called “Arrangement Installment” and stop charging us to cover for electricity that their known defective 1st Gen smart meter rang up last year when its motherboard became defective and someone, I don’t know birds or something used because after all, our bills with the new 2nd gen meter are once again right in line with our history prior to the demon meter.  They don’t even have to flip a switch!

By the way, should mention, I also read today that Toronto smart meters – the ones manufactured by the same company and used here by  Hydro Ottawa originally  – are now showing up defective in that city…is Toronto Hydro billing those customers for the aggravation as well?  I’d be curious to find out.

We thought we had this settled actually…last bill for Jun-Jul 2009 came complete with a credit – yes indeedy – for the full $2945 erroneous smart meter damage.  Even gone was the $159 “Arrangement Installment” they were expecting us to fork over for the next three years.  We daringly believed that our MPP had succeeded and we were happy and relieved that our bills would no longer be in the $450- $470 range.

Not so fast though.  You see just as Hydro Ottawa can bill you for any old charge they want to, whether its actually justified or not, it would appear so too can they credit that erroneous charge and then tack it right back on again in a later bill!  It’s obviously some sick little game they enjoy playing with the people who are paying off their Retirement debt and putting food on their tables, or paying for vacations or whatever it is us customers are doing for them nowadays.   The bill that came in today for Jul-Aug 2009 once again shows that good ole highway robbery style “Arrangement Installment” tacked right back on…but wow, look, they actually reduced it!  They took an entire whopping $23 off…it’s now $136 instead of $159 – 0h joy!  Not quite as scammed as we thought I guess is how we should look at it.

So, I started thinking about that single mom and her success and I figured, hey, all we’re asking for here is fair – remove the bogus $136 every billing and you can consider us happy….the faulty 1sg Gen meters are showing their true colors so really, it is only a matter of time Hydro Ottawa before others jump on the band wagon here and start questioning just what the deal is and what you’re really trying to accomplish here without even having to use a gun.

So…as I started to say – I contacted Hugh Adami a few minutes ago – seems he use to be a Para Legal…hmmm.  Have no hopes that this will get us anywhere actually, I mean, I’ve used up all the hopes the last several times I’ve thought this issue was going to be properly and fairly corrected so right now, I’m just trusting that eventually, if more people come together to tell their Smart Meter billing horror stories…maybe, just maybe, we might see a light at the end of the tunnel well before we have finished dishing out almost $3000 to pay for a defective issue that wasn’t our fault to begin with and shouldn’t be our responsibility to pay for.

So, let’s see – is the media really more powerful than the big bad Hydro Ottawa?  Time will tell I guess.