• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Most Annoying Utilities?

What would you say is YOUR worst utility companies?

  • Cell Phone

    Votes: 5 15.2%
  • Cable / Dish company

    Votes: 18 54.5%
  • Water

    Votes: 1 3.0%
  • Electric

    Votes: 9 27.3%
  • Garbage

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Natural Gas

    Votes: 4 12.1%
  • Unnatural Gas

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Dont Know / Other

    Votes: 4 12.1%

  • Total voters
    33

The Giant Noodle

DP Veteran
Joined
Mar 22, 2010
Messages
7,332
Reaction score
2,011
Location
Northern Illinois
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Independent
Im deadling with a utility company that is lying about past occurances and its attempting to ad insult to injury and I have no other option but to bend over an comply because there is NO other company I can go to. What would you say is YOUR worst utility companies?
 
My city has a municipal controlled monopoly--water, gas, electric, garbage all are paid directly to the city; the cable lines are leased from the city with satellite being your only alternative. The telephone lines are owned by the city and leased to the provider. Forever, there was only 1 permissible carrier,. I know businesses can now compete for providers but I am unsure if residential can. In short, my worst utility provider is effectively my city. We are getting a nifty fiberoptic network though. At the rate they are going, I may actually have it by the time I am 140.

I am planning to move to the country, so I will probably regret the convenience of all that when I actually have to carry my trash to the dump, have my septic pumped, and have work done to my well.
 
I have found pretty much every television cable and/or satellite company to be almost insufferable to deal with. And they're the one who do not have a strict monopoly like power and water, etc.
 
Both of them are annoying.

They only generate $120 at most if someone lands on one - and that is if you own both.

I like to stick with the purple/orange groups - followed by the red/yellow groups.

Although i have a fondness for the railroads - especially Reading Railroad.
 
I put garbage but lately a new company has started around here that seems to get their act together. Next I would say electric but that may be somewhat unfair since I live in the deep south and browns are to be expected.
 
Our only utilities are garbage, electric and internet/phone, the latter two of which are provided by the same company, so I chose other only because the company makes us purchase land line service to use internet, even though we don't need/use a land line. No major complaints though.
 
LIPA (electric) is notoriously awfully.

They left us in the dark for nearly three weeks following Hurricane Sandy while they chased off non-union crews generously sent from other states to help with the damage then they charged us all time highs for the time we were without electricity.
 
my landline company. one has to be constantly alert; they raise the bill all of the time. I'm this close to breaking ties with them forever.

cable close second. proving once again how monopolies don't work. I've dumped tons of money into sports channels that I don't want, and I've had to use netflix to see programs on the channel that I do want. and you'd think for this fee they'd at least let me dvr, but that's also a tier above, apparently.

however, these are all meaningless first world problems. we're lucky to get to bitch about this stuff, honestly.
 
Im deadling with a utility company that is lying about past occurances and its attempting to ad insult to injury and I have no other option but to bend over an comply because there is NO other company I can go to. What would you say is YOUR worst utility companies?

Hello everyone! :2wave:

In this poll I voted Cable/Dish Company. Out of all the listed utilities in the poll, my worst experiences by far have been with my Cable Company.
 
Electric company. Our power goes out FAR more often than it should.
 
Ive said for a long time...that no one should be profiting off anything that people must have...Like Electric, water and natural gas for heating...its the profit factor that always gets in the way of and comes before people
 
Progress electric (largely owned by Chinese now). They raised rates 50% to pre-pay for two new nukes that they aren't sure if they actually are going to build or not, and if they do they'll go on line in 15 to 20 years.
 
Ive said for a long time...that no one should be profiting off anything that people must have...Like Electric, water and natural gas for heating...its the profit factor that always gets in the way of and comes before people

Electricity is required??? When I was a kid we had our electricity turned off for six months we got along fine. Oil went to less than 10 bucks a barrel pop was a welder so not enough work. Admitedly we were in California but it does get cold here during the winter it drops to the low 20's and teens in deep winter. That aint Maine or New York or Michigan cold but still if you have gas or heating oil you should be able to get by. Electricity is not a requirement.
 
Electricity is required??? When I was a kid we had our electricity turned off for six months we got along fine. Oil went to less than 10 bucks a barrel pop was a welder so not enough work. Admitedly we were in California but it does get cold here during the winter it drops to the low 20's and teens in deep winter. That aint Maine or New York or Michigan cold but still if you have gas or heating oil you should be able to get by. Electricity is not a requirement.

Ive experienced all those things myself when I was a kid...today you need electric alot more than when I was a kid...theres alot more on it then there ever was...I think most would agree that electric is a fundamental necessity..
 
Ive said for a long time...that no one should be profiting off anything that people must have...Like Electric, water and natural gas for heating...its the profit factor that always gets in the way of and comes before people
Yet without some level of profit motive, these services would be in much more limited supply than they are now. In some places, they probably wouldn't be available at all. Or if they were available, they might as well be non-existent for most people as they would be prohibitively expensive.



Progress electric (largely owned by Chinese now). They raised rates 50% to pre-pay for two new nukes that they aren't sure if they actually are going to build or not, and if they do they'll go on line in 15 to 20 years.
My local power company wanted to do the same thing. Have customers essentially pre-pay for a nuclear power plant... that may never get built. And, to make it even better, if it didn't get built, all that money that ratepayers coughed up would be down the drain and gone forever.

Wow. What a deal. Where do I sign up? :roll:
 
Yet without some level of profit motive, these services would be in much more limited supply than they are now. In some places, they probably wouldn't be available at all. Or if they were available, they might as well be non-existent for most people as they would be prohibitively expensive.




My local power company wanted to do the same thing. Have customers essentially pre-pay for a nuclear power plant... that may never get built. And, to make it even better, if it didn't get built, all that money that ratepayers coughed up would be down the drain and gone forever.

Wow. What a deal. Where do I sign up? :roll:


Same thing here we DID start prepaying for a power plant they never built and guess who pocketed all the money...you got it the util company...that is BS
 
Electricity is required??? When I was a kid we had our electricity turned off for six months we got along fine. Oil went to less than 10 bucks a barrel pop was a welder so not enough work. Admitedly we were in California but it does get cold here during the winter it drops to the low 20's and teens in deep winter. That aint Maine or New York or Michigan cold but still if you have gas or heating oil you should be able to get by. Electricity is not a requirement.

-10 is deep winter wow that's warm.
 
Well where I lived before the town put everything on one bill and handled gas as well. We would get $300-400 utility bills in the winter in a two bedroom house with a basement. The electric was about $150-200 for some reason. It was outrageous. My current place gas is seperate and with a gas stove, water, and heat the last bill was $40! Of course gas is only 1.435 cents per unit right now as well. Most of the bill is actually service charges. During the summer my bill was $20. Power is typically $100 or less, utilties which includes water sewage and trash is about $70 or less a month. Internet is $50 and cable is dead so I see no point in it. My phone bill is crazy big. Around $200 for two phones.
 
-10 is deep winter wow that's warm.

I am from California, we have palm trees and sunny days a lot of the year. -10 is fricken cold. Freeze the nards off cold. -10 is the frozen tundra cold. Hell the frozen foods section of the grocer is warmer than that. Its actualy warmer in my freezer. I need my parka now.:ninja:
 
I would say electric and gas.

Why?

Because they are monopolies, at least where I live. Unless I go propane, I have no choice but to pay for their 'service'. Things such as telephone, cable, internet... there is ALWAYS a choice.
 
I am from California, we have palm trees and sunny days a lot of the year. -10 is fricken cold. Freeze the nards off cold. -10 is the frozen tundra cold. Hell the frozen foods section of the grocer is warmer than that. Its actualy warmer in my freezer. I need my parka now.:ninja:

In the winter time here, we have wind chills down to -20 degrees Fahrenheit, with normal temps well below zero.

Welcome to Kansas. Where one day it's 60, and the next its 28.
 
In the winter time here, we have wind chills down to -20 degrees Fahrenheit, with normal temps well below zero.

Welcome to Kansas. Where one day it's 60, and the next its 28.

Im in florida with 85 degree weather and palm trees and 400% humidity so you cant breathe and hurricane threats for 8 months a year...welcome to florida lose your electric and lose your AC and you die lol
 
BEFORE I post a response I would like to ask where this would fall. It is the Internet Provider. It is our telephone company. We don't have cable and that SUCKS! Cable internet is 100x better than DSL. DSL bogs down quickly in our home. I had cable internet for about 3 years and NEVER had an issue with speed (that wasn't related to MY lack of knowledge of proper choice in Modem). Our phone company is TERRIBLE. Their speed sucks. Their service sucks. The quality of their equipment sucks. We have constant internet problems.

The close 2nd is our Electricity. It goes out when the wind blows. I live out in the boondocks and there is a hunting camp behind our house and we have been asking for the company to cut the line between our transformer and the camp because they no longer draw power (we were told that we could have it removed...and that the place hasn't drawn power on the line for like 5 years). They said they will do it...they haven't. That has been the primary cause of our power outages because it runs through heavy woods.
 
Back
Top Bottom