Duke's Annual Mid-Winter Shut Off Rampage.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
and
Fuck off, Freeze to Death and Die
from your friends at

It seems Duke Energy is going to make an annual habit of trying to raise funds by shutting off gas and electric service mid-winter when it's obviously most needed. We need to change the law so Duke Energey cannot hold people hostage and establish winter rules -especially for families with small children. Ebeneezer "Duke" Scrooge should be held accountable.

Check out this January 2010 post from Cincy Mom's:

originally posted by Mauirobin

Our fault that we have been almost 200 bucks behind the last two months, but they came and disconnected us yesterday. (We still pay something every month, usually more than half) No warning, no knock on the door, no post on door. We scrambled and got it turned on, but my concerns are with the elderly, single parents with young children, etc. They said that since it was 40 degrees they can turn it off....my concern is 40 degrees at noon still means freezing at night. How many folks out there that couldn't get their power back on?

I did some research and discovered that Ohio does NOT have a no turn-off winter rule. We did at one time for 90 days, but that's it.. Despite the fact that I think the elderly have paid more than enough taxes in their life-time, to NEVER have to have their utilities shut off....and most pay school taxes for years past any kids of theirs even go to the schools.

I think we should do something to get that law enacted here, as it is with many other states. No winter turn off during Jan, Feb, Mar. at least if their are elderly, or young children in the house. Any comments, or suggestions? In case you are wondering, I have no young children or elderly in my house, but I'm probably one of the rare households out there.

Here was my response to the initial post:

The rampage continues....

First off - this post starts off wrong. Not your fault. The economy is tough for everyone. When $200 can be a month's worth of groceries for some people - and you've been making an effort to pay - Duke is being real jerks.

Some friends of mine are due for shutoff today. And for again2 They did NOT get a notice. No little pink slip. Not even a line of type on their bill. How do I know? We just spent all morning going over all 12 of their last year's bills as they have kept them all down to inserts and envelopes.

They have been paying what Duke has said is their minimum balance and sometimes a little over if they could. Duke summarily decided that minimum balance isn't good enough. Their reasoning, according to this article I found online, is that people are probably spending the money they're spending $75 bucks on cable or "unneccessary" items and that money should rightly be theirs. God forbid a family spend $75 bucks a month on what is probably their only entertainment than give that measley sum that wouldn't cover their bill to Duke.

If shutting people off without notice after accepting what Duke says is a minimum payment isn't illegal, IT SHOULD BE. If a landlord accepts part of your rent, they have to let you stay and reject your next payment, they can't evict. If a credit card company accepts your minimum payment, then they can't just cut off your card. Likewise, if Duke says "this is your minimum payment" then they should be made to abide by the common sense rule that acceptance of payment means they agree to continue service.

The family I'm talking about has small children in the home, it's effing January and Duke basically said "too effing bad" - we're cutting you off and nothing but the full amount of the bill will do.

It's a damned shame and you can bet our new Governor Kasich couldn't care less. After losing over 800 million dollars already in transportation and education funding, his "let them eat cake" attitude is going to be solely with Duke, not with the constituents he should be protecting against their avarice.