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SCANA ENERGY WRONGFULLY CLOSES ACCOUNT, USE BILL PAYMENT AS CANCELLATION FEE. columbia, South Carolina
On july 6 Scana Energy disconnected our gas service for non payment. I have no complaint over that. It's their right. But here where it gets crazy. On July 14 my wife pays 101.64$(the total amount due) through their website. I knew that they will ask for more money before service is restored as disconnections are usually a pretext to shake customers down for more money. In this case 60 dollars connection fee. Meanwhile We signed to a 18 months contract in June 2010 and they requested 150 dollars deposit. So We still have 5 month in the contract. As expected service is not restored. It's summer. Showering with cold water is an inconvenient, but not a health hazard. No big deal I thought. Service will be restored in due course but no worry. On July 19 my wife decides to check on them to see what's going on. So here the crazy and rip off part. They told her; one, the account is closed. They gave her a bogus reason saying that when you are disconnected you need to call them right away. Usually within 10 days. Even in this case We paid after 8 days. Tht's more important that calling. Two, besides the 101.64 there was the July bill of 41.70 dollars . So our 150 deposit is applied to the 143 dollars. Now we have about 6 dollars credit. But remember we also sent 101.64 on July 14. What about it? Gone. Instead of paying the gas bill as we tought, Scana decides to use it for "cancellation fee". But We never initiated any move that would be misconstrue as an intention to cancel. We never called other gas marketers. On the contrary by paying the total due amount after 8 days, it showed our intention to continue service with them. Now they're saying that we need a new application process and that they need to check our credit again. What they trying to do after disconnection is get 100$ cancellation fee plus 60$ connection fee plus 150 or 200$ new deposit. Hence their true motive to quickly close our account. This is the mother of all rip-offs and we will not allow it to stand. The bottom line is We never cancelled. They cancelled us and decided to charge us 100 dollars "cancellation fee". This is theft. We need them to restore service or refund our 100 dollars.