Nicor is right — gas company doesn’t owe customer any money

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Updated: February 14, 2012 10:31AM

D ear Fixer: I turned off my gas valve at my warehouse in New Lenox and did not use gas for a year. Later, I decided to discontinue my gas service since I was not using it.

Nicor had been estimating my gas usage. On March 4, Nicor sent me a statement reflecting a $168.99 credit.

But on March 28, they sent me a check for only $33.58.

I called Nicor, and their representative informed me that they had estimated my last bill. I was told that it was a mistake, but Nicor could not explain why it happened. I was told I would receive a check by May 1 for the balance.

On April 16, I received a check for one cent.

I believe we are still owed $135.40.

I filed a formal complaint with the Illinois Commerce Commission. I received a call from Nicor stating that they did not read the meter because I didn’t ask them to.

I used their website to turn off the service and there was nothing there to ask for a final reading.

Ronald Lattanzio, Kingman, Ariz.

Dear Ronald: Bad news — this time the gas company is right.

We asked Nicor spokeswoman Annette Martinez to get to the bottom of this missing money mystery, and this is what she found:

Though you shut off the valve in October 2010, you didn’t officially discontinue the service with Nicor until early 2011. Because of that, Nicor was still coming out to read the meter — it alternates months, doing estimated readings one month followed by an actual reading the next month — and for some reason they were detecting minute amounts of gas being used. Meanwhile, you were also racking up a monthly customer charge, which everybody pays and is the utility’s way of recouping its costs for maintaining the gas lines.

Martinez said you could have avoided the monthly charges by notifying Nicor immediately about the shut-off.

In any event, the $168.99 on your bill was not a credit at all — it was a bill for gas and monthly customer charges from October 2010 through February 2011. Nicor said that when you closed the account last March, Nicor sent someone out to reread the meter and they sent you an updated bill. Subtracting the customer charges — which you had already been paying them each month — from the $168.99, you were owed a credit of $33.59. That explains the check you got for a penny.

After rereading your bills, you told us you agree with their math.

A side note for other readers: Nicor says they’d rather not have customers shut off their own gas. If you’re going away or not using gas for an extended period, call them and they will turn it off (and you can avoid those pesky monthly charges).

Help yourself!

A Fixer reader recently asked us how to get higher up the chain of command to get her own problem fixed. Here are a few tips:

Use Google to search the company name and the phrase “investor relations.” Large, publicly traded companies will have an investor relations manager, who may be able to help escalate your issue with a higher-up. The company’s website often will have an “investor relations” tab — you can try that, too.

Send that person a polite email, briefly but completely outlining the problem and explaining what needs to happen to get it fixed. Make sure you supply your name, address, phone numbers and account number.

If your problem is with a small business in Illinois and you need to find the owner, go to cyberdriveillinois.com (the Illinois Secretary of State’s website) and search under “services” and “governmental records” for the “corporate/LCC information search.” This free search often will turn up the owner or president, or at least their attorney or accountant (under registering agent).

The Fixer’s hubby once did this with great success when he had a problem with a local company.

And remember, there’s an art to complaining. Don’t get off track with long-winded tales and don’t say you’ll never patronize their business ever again. (Why, then, would they help you?) If you’re not a great letter writer, go here for a sample complaint letter: usa.gov/topics/consumer/complaint/complaint-letter.shtml.

Contributing: Mike Nolan