Atlanta Gas Light PASS THROUGH CHARGE (apartment, appliances, house)

[arthur30024]

hi, there


I was just recently relocated to Atlanta area and I currently live in Gwinnett County. and I have chosen GAS SOUTH as my gas company.

I got their bill last week and I am surprised to find there is a AGL PASS THROUGH CHARGES of $32.88 and I just called Gas South and was told this is part of the monthly service fee which I will have to pay every month. Plus $5.95 customer service fee, basically I will have to pay 40 bucks a month even if I do not have any gas consumption. I think this kind of PASS THROUGH Charge is ridiculous, I am thinking of canceling gas service and go all electric, I dont know it is a good idea or not yet. ANYONE PAYING ABOUT 40 BUCKS/MONTH BASE CHARGE, PLEASE LET ME KNOW AND ANY SUGGESTION ON GOING ALL ELECTRIC IN MY HOUSE WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.



ARTHUR

[BobKovacs]

Switch to AGL and at least you'll avoid the pass-through markup.

[arthur30024]

From AGL's website, customers have to go through other marketers to get gas service.

Atlanta Gas Light Company - Establish Service - Choose A Marketer


thanks for the reply.


arthur

[cityrover]

I have no such charge however they sent me a bill for a few hundred $.. apparently they were aware it is not my bill, yet added on like 430 therms to my 8 and waited to see if I would be stupid enough to just pay it.. How nice of them.

Im seriously thinking going off the grid

[arthur30024]

After I talked with several reps over there, they tried to convince me that PASS THROUGH CHARGE is from AGL and is based on DDDC factor, mine is 1.556 while one of my neighbor's is only 0.054, the whole thing does not make sense at all.



Arthur

[arthur30024]

Originally Posted by cityrover

i have no such charge however they sent me a bill for a few hundred $.. Apparently they were aware it is not my bill, yet added on like 430 therms to my 8 and waited to see if i would be stupid enough to just pay it.. How nice of them.

Im seriously thinking going off the grid

by the way, which marketer you are using?

[westviewbungalow]

Yes, unfortunately it's true. One summer we consumed $4 worth of gas but still got a $40 gas bill because of the pass through and other charges. It's pretty ridiculous.

[graywolf73]

Yes, the pass through is absolutely absurb. Unfortunately, all gas companies charge some kind of charge. It's because Atlanta Gas Light (AGL) bills each gas marketer, and they in turn charge it to the customers. You can convert all of your gas to electric but it is extremely expensive. You may not recoup the costs from what you save on electric.

[coolyfett]

Originally Posted by westviewbungalow

Yes, unfortunately it's true. One summer we consumed $4 worth of gas but still got a $40 gas bill because of the pass through and other charges. It's pretty ridiculous.

A very legitimate pain in the ass, I wish Georgia Power would just take over, When I first moved here I was under the impression that Scana was the only and main gas company here, They were over charging me so during the summer I let them cut it off, when it starting getting cold I called Scana to have the service turned on and was will to pay the high bill, the rep told me I had to pay the bill, but they would NOT turn the gas back on? I was like, "so do I just freeze?" And she was like no call another gas company...I had no idea there was more than one gas company for the Atlanta metro area, I was told by the landlords, Scana was the ones to go with. Now I am with Gas South and I am also recieving a very high bill, the highest I have ever paid for electric/heat during the winter was about 115.00....My first 2 bills from Gas South were 73.00 & 81.00....now I got a 179.00 bill for 1 month. I actually watched the man "light the pallet light?".....I think that is what he called it, I have not seen one of those things since I was a kid at my grandmas house...Im talking 1983, 1984, they still use those things here in Georgia? *shaking head* Georgia Power needs to provide the heat, not these gas companies. The things people do not mention about this area you learn over time I guess. I could have sworn a metro area like Atlanta Georgia would be up to date when it comes to warming your home/residence/apartment.......I just paid the 179.00 im scared to see what my next charge is.

[techugagrad]

I'm an expert on the DDDC because I spent hours trying to fight the base charge last month. They wanted to charge me $54 for base charges for $8 worth of gas (I had just turned the gas on for an inspection.) The DDDC is calculated based upon the prior year's usage at the location, the size of the premise, number of gas appliances, etc.

No one at AGL will actually tell you the formula, just general factors.

They only recalculate it once a year, in August. It doesn't matter if you just moved in; you get the previous occupants' DDDC. It doesn't matter if you don't use or remove some of the gas appliances.

None of the marketers have any control over the DDDC, and they will refer your questions to AGL. If you call AGL, they will say they don't have access to your billing data and to call your marketer. Your marketer has already had to pay the fee to AGL, so if you dispute it, you HAVE to go through AGL. They will send you to an Indian call center and you will have to speak to supervisors, who will tell you what I am telling you now. There is almost no way you can get it changed.

I got my base charge refunded, but I had special circumstances -- large portions of living area were eaten up by termites and unusable and the gas appliances were disconnected by the AGL serviceman.