Forgive the personal nature of my post. Most of my posts, I try to be more formal. This post is just another internet RANT!

I have my November 2009 Gas South Bill. I owe $46.87 in gas charges. Last month my total bill was $45.87. A year ago, my usage was twice as much as this year. My point? I’ve cut usage to the bone from a year ago.

However, this month’s total bill isn’t $45 or $46 dollars. It’s $77.81!So why is my bill so much more this month? $30 in added FEES!

A customer service fee of $5.95! I’m getting charged for customer service from a company that has to do NOTHING every month except make sure there’s gas in the pipeline to my house. Maybe it’s a fee to read my meter? There are 48 homes in my subdivision. All of the meters get read on the same day. So do I really think it takes all day to read 48 meters at a fee of $285?

Let’s assume the meter reader gets 20 meters read an hour or one every three minutes. I think that’s a reasonable amount of productivity. So in eight hours with two 15 minute breaks, the reader gets 150 meters read at $5.95 each or $895.

Dang! I want that job. So what does the meter reader get per day out of the $895? I don’t know. Who  wants to ask the anti-Union GOP if the Gas Company is paying too much in labor charges?

Customer service charges of such a nice number, $5.95. Isn’t that number a marketing gizmo called a price point? One of those numbers that sound more like 5 than 6? It’s really SIX BUCKS!

And then there’s the freaken $19.89 fee calls the Pass Through. I just know there should be a thousand nasty internet jokes about pass through fees from the gas company. But, TWENTY DOLLARS FOR PASSING GAS???????

What the heck are these fees really for? Building some nuclear power plant that won’t be done in time for my funeral?

I hope I die owning them a lot of money including a late fee.