WEBVTT

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NOTE language:en-us

NOTE Confidence: 0.988619570000001

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Funny Ronnie says there is no way

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she and her family living this

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home have used the amount of gas

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that Washington gas is claiming,

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but today's email from the

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utility blew her out of the water

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yesterday when I received the

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$8000 bill, I was shocked.

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And then I went online to

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the Washington Gas Consumer

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Portal and I saw that my actual

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balance was over $16,000.

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Are you in a position

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to hand over $16,000

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today? No, absolutely not.

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Like hundreds of other customers,

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regulators say are now complaining to them.

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Rodney says she has been

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unable to get ahold of anyone

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at Washington Gas to help.

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It's been very frustrating.

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I did talk to live people, but it

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would only be after sitting on hold

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for 45 minutes. The last two times I

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tried to contact them in early September,

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I couldn't get through it all before

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I had to go to meetings for work.

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Or, you know, get on with my day.

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I would sit on line for 45 minutes.

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One day it was an hour and 20

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minutes and they just never picked

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up. She says she's worried gas

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might be leaking somewhere,

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but she hasn't called in an emergency

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because there is no odor of gas.

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She complained to Maryland

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Public Service Commission.

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According to Rodney's bills,

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it looks like the trouble started

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here way back in May of last year

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when suddenly the utility claims her

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gas usage jumped to 10 times normal.

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The weather was warm,

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the heat was off,

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but the crazy bill didn't come until

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she got off a budget billing program

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that was smoothing out the spikes,

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according to Maryland.

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Public Service Commission.

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It's in recent months seen an increase

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in complaints about Washington gas,

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mostly regarding an inability for

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customers to reach the utility by

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phone or get a response by email.

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In a letter to customers issued Sunday,

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Washington guests admitted to

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unacceptably long hold times and

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said disconnections are suspended

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until at least the end of the year

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while they work out the problem.

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Washington Gas issued an apology on Twitter.

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August 23rd. Yeah, it's outrageous.

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In the meantime,

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Tiffany Rodney and her family are

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still stuck with that $16,000 bill.

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And a spokesman for Washington Gas

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says the company is working on a

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statement for us regarding her specific

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situation in Rockville Scott Broom WSA 9.