Woman's Power Shut Off Over 1 Cent Charge

[poundwise]

May 16, 2006

FLINT, Mich. -- Just how powerful is a penny?

To a Michigan energy company it's the difference between keeping your lights on and having them turned off.

Consumers Energy turned off the power to a Flint woman after she paid all but one penny of her bill, which was $1,662.08. The company told Jacqueline Williams the power would not be turned on until it received the penny.

The woman went into the Consumers' Energy office and paid the penny and got a receipt. After seven hours without electricity, her power was restored.

[Ima saver]

obviously, she had not paid the bill in a long time!!

[veronak]

Wow this is crazy, I can'e believe it ...but if you think aboout it, if the comapny allowed each customer to do without paying that penny how much would be lost

[eisor]

Originally Posted by Ima saver

obviously, she had not paid the bill in a long time!!

It may be that she already owed them so much money and they wanted the penny just because of principle. The fact that they wanted ALL of their money before they would give her her power back.

It just seems like there has to be more to the story.

[PRICEPLUS]

You just cannot make stuff like this up!

[tgavin71]

Boo hoo. I agree that it seems like it has been eons since she paid. What I want to know is why pay $1662.07 instead of $1662.08?

[Bargainacious]

My mom's power company told her not to bother sending them a check for her final bill (it was less than $10). They said it wasn't worth their time in processing it!

Maybe the woman in the story just mis-wrote the amount. I've done that on utility checks before.

[markio26]

i saw this on the t.v... she owed a huge bill... obviously it was an error....

[Bluezy]

A bit of muscle flexing on the the part of the energy company. There must be more to the story than what was revealed. Normally companies would not risk such bad press.