Power Company Customers Charged for [CFL] Light Bulbs

EC&M Magazine ^ | 1/14/08

[mikey_hates_everything]

As part of a campaign to alert Maryland residents to the state’s rising energy consumption and limited transmission capabilities, Greensburg, Pa.-based Allegheny Power recently mailed two compact fluorescent light bulbs to each of its customers, for which the firm is charging 99 cents a month for a year.

[pnh102]

I remember getting these. I love how we are now paying $12 a year forever for these "free gifts."

Our entire house uses nothing but CFL bulbs. We gain nothing from this initiative, except a higher electric bill.

[GodGunsGuts]

So now they can just mail you stuff you never ordered and just bill you?!?!? What happens if you don’t pay?

[weegee]

I remember an old PSA on tv that had the announcer saying that if you receive something through the US Postal Service, and you didn’t order it. It’s YOURs. They can’t go asking for money for unsolicited “gifts”.

[John123]

$11.88 for two compact florescent light bulbs? Pricey. Were the customers given a choice?

[Freeport]

$12 bucks!

Shoot! I bought three 100w equivalent bulbs for $18!!!

Send them back!

[pnh102]

What happens if you don’t pay?

As the cost of these bulbs is added to your bill, my guess is if you don't pay, they shut off your power.

[mikey_hates_everything]

“So now they can just mail you stuff you never ordered and just bill you?!?!? What happens if you don’t pay?”

Sounds as if it’s part of your electric bill and what happens when you don’t pay your electric bill?

[cinives]

Do they come with instructions that once turned on, they should be left on for at least 15 minutes ? Or how about if you break one you need to immediately exit the room and call a hazmat team to contain and remove the mercury ? Or when they die you cannot throw them out but instead you need to take them to a hazardous waste recycling site ?

I bet not.

[NonValueAdded]

LOL .. they took a page right out of the old Ma Bell play book. For the kiddies and those reading in Rio Linda, way back when you could not buy your own phone, you could only lease one from the local phone company. The claim was that they must control what is connected to their network. They'd send the "phone cops" (hat tip to Dr. Johnny Fever) out to do a disconnect if they detected foreign equipment. The monthly charge was not that great, but you ended up paying for the phone a dozen times over.

I'd send them back their bulbs and not be too careful about the packaging. That would create an environmental nightmare in their receiving department, though, and probably earn you a $3000 hazmat charge on your next bill.

[KarlInOhio]

http://www.usps.com/postalinspectors/fraud/merch.htm

These rules are codified in Title 39, United States Code, Section 3009. That section of the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 incorporates these protections for American consumers and makes the mailing of unordered merchandise unfair methods of competition and unfair trade practices under the law.

If you do not wish to pay for unsolicited merchandise or make a donation to a charity sending such an item, you may do one of three things (in each case, by law, you have no obligation to the sender):

If you have not opened the package, you may mark it "Return to Sender," and the Postal Service will return it with no additional postage charged to you.

If you open the package and don't like what you find, you may throw it away.

If you open the package and like what you find, you may keep it for free. In this instance, "finders-keepers" applies unconditionally.

Furthermore, it is illegal for a company that sends you unordered merchandise to follow the mailing with a bill or dunning communication.

Seems like someone needs to hit that power company for the violation of US law.

[ontap]

Sounds to me like they need to bitch slap their legislature and force these people to make some refunds.

[weegee]

I don’t know if it is true “today” but I heard that there were older consumers who kept paying that “phone rental” fee up through the 1990s unaware of Ma Bell’s thumb on the “scale”.

[weegee]

Thanks for the citation of the code. The public DOES need to push back.

[edcoil]

I bought 18 for $1.00 each at Home Depot.

[weegee]

Careful now, the USPS has you declare that the package you send doesn’t contain any hazardous or fragile materials. You could probably face the wrath of the US postal service for mailing the bulbs back, especially if they might get damaged by the delivery process.

The electric company is also probably violating this.

I have had the notion to send all dead bulbs back to the manufacturer because I certainly don’t want MY city to have to pick up the disposal costs. Put the burden of disposal on the shoulders of GE,et al and they will quickly change the product.

[wrench]

"Seems like someone needs to hit that power company for the violation of US law"

Around here the power company is above the law. They do what they want even when it is an obvious code violation. Their hiring practices are blatently discriminatory. The list goes on and on.

Don't like it or complain too much? Get your lights turned off.

[nygoose]

If you send them back to the power company, you will eventually get a few from the Federales at a much higher price.

[longtermmemmory]

sounds like the cell companies.

BUT ONLY in the USA. The rest of the world changes phones the way we change wardrobe.

[WOSG]

Idiots. It’s cheaper at walmart.
They’ve done nobody any good with this. We are adults and we can figure out when CFL is beneficial and useful.
How many of these will be wasted by those who dont need any replacement bulbs?
How environmentally sound is it to take a functioning lightbulb and throw it into a landfill?

There needs to be word for this kind of dumb environmental nanny-ism: Goronic!