A campaign is mounting to fight the extortion: people are waking up to the outrageous fees PG&E is imposing on customers to “opt-out” of the smart meter program–a program no customer ever opted into–and that opposition is building all over the state.
This is bound to be a nation-wide movement as other states implement opt-out programs that use daunting fees to actively discourage customers from exercising their rights to be free of RF radiation, fire danger, and privacy intrusion.
Opt out fees are punitive, illegal, and extortionate. Sign the petition that demands they be dropped. Join hundreds of other people and refuse to pay. We are the many. They are the few.
I agree 100 percent.
The fee (tax, rate increase) or whatever PG&E calls it is extortion.
I never even allowed a SmartMeter on my property and they still want to charge me $75 for nothing !
To many, this is a problem.
For myself, it is not significant compared to what the corporately controlled government has let happen with the medical care delivery system in the U.S.
About 4 years ago, the economy tanked, and so did my income. So, I woke up one day and said to myself, “why am I paying $7000 per year to some greedy medical insurance corporation for only a paper policy, not any medical care at all” ?
So I simply opted out of the payment.
When it comes to paying for a real tangible good like electricity, I cannot opt out of paying for something that I need to live a healthy life. And the $75 is worth it to me to have peace of mind not to worry about some gangster sneaking around like a bandit and slapping their communications transceiver onto my privately owned meter socket.
So , I agree that PG&E are bandits too, but not nearly as bad as the private medical insurance corporations. The medical insurance corporations have got people so brainwashed, they think paying for insurance is necessary to be healthy, it’s not.
But paying for electricity is necessary to be healthy, wealthy and wise. So they got me this time. I agreed to pay PG&E $75 for nothing but peace of mind, and there is no price to put on peace of mind. Peace is a matter of mind, and if you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter .
I was about to sign the petition when I noticed it originated with MoveOn, a dangerous left-wing-communist organization dedicated to the overthrow of our economy and even our Republic. Count me out.
You have got to be kidding, right?! What’s important is to protect everybody’s health, and not worry about labels and party lines anymore. Everyone has to work with each other to make our lives safe and healthy.
Yesterday I was visited, unannounced, by a SoCal Gas Company technician that showed up to install an RF transmitter on my meter. Long story short, she replaced the entire meter, shutting off my service to do so, then informed me that she wasn’t allowed to turn it back on, that a tech from another department would have to come out to do that…up to 4 hours later. 4 hours and 10 minutes later, no tech, no service, it’s 6:30PM. I call the only public number available for Gas Company service, and while that call is in progress, the tech finally shows up. When I meet him at the door and ask where the fu*k he’s been and why didn’t he call to say he was running late, he laughed and walked back to his truck, refusing to reconnect the service.
I had to contact the CA PUC this morning to get help in contacting an executive level personnel at SCGC, to get the service restarted, because the tech reported me as a threat, and as such, got Corporate Security involved at SCGC. Today, after an hour on the phone with the CA PUC and SCGC, I was able to state my case and everyone agreed that I was never a threat to anyone. Yet my account is now flagged I find out, as a trouble customer…something that I now have to fight as well. The techs that showed up today said that they would recommend lifting that flag as well.
All this to point out the flagrant aloof attitude that SCGC employees demonstrate to their customers even after their personnel fail to perform as stated. I had the previously installed Smart Meter removed today. I am now going to be hit with the Opt Out fees. Extortion to be sure. What else do you call a forced payment with no clearly identifiable benefit or incremental service increase related to the fees? In fact, it has been pointed out by Gas Company technicians, that a very high percentage of gas leaks are found by meter readers. Who is going to find those leaks once the meter readers are gone? The answer of course, is no one. So there is an increased danger clearly identified for Gas Company executives. I doubt that they really care, in their never ending pursuit of increased revenues.
I was also told, by the Gas Company executive, that the PUC had only approved 10% of their requested rate hike last time around, and that was one of the reasons for the level of service given…including the lack of cell phone contact by their techs. Yet today, when the tech showed up to replace the meter, I got a call from the same exec telling me that the tech was in front of my house. How did he know that if the techs don’t have cell phone access? Corporate weasels. That’s what we’re dealing with here. As with government representatives and other corporate officials, they hide behind company firewalls so that their customers and constituents… you know those nasty people that actually pay their salary… can’t get at them to question policy and service.
I’m continuing to pursue my complaint with the CA PUC…probably a futile attempt at gaining some kind of foothold in peeling back this legislative approval. I hope more people take an active stand against this intrusion into our personal security and privacy. It’s really a big deal.