I hate posting my personal business on here, but maybe one of you will see it, read it, and be able to point me in some direction to get some help before I loose my mind. My mother and I live together, she is disabled and I have filed for disability, money is tight and sometimes things happen. On Saturday I received a cutoff notice in the mail about my electric, Tuesday at 10:45 AM Uppco cut my electric service. Since 11:00 AM Tuesday I have been on the go visiting different agencies, calling different agencies, doing whatever I can to try to get some help. I would like to share with you an email exchange between Uppco and myself last night. This what I sent to start things off........... When my mother and I first moved to this address on Feb. 5th, we shared the house with my landlord. My mother and I had the downstairs and she took the upstairs. Every month we paid her rent, half of the phone/internet bill, and when the electric bill came, we also paid half of that. She moved out in Early May, and I not long after moving out she came to us with a shutoff notice about the electric, said I dont have the money to pay this so you are on your own and left. We found out then that the electric wasnt even in her name, it was in her sons Girlfriends name. I called to get the electric on in my name so we would not have to go without power, but the CSR I talked to refused to let me have power here unless I agreed to take responsibility for the bills back to Jan.31st I believe. At that time I had no choice but to say yes, because I need my cpap machine at night and my mother is disabled and has medicine that had to be kept cold. Due to the fact that the bill is so high, the reconnect fee is $1025 and I have NO way to be able to get my hands on that much money...short of robbing a bank. For two days I have went round and round with different CSR agents and get told time and again if I do not come up with $1025 I will not be reconnected. The best CSR I spoke with took some information from me, and was going to put me in contact with one of your companys Financial Advisors to see what we could work out, but she called back maybe an hour and a half later and said that there no advisors for the U.P. so that was help not available to me. I am a reasonable man, I just want to get something worked out so I can have power back on. Right now I am using a generator that a friend loaned me, and even though I am only running it from 7PM till about 9AM so the fridge stays cold (or cool) and I can use my cpap machine at night, the cost of gasoline is eating me alive. I do not with to speak with a CSR again, I keep getting the run around. I wish to speak with someone higher up the chain of command. If you would prefer to call me and speak to me on the phone my phone number is ***%*#)($% I will be here all day tomorrow as due to all the running I have done since Tuesday morning trying to get help and buying gasoline for the generator, the gas tank in my car is sitting on empty and I have no money to put more in there, so I cant go anywhere. Thank you, Jeff Renshaw This was their response... Dear Mr. Renshaw: Thank you for contacting Upper Peninsula Power Company regarding !%$&# Pelkie Rd, Pelkie, Michigan. It is unfortunate the circumstance. Under your own admission, the services were consumed by all parties at this residence, including you, your mother and your landlord. The agreement that determined how the utilities would be compensated amongst all parties was negotiated by you as individuals. Upper Peninsula Power Company is not privy to the details nor upholding your established agreement. I encourage you to contact the Department of Human Services for assistance or Dial 2-1-1 on your telephone for the United Way and additional agencies in your area that may be able to provide funding. For further inquiries, our Customer Service Representatives are available 24 hours every day. Thank you, Brenda This is my reponse back.... I have contacted every agency in this area, the DHS program (State Emergency Relief) is closed from June 1st till November 1st, Salvation Army has no funding at this time, Community Action has no funding at this time, St. Vincent De Paul will pay $200 of the $1025, but ONLY if I pay $825 first, Goodwill and Little Brothers Friends Of The Elderly do not offer financial assistance. True North (which is downstate) is not accepting energy assistance applications at this time due to being out of funds, United Way does not help individuals, they help groups that help individuals (I spoke with them this morning). I called Dial Help in Houghton this morning and visited their office and they gave me a list of where I could check at, and the only place I hadnt checked at that time was True North, who I called and found out they could not help. I did call 211 and all they could do was point me to places I had already talked to and had appointments to go in and see. I also called the 800 number that was suggested after the 211 recomendation on the yellow notice that was on the paper left on my door, that was just the 800 number for 211. If I have to I will take on the bills from when we first moved in, I can accept that even though I do not want to, all I am asking for is someone to work with me. There is no way in Hades I can come up with $1025, I can not even come up with the $825 that would enable St. Vincent De Paul to pay the other $200. I am not working and have filed for disability, and my mother is 60 and disabled with a fixed income. We have no way to come up with that much money and we have nobody that can loan it to us. I am willing to pay $200 a month on top of every months bill to get this paid off ASAP, but I need a reconnect amount that I could possibly be able to get my hands on because $1025 is totally impossible for me to come up with. Thank you, Jeff Renshaw And their response back, after reading I gave up on mailing them back... Dear Mr. Renshaw: Thank you for contacting Upper Peninsula Power Company regarding your service at !$#^@ Pelkie Rd., Pelkie, MI. Please contact us by telephone at 1-800-$&#-($^! in order to discuss your situation further. Our customer service representatives are available 24 hours 7 days a week to assist you. Thank you, Denise They totally refuse to work with me, so I am at my wits end, I have $13 to my name which I am going to have to use to buy generator gas, and that will get us through till tomorrow evening, after that I have no idea what I am going to do. Keri Mae Nimkeebinaiseequay LeClaire and her boyfriend/husband were kind enough to loan us the generator after I asked a cousin to borrow one of theirs and he said go pay your electric bill or rent a generator I am ready to give up, I have nowhere else to turn to try to get help, if you know of something that can possibly help me, PLEASE let me know. Thanks for your time, Jeff
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 19:28:38 +0000
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