Recently I switched to a fixed rate on the natural gas portion of my utilities. I am really happy that I made the switch because it's already saved me a lot of money. However, I also switched gas companies - something I didn't really realize I was doing. Not that it's a big deal, but it has resulted in some confusion. Allow me to elaborate:

The old supplier is Direct Energy Utilities, and the new supplier is Direct Energy Essential Services. Since I didn't realize there was a change I continued to pay my bills online like I always do, to Direct Energy (Utilities). Well you can imagine my surprise when I started getting overdue notices. But I brushed them off thinking, well I must have just forgotten to pay somehow I'll do it now. So I sent the wrong company more money. Pretty soon the colour of paper for my overdue notices changed - a sign that something was drastically wrong.

When I called to find out what was going on, the person I talked to was very understanding and said that it happens quite frequently. It did somewhat bother me though to hear that if it's not paid within only a couple weeks they're going to cut the cord. Understandable from a business point of view, but kind of rude given the particular situation from a customer service point of view.

I still need to go to the bank and see what I need to do to get back the $400+ from the my old gas service providers. I hope the process is quick and easy to that I can use that money to pay the correct people. Who would have thought something as simple as changing to a fixed gas rate could result in almost having the heat cut off.