Patrick McNally: Mad About Utility Costs

Verizon announced that it would charge it's customers a $2.00 fee for paying their bill by credit card, and within a day, dropped plans after a huge outcry. Bank of America was set to charge a $5.00 monthly ATM fee, and also dropped it after a loud response.

Why then, do the people of Canton, tolerate the water department charging a $5.95 fee for you to pay your bill online with a credit card? Every company in the world is trying to promote buying and paying for items online because it is more cost effective. As a business owner, I see the fees charged by the credit card processing companies, BUT THIS IS NOT A NEW CHARGE! We have been charged this fee for decades!

Companies have built this fee into their cost of goods, and now, they are getting greedy and adding on another fee that they have built in for decades! Did they lower the sell price of their products to reflect this fee breakout-no, so companies are double dipping. Shame on free market companies, but the consumer is free to choose competitors. It's horrible that a public utility, a monopoly, has chosen to do this.

The change that the water department did on the billing during these tough economic times is appalling! Again, this is a public utility, a monopoly, and to flex their muscles is disgusting and reflects poorly on the quality of the community known as Canton. I know that there are people who may be slow paying or behind on their water bill, but their new policy goes against all principles of humanity.

If your water bill is not paid by the date due, they will turn off your water. Then, since you have no water, they will take away the certificate of occupancy and forcibly remove you from the building (your home). Doesn't Canton have enough empty homes, businesses (look down the precious Ford Road corridor at the empty Big Boy, or Roman Coliseum, etc.) or warehouses? When did the Sheriff of Nottingham get hired to run the water department?

DTE was able to change the competitive nature in Michigan by lobbying to remove any competition so that they can count a certain amount of rooftops to finance improvements to the infrastructure. They run full page ads in newspapers, ads on TV and radio, and they are a monopoly. It's not like we have a choice and they are trying to get us to use their services. They petitioned the MPSC in the spring for a rate hike on electricity rates, just in time for the air conditioning season, and just recently petitioned the MSPC for a rate hike on gas, just in time for the winter heating season. How does our utility monopoly benefit, from charging us a $5 fee for non-paying customers, rate hikes, and no competition?  Via Detroit News, Nov. 5, 2011, "DTE reports jump in 3Q earnings over 2010" -- $183 million in earnings for the third quarter of 2011. Projected out: almost a billion dollar in earnings in a year.

I am not a OWS person, I run a business. And, as a business owner, it is the purpose of a business to record a profit, to pay for employees, utilities, a dividend for the stockholders if they have any, and to provide for expansion and growth. But, excessive profits at the expense of the working class?

Shame on utilities like DTE, and shame on public government utilities like Canton Township Water. The Sheriff of Nottingham wore a tin star, what metal is your sheriff star made of?

To submit a letter to the editor for Canton Patch, email john.mckay@patch.com.