Washington Gas

INSPECT YOUR BILLS. What is going on? Over bill $ 2000 + for the year
Washington Gas demanded that I make a deposit of $ 500 at the end of 2010. I called in July 2015 requesting the return of my deposit. WS told me to call back in 2 months. In Dec I called back. WG said it had no record of my deposit. WHAT?!
Good thing I paid all my bills via checks. (I highly recommend NOT paying with cash. You will see why later.) I found that for the year 2010 I paid a total of 3,496.29, about $ 2000 higher than normal. I’d called WG complaining of the high bill and think that maybe there is a leak by the meter. WS came out and declared there was no leak. My normal bill for the summer, EVERY SINGLE YEAR, prior to 2010 AND AFTER 2010 average less than $ 30 a month, yet, for 2010 they were over $ 160 each month. I demanded WG to look into WHY my bills were so high. Great job I did! WG made me shell out $ 500 deposit…
So, I went back tracking down all my payments to WG since the year 2009 trying to prove that I paid this $ 500 deposit. A check of $ 500 paid to WG on Jan 4^th 2011. Oh, but how do I prove that this $ 500 was just a payment for the bills? I had to pull out ALL the checks I paid to WG since 2009. I asked WG to provide me with all my bills since the year 2009.
WG sent me a summary of all my usages and monthly bill since the year 2009.
Wonderful. Everything matched up, EXCEPT FOR THE YEAR 2010.
Ok. The left column is how much WG said what it billed me. The one on the right of the month is what I actually paid. For example, in July WG said it billed me 24.23. I paid 175.83
WHY DID I PAID MORE? BECAUSE THEY SENT ME THE BILLS (IN 2010) SAYING THOSE WERE THE AMOUNTS I OWED. i kept arguing and at the end they made me put up a deposit.
Again, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 the record they sent me matched up with my payments exactly, ONLY 2010. I don’t keep the monthly copies of the bills they sent, but these are the amounts I paid with checks.
ANY BODY KNOWS WHAT IS GOING ON???
2010 2010
129.02 bill from Dec 2009
432.29 Jan 528.98

358.87 Feb 638.35
54.23 Mar 373.93
42.78 Apri 314.88
28.22 May 187.66
27.22 Jun 128.2
24.23 July 175.83
18.06 Aug 125.58
20.6 9 Sep 120.36
34.98 Oct 203.43
131.2 Nov 110.05
8-​Dec 118.8
1401.7 3496.29
344.59 20-​Dec bill pay in 2011

Their website is the worst, I find it impossible to see or even pay my bill — so I have to call to do it. And the soonest they can send me a receipt is 14 days by email. They are definitely not user friendly.

Should be zero stars simply because their website makes it so hard to pay a bill or set-​up auto pay.

I wish I could give this utility company negative stars. I moved into my apartment at the end of JULY. When I tried to establish a gas account, I was told no, I couldn’t establish an account because the previous tenants had a) not told them they were moving out and b) racked up a bill of over $ 1000 (probably not very professional to have shared that detail with me). Okay, so what does that have to do with me? The representative said that I would have to send a copy of my lease as well as copies of two forms of ID so I WOULDN’T BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PREVIOUS TENANT’S BILL. Are you kidding me??? Ok, I’ll play the game. Since July, the leasing office has faxed my information SIX TIMES to this company, and every time I call to see if they received the information, nope, they can’t find it anywhere. So, it looks like I will have to take a day off of work (only open M-​F) to drive to one of their locations to fix this problem BECAUSE WASHINGTON GAS IS SO INCOMPETENT. Sad, sad, sad.

Wish I could add some «I don’t know what all the complaints are about» review, but alas, I cannot. I also posted this in the DC location.
We moved into our home in June, 2015. All the homes in our neighborhood have lampposts out front, but ours was never on. After a month or so I took a look and realized it had a broken mantle in it. We decided instead of having to purchase a new one and pay a monthly fee to turn our light on, we would convert the head of the lamp to solar and be done with it… wish it were that simple.
Purchased the solar lamp post head in July and were super eager to get it on there so we weren’t the lame, lightless neighbors. But hubby went out to detach the head and realized it’s still connected to a gas line. He asked the former owner about it and he said he had Washington Gas disconnect it years ago, so we should be safe. Well, hubby tried to disconnect the lamppost head from the post but could hear «something» and feel fairly certain it wasn’t actually disconnected, and he didn’t feel safe doing so himself, so we decided to err on the side of caution.
In comes Washington Gas customer service. I called in early August. After a long conversation that lasted about 45 minutes with them coming on and off the phone every 2 – 3 minutes apologizing for the wait but never telling me anything, we ultimately came to the conclusion that a technician would call me.
I wait 2 weeks and nothing happens, so I call back on the 20^th of August. She says let’s make an appointment… my first available is September 21 – I thought, really? A month to get out here to do this simple task? Ok, I guess, since I have no options, sure, I’ll put it on my calendar.
So the 21^st rolls around and I wait all day, having no idea what time to anticipate the technician. I called them to ask, an they said the window was «anytime before 5.» Awesome. So I waited all day. Nobody ever showed, I called at about 4:45 and she assured me it could be anytime before 5, still. Whatever.
I call back the next morning, and asked what happened. Now the story changed to, «well, this sort of service call can sometimes need up to 45 days to be serviced,» to which I responded, «then why did I have an appointment yesterday?» She apologized for the miscommunication and said to wait until 45 days had passed, which, if we were taking into account my first call in early August, had already passed, but whatever.
Randomly, across the street about a week later, there was a gas leak. I sweet talked one of the technicians into trying to disconnect the lamppost for me, sort of just a la carte off the record, but he tested the post and said it did indeed have live gas, so he couldn’t do it. For the record, he was nice and would have done the work no questions asked if the gas line had been truly cut off like the former owners thought it had been. In hindsight, I’m sure Washington Gas told them they had disconnected it years ago, and they probably just never knew the difference since they never lit the lamp.
So I called back on October 5 (the magical «day 45»), and that guy said «oh, yes, I can see you’ve been waiting a long time for this, I will put you in a priority position to get it done.» So, basically, just more BS to tide me over and get me off the phone.
I called back the 8^th and asked again just because I didn’t want the entire week to go by without hassling them, and she started looking at my record and said my bill was due, to which I said, «I’ll pay you once you do this work for me,» and she said «I don’t understand, we provide you with gas,» and that just set me off, I have never sworn at a customer service agent until that day, but ugh, I hate being so frustrated! She said, «oh, I see you have an appointment on September 21,» to which she then realized «oh, shit, that was almost 3 weeks ago… then she put me on hold. Then she made up some bs «well, you have to call the contractor who does this job.» So I asked for her supervisor, and she said he would call me back. I’m sure, I’ll be waiting on pins and needles.
I got home and just for kicks and giggles, I called again to see what customer service agent #2 in the same day would have to tell me. She said «they already performed that service,» to which I said «that is bullshit, I just had somebody three days ago supposedly dispatch another technician to fulfill the job, can you see why I wouldn’t believe you?» She kept putting me on hold and came back with some lame story about «oh, he did an inspection, not the work you requested.» She gave me the number to their razing department, and I tried to call, but got a voicemail, so I am guessing it’s a new game of voicemail tag with another division of this awesome company.
So, here I am, waiting, still. I just want a lamppost that emits light, not to stay on hold and be told another story day after day. This isn’t a difficult job nor am I a mean person, but this company is a joke.

I don’t know how they get away with all the things they do.
They dig up a sidewalk next to us 4 months ago but nobody came to fix it.
It’s a trip hazard!!!
I call and call again but nobody cares!
I don’t know what to do.

Unreal…
Wish I could give 0 stars, because although that is supreme punishment for a review, this place has brought me there. Today within 2 hours I got to talk to a few unique characters.
So the first person I could sort of understand, but whenever I asked a question I swear she would just poof! Where’d she go? Would not answer any of my questions at all, just stopped talking and then would either regurgitate information like a hyena pukes a meal or just pause and not say anything. At one point it I had to see if she was still on phone, after 4 seconds of not talking, then 2 seconds after I asked if she was there she goes «yes sir»…LOL get real…
Best part about this lady is my love and I are moving into an apartment the 31^st, I told her this. She scheduled me to start services today the 28^th. I said no I move in the 31^st, and she still did the 28^th anyways.
The second person I talked to was the slug. This guy did not give one single s*** about having a job. His tone of voice was so rigid yet lazy, as if answering this phone call interupted something important he was doing, which is interesting because I am assuming his job is to answer the phone. Fortunately he changed my «start service date» to the 31^st, but man was this an atrocious call from a customer service standpoint.
The 3^rd call was meant for a manager. First I had to get through Sudan or India before I could reach one. She was very nice, except I could not understand a word she was saying, and I had to spell out everything she asked for letter for letter. After attempting to transfer me to a manager two times, they said they would call me back today. This was at 3:30. It is now 11:00 pm.
This is all me trying to set up my gas for apartment. If your looking of proof why monopoly’s can be detrimental, Washington Gas ladies and gentlemen. *Applaud*

Washington Gas is one of the very bad utility company. I sent payment ontime. But they send my information to collection company that this is a non-​payment account. Collection company sent this information to credit bureau, that destroyed my credit history. I applied for loan but my loan do not get approved that I have a report from Washington gas. I contact with the Washington gas that I paid ontime, why you sent my information to collection company. They could not give me any right answer. They said they will fix this issue that they made an error. But they never fix this issue.
This company is giving hard time to the customer for nothing. Very bad utility company in this area.

Boo, Hiss. This is a Monopoly with nobody watching. How can a State Agency paid to oversee Monopolies not act? Poor Website, doesn’t work. Poor handling of calls, nobody should have to press one for English… really? And don’t expect not to pay to have a reading of the meter… they won’t use the last reading of the previous customer and you pay them to read and call in… how do they trust you for that??? My first and lasting impression is they will not lead the way to good customer service. A real turn-​off.

Bulies, monopoly, anti-​small business. Nothing anyone can do — truly horrendous.

If I could give Washington Gas zero stars I would. I am a new customer and smelled gas on my property on November 12^th. I will say they quickly responded to the leak, but when they needed to turn off my gas to make repairs, no one called to inform me this was happening. My husband came home around 5:00pm to find my gas turned off and no technician available until November 13^th to come out a relight my gas. I took an entire day off on the 13^th because I was told a technician would arrive between 7:00am and 5:00pm, which is the longest service window I have ever been given. I called at 8:00am, Noon, and 4:00pm with no technician in sight. My husband called at 5:00pm and the supervisor told us someone would be out by 9:00pm. At 10:00pm when we realized no technician was coming and the office was closed we began to pull out our space heaters and extra blankets. Last week the temperatures went from the 60’s on Wednesday to the low 50’s by Friday and in the teens in some cases at night. Finally after 45 hours without heat and no where else to go since we own an animal at 12:30pm on Friday, November 14^th our gas was relight.
I know that emergencies happen and the bumps people down the list, but the entire appointment to relight my gas took the technician 10 minutes. You cannot tell me that on Wednesday night before closing or at anytime on Thursday that a technician did not have 10 minutes to spare in their day to stop by. This is completely unprofessional and just unacceptable with the temperatures changing so drastically in just a matter of days.

Just had Jeff from Washington Gas spend about 45 minutes giving us a full blown lesson on how gas works and safety issues. This is absolutely THE BEST service person we have ever had do any work on our house. I would have given ZERO stars for Washington Gas if it wasn’t for him — he did some significant service recovery. Otherwise — the rest of their customer service sucks! For the second time our gas got cut off because our lines are crossed with our neighbors so when their gas gets cut off it is actually ours. They came out and «fixed» this once before. This time it has taken three days of hours of phone calls to finally get the gas back on. The customer service reps were awful — they made every bad customer service comment you can imagine and we had to keep escalation to managers to finally get something done. So Jeff was outstanding — but the rest needs a lot of work!

Here is my crazy story of Washington Gas. I wish I could say it is a warning story, but a lot of you have no choice!
I love online payment, so when I bought a house in this area, I signed up for everything online, including Washington Gas.
I set up auto pay for all my accounts, and figured I was safe. I also set everything up for e-​billing to be green.
I noticed on my statement that I hadn’t been charged anything for Washington Gas and knew that couldn’t be right.
So I went to log into my account and it was disabled for non-​payment. I had to call them at this point. They said there was a problem in their system that disconnected some people’s automatic payment. They said I would have received a late notice, but I had ebilling and they disabled online accounts for non-​payment. So I wasn’t getting the e-​bill for my non-​payment because of my non-​payment.
I asked if I could pay my bill right now. She said because one was late, I would have to pay both bills at once. I said great, I would like to pay both bills at once.
She said that I couldn’t pay that amount over the phone and would have to do it online. I said great, let me pay it online. She told me I could not have my online access back until I paid the bill.
I asked if I should mail in a payment and she said our gas was in danger of being shut off if they didn’t have it immediately.
So I asked if I can pay a piece of my bill over the phone. She said I could. So I paid a piece over the phone. You can only make one payment per day, so I called each day to pay my bill. (It was the coldest part of winter, so it was unusually high).
I got my next bill (now in paper form) and immediately paid it online.
The day after I paid my bill, I got a notice that I owed $ 440 and my service would be cut off in a few days if I didn’t pay it.
I went through every amount I had paid and everything I had owed, and I was extremely up to date. I finally called them. They told me because of my late payment and unusual way of paying it (a little each day), I was going to be charged a deposit of $ 440.
I mentioned I hadn’t received anything other than the discontinuation notice.
*She said that’s because they haven’t sent it yet.*
So I was going to get disconnected for not paying a bill that I did not receive yet.
I paid the $ 440 online and received the bill for that a few days later. The due date on the bill was after the date they said they would shut off our service.
Okay, so they have lots of my money now. Everything’s fine, right?
I received a bill in the mail saying I over paid my last bill by $ 440 and that I should not send payment this month.
I log onto my account online. The bill there says I owe payment for this month.
I give up. Seriously, Washington Gas, take all my money. Just please don’t hurt my credit.

Awful. Completely awful. Washington Gas is so lucky they have a monopoly. Maybe that’s why there customer service is horrible.
Don’t worry about setting up an appointment with them to do anything (like read your meter) because they won’t show up anyway. Even after you call to confirm. The people who answer the phone use circular arguments so you get no where with them. We waited for over 40 minutes trying to talk to a supervisor… and they did nothing to help.
I can’t express how awful this company is at customer service. Good luck… what other choice to you have?

I have no idea if it is this branch of Washington Gas that deals with my account, but the company in general has the worst customer service you can find. I have been left on hold twice for an hour and was eventually disconnected. I wrote an email online to try and get through with still no response. Finally, I filled out a survey they sent me on how I felt about their customer service (can you believe it!!!). You can imagine what I said and despite once again putting my contact information into the survey, I still have heard from no one. Does Washington Gas exist?

Horrible website, horrible e-​bill system, bad customer service. I updated my bank account information on the website, and it shows as updated, but their e-​bill system never recognized the update and kept trying to pull from my old bank account. After explaining to them for 20 minutes what had happened, they kept saying they’d refund the $ 25 returned check fee, but they never actually refunded it until I called back again to straighten that out. Then the whole thing happened again the next month after they had claimed to fix it. What should have been a 3-​minute transaction to change my bank account information turned into 3 hours with customer service on multiple calls over multiple weeks, and it’s still not over. Like somebody else said, you’ll want to chuck your computer out the window after dealing with them.
By the way, don’t sit through their god-​awful phone menus that then hang up on you. Just keep hitting zero until somebody comes on the line. Don’t bother with e-​mail service, I tried many times and never got a response.
Update 1÷14÷13: After three months of constant calling, they finally got it right with all of the fees refunded and with the autopay pulling from the right bank account. The customer service people were always very polite and attempted to be helpful, but it just didn’t work most of the time.

Washington Gas has got to be the worst company ever. I would seriously not buy a house if I found out that I had to have Washington Gas. When I lived in an apartment a few years back they didn’t seem to understand that the company running the complex had forgoten to switch the gas bill over to me and when they did I paid them what I owed them and then the bill was to switch to me. Washington Gas tried to charge me for the same amount of money I had already paid the complex. Lucky for me the apartment owners were willing to write me a check for the amount I paid them.
Now the company I work for is being screwed by Washington Gas. They claim the meter is now reading in the 9000. Before that it was in the 8,000, but in reality the meter is reading in the 6,000 and they refuse to send someone out to look at it. I tweeted this photo as proof yesterday.
It is too bad Washington Gas doesn’t have any online presence or they could be shamed into doing the right thing.

HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE!
I’m sure everyone who has dealt with Washington Gas probably doesn’t have anything good to say. I just wish they have a competitor and not a monopoly. Their customer service is absolutely horrible. They put me on hold for 40+ minutes. I asked for a supervisor on duty and was refused everytime by putting me on hold. This was as a result of a $ 25 fee that was charged to my account that was THEIR mistake, and they wouldn’t take it off! Some other gas company needs to come in to NoVa so that they don’t have a monopoly! This is absolutely ridiculous!

Another HORRIBLE experience from a resident in Arlington.
I took off work to wait all day in a cold house with no heat or hot water. I waited for the call they promised me and didn’t get a single ring. Waited for a knock on the door but didn’t hear anything either.
Called later in the day. They say the tech called my house at 9:30am and didn’t get an answer so now they have to reschedule me until tomorrow. Either they’re lying or incompetent as my phone was next to me all day, and records show that no call was made. I asked what assurance do I have that this won’t happen again because I did everything that I was told to do. The cust. service rep based in the Philippines was of no help at all, and was definitely not sympathetic of my situation.
So now I have to check back in to a hotel so I won’t freeze to death like that woman in Maryland did after her gas was shut off in the cold. Also have to take another day off work. Worst company I have ever dealt with. Must be great to not have any competition.

I’ve now just discovered that I’ve got the same problem I had with Verizon — Washington Gas opened up a new account for my new home in Haymarket, but never closed or transferred the old account. So I’ve been sending payment to the account number that was supposed to have been terminated.
Argggghhhhhhh! Gonna have to call them tomorrow — I am NOT looking forward to this. They recently hired a company to redo their web site and their phone system — AT EVERY SINGLE PROMPT on the phone system — they repeat OVER and OVER — something like «if this is a gas emergency — do such and such.» You fricking morons — if I have a gas emergency, and I hear your instructions the first time — I am going to follow them!
BUT NO! You seem to think that I will continue to putz around your phone tree — maybe if I listen to your emergency recommendation — say, oh maybe 10 times or so, I will all of the sudden decide to follow your instructions and report a gas leak!