Just got charged for reading it

[sevan@lemmy.ca]

It drives me nuts that my state has "deregulated" natural gas. All natural gas in the region is supplied to every home by a single company (the same one as before deregulation). I pay at least $35 a month all year just for the privilege of being connected to it.

BUT, I don't actually do business with that company. I get to pick from a dozen companies that all provide front-end billing for my natural gas. They advertise how much they will charge per therm used (plus an admin fee), but that price is on top of what I pay to the company actually providing gas. If I have an issue with the gas, the supplier comes out to deal with it, not the company I pay every month. And, I have to change companies every 6-24 months to maintain the advertised rates, otherwise they increase my cost after the new customer price expires. Its fake competition that added an extra step to the process and increases prices compared to the regulated version that used to exist.

[taleya@aussie.zone]

Stage one.
Stage two.
Service fees.
Other.
(E)

[hikermick@lemmy.world]

No billing fee?

[misterfrog@lemmy.world]

Your country had better have a state owned grid, with a state run retailer, else this is still the same sort of shit, just without hidden fees.

Sincerely, an annoyed Victorian/Australian that wishes their electricity was just managed by the state.

There may be no hidden fees where I'm from, but when there's a private company with a monopoly, what's the difference?

Capitalism/privatisation is such a scam

[twice_hatch@midwest.social]

My bill in Illinois isn't like this. There's a couple fees to stay hooked into the grid and then a flat rate per unit energy

Variable rate would be nicer but I'm too busy to set it up

[calavera@lemm.ee]

Nothing beats Portugal:

• Kwh rate
• Social electricity finance tax
• General economic costs fee
• Infrastructure utilization fee
• Energy and geology exploration tax
• Electricity consumption Special tax
• Audiovisual contribution
• Sales tax

[calavera@lemm.ee]

Wtf that's expensive

[strider@lemmy.world]

Yeah we're working on avoiding any kind of "Energiewende"

[ryedaft@sh.itjust.works]

Audiovisual contribution? I love it 10/10 no notes

[calavera@lemm.ee]

It's to finance the Portuguese version of BBC. Called RTP. The funny part is that it's also used for the sales tax calculation, so there is a tax fee