Hi. Every month, I have my electric bill (I live in Michigan; my
electricity provider is DTE) emailed to me. I usually pay the bill
online when I get email that it's ready to be paid. Unfortunately my
emailed bills got tagged as spam for 3 months, and I didn't realize it.
As a result, I didn't pay my electric bill for 3 months. I got a "last
resort" paper bill from DTE (and a disconnection notice!!) last week,
and I promptly paid the bill.

But that isn't the problem. The problem is this: Because of the unpaid
bills, I'm almost sure that DTE has put some bad information on my
credit report. This is really upsetting to me, because until now, my
credit report was perfect, and was my bargaining chip for lots of
things. I have a 13-year credit history with a score in the high 700's.

What can I do to reverse this? Who do I talk to in order to explain
that it was a total mishap? To whom do I explain that my email is
fixed, and that it'll never happen again? Do I talk to the credit
bureau? (Which one?) Do I talk to DTE? Do I talk to the 3rd party
company that handles the ebilling, MyCheckFree?

It's all such a mess now, and I don't want to be on the phone for 3
hours with mean people. Please help.


Thanks,
Roger Carlson

Roger Carlson wrote:
Hi. Every month, I have my electric bill (I live in Michigan; my
electricity provider is DTE) emailed to me. I usually pay the bill
online when I get email that it's ready to be paid. Unfortunately my
emailed bills got tagged as spam for 3 months, and I didn't realize it.
As a result, I didn't pay my electric bill for 3 months. I got a "last
resort" paper bill from DTE (and a disconnection notice!!) last week,
and I promptly paid the bill.

But that isn't the problem. The problem is this: Because of the unpaid
bills, I'm almost sure that DTE has put some bad information on my
credit report. This is really upsetting to me, because until now, my
credit report was perfect, and was my bargaining chip for lots of
things. I have a 13-year credit history with a score in the high 700's.

What can I do to reverse this? Who do I talk to in order to explain
that it was a total mishap? To whom do I explain that my email is
fixed, and that it'll never happen again? Do I talk to the credit
bureau? (Which one?) Do I talk to DTE? Do I talk to the 3rd party
company that handles the ebilling, MyCheckFree?

It's all such a mess now, and I don't want to be on the phone for 3
hours with mean people. Please help.


Thanks,
Roger Carlson

First, check your credit report to see if it is there. If it is
contact the company to explain what happened and ask then to retract the
report. If that fails then contact the credit bureau. By law they must
include you explanation in the report.
My guess is that it was not reported. In the 80's when phone costs
were still high I worked at home and huge phone bills. I often made
partial/late payments and got warning notices. I was never disconnected
and nothing was on my report.

--
To reply via e-mail please delete 1 c from paccbell

P.S. In varies from state to state but in California a customer in
good standing (defined as someone who has not had service cut off in the
last 12 months) can not be cut off until the past due amount exceeds
twice the average monthly bill.
--
To reply via e-mail please delete 1 c from paccbell

RC What can I do to reverse this? Who do I talk to in order to explain
RC that it was a total mishap?

Call collections department of the energy company and ask if they sent the
information to your credit file. Most likely they did not.

If things like this happen, get a program like Microsoft Money or Quicken,
or at least create some reminder for yourself to periodically check
mycheckfree site.

regards

In all I wouldn't be real worried about this. In my experience,
utilities don't usually report to credit rating agencies. And even if
they did report it, there isn't too much you can do about it. You
aren't going to get it removed because it is what it is. You were 3
months late paying. As someone pointed out, you can provide your side
and have the credit reporting agencies add it to the file. You'd have
to do that with all three. But I doubt it's worth it, as if this is
the only thing on an otherwise perfect record, I doubt it will make any
real difference to lenders, with or without the explanation.

I'd ask the utility if they reported this against your credit rating.
I'd also ask them about setting up an automatic draft plan - I did it
with all my utilities - peace of mind if going out of town etc. -

"val189" wrote in message
oups.com...
I'd ask the utility if they reported this against your credit rating.
I'd also ask them about setting up an automatic draft plan

Great idea. Next, open up a joint checking account with the first stranger
you see walking down the street. -Dave

"Mike T." wrote in message
reenews.net...

"val189" wrote in message
oups.com...
I'd ask the utility if they reported this against your credit rating.
I'd also ask them about setting up an automatic draft plan

Great idea. Next, open up a joint checking account with the first
stranger you see walking down the street. -Dave

Actually what the OP could check is if they have an option to put it on a
credit card automatically. This assumes that one does not have problems
with credit card debt or the like (sounds like the OP does not). This also
preserves a recourse if there are billing problems. I have this setup on
many of my bills (heating oil, cable, cell phone...) and it works for me
well.

I would not let them go straight into my bank account, no way for me. The
only bill that I let do that is my mortgage. The credit card provides that
insular layer, and when one pays it off in full every time there is no
additional cost.
Tomes

"Tomes" writes:

I would not let them go straight into my bank account, no way for me. The
only bill that I let do that is my mortgage. The credit card provides that
insular layer, and when one pays it off in full every time there is no
additional cost.

And a ****load of frequent flier miles. :-)

--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

"Todd H." wrote in message ...


And a ****load of frequent flier miles. :-)

Which are about as useful as a plane-full of ****

debit my account for $433.00 instead of $43.00

It can be worse than that. There was case at Wendy'sin the news where
the clerk
absent-mindedly typed in the four numbers twice in a row,
so the bill was about ten thousand times higher. Messed you
the customer's bank account for a while.

The real problem I see is trusting your spam filter without checking
on what IT is calling spam.
I love the "junk mail" system that Netscape gives me, but I ALWAYS
scan quickly through the junk file. Occasionally I find something is
NOT junk going there, and relabel it not-junk.
But then, I always check my credit card bill against receipts; perhaps
others don't do these kinds of things. --Phil

Roger Carlson wrote:
Hi. Every month, I have my electric bill (I live in Michigan; my
electricity provider is DTE) emailed to me. I usually pay the bill
online when I get email that it's ready to be paid. Unfortunately my
emailed bills got tagged as spam for 3 months, and I didn't realize it.
As a result, I didn't pay my electric bill for 3 months. I got a "last
resort" paper bill from DTE (and a disconnection notice!!) last week,
and I promptly paid the bill.

But that isn't the problem. The problem is this: ...

--
Phil Munro Dept of Electrical & Computer Engin
Youngstown State University
Youngstown, Ohio 44555

George Grapman wrote:
Roger Carlson wrote:
Hi. Every month, I have my electric bill (I live in Michigan; my
electricity provider is DTE) emailed to me. I usually pay the bill
online when I get email that it's ready to be paid. Unfortunately my
emailed bills got tagged as spam for 3 months, and I didn't realize it.
As a result, I didn't pay my electric bill for 3 months. I got a "last
resort" paper bill from DTE (and a disconnection notice!!) last week,
and I promptly paid the bill.

But that isn't the problem. The problem is this: Because of the unpaid
bills, I'm almost sure that DTE has put some bad information on my
credit report. This is really upsetting to me, because until now, my
credit report was perfect, and was my bargaining chip for lots of
things. I have a 13-year credit history with a score in the high 700's.

What can I do to reverse this? Who do I talk to in order to explain
that it was a total mishap? To whom do I explain that my email is
fixed, and that it'll never happen again? Do I talk to the credit
bureau? (Which one?) Do I talk to DTE? Do I talk to the 3rd party
company that handles the ebilling, MyCheckFree?

It's all such a mess now, and I don't want to be on the phone for 3
hours with mean people. Please help.


Thanks,
Roger Carlson

First, check your credit report to see if it is there. If it is
contact the company to explain what happened and ask then to retract the
report. If that fails then contact the credit bureau. By law they must
include you explanation in the report.
My guess is that it was not reported. In the 80's when phone costs
were still high I worked at home and huge phone bills. I often made
partial/late payments and got warning notices. I was never disconnected
and nothing was on my report.

They were just goosing you.

W : )

"Steve Foley" writes:

"Todd H." wrote in message ...


And a ****load of frequent flier miles. :-)

Which are about as useful as a plane-full of ****

My AA FF miles gathered via their associated citi card is sending me
for free cross country for doing nothing but paying my utility bills
for teh past years, so I'd say it's at least slighly more useful than
a plane full of ****.

Though I'm out of touch with manure futures, so perhaps a plane full
of **** is worth a lot more than $250. I guess it depends on the
size of the plane and the animal from which the **** came from?

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

Dude

Your credit is ruined for life. This will stay on your record until
you die. There is no escaping it. Death is your only recourse.
Then again, if you are reborn, it will still be on your record.

On 10 Apr 2006 15:03:58 -0700, "Roger Carlson"
wrote:

Hi. Every month, I have my electric bill (I live in Michigan; my
electricity provider is DTE) emailed to me. I usually pay the bill
online when I get email that it's ready to be paid. Unfortunately my
emailed bills got tagged as spam for 3 months, and I didn't realize it.
As a result, I didn't pay my electric bill for 3 months. I got a "last
resort" paper bill from DTE (and a disconnection notice!!) last week,
and I promptly paid the bill.

But that isn't the problem. The problem is this: Because of the unpaid
bills, I'm almost sure that DTE has put some bad information on my
credit report. This is really upsetting to me, because until now, my
credit report was perfect, and was my bargaining chip for lots of
things. I have a 13-year credit history with a score in the high 700's.

What can I do to reverse this? Who do I talk to in order to explain
that it was a total mishap? To whom do I explain that my email is
fixed, and that it'll never happen again? Do I talk to the credit
bureau? (Which one?) Do I talk to DTE? Do I talk to the 3rd party
company that handles the ebilling, MyCheckFree?

It's all such a mess now, and I don't want to be on the phone for 3
hours with mean people. Please help.


Thanks,
Roger Carlson

"Todd H." wrote in message ...
"Steve Foley" writes:

"Todd H." wrote in message ...


And a ****load of frequent flier miles. :-)

Which are about as useful as a plane-full of ****

My AA FF miles gathered via their associated citi card is sending me
for free cross country for doing nothing but paying my utility bills
for teh past years, so I'd say it's at least slighly more useful than
a plane full of ****.

Though I'm out of touch with manure futures, so perhaps a plane full
of **** is worth a lot more than $250. I guess it depends on the
size of the plane and the animal from which the **** came from?



If AA is anything like Continental, you have to fly on the 5th Thursday of
the month, but only if it's a full moon, and you can fly to Abilene, TX or
Bugtussle, Arkansas as long as you return on the 31st of February.

Continental FFM are a joke!




---
avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean.
Virus Database (VPS): 0615-1, 04/11/2006
Tested on: 4/11/2006 7:07:35 PM
avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2006 ALWIL Software.
http://www.avast.com

(Todd H.) wrote:

Though I'm out of touch with manure futures, so perhaps a plane full
of **** is worth a lot more than $250. I guess it depends on the
size of the plane and the animal from which the **** came from?

Go to Homey Despot and price black cow. A planeful of **** is a
valuable commodity. As for flying and FFM? I can't say. I refused
to fly starting back about 1999. I got too ****ed off at the
stupidity of the system. When pilots declare an approach and "seat
belts on" a full 1.5 hours prior to landing, and stewards and
stewardesses start acting like gestapo on the rest room passes, and
demand you stay in your POS seat, enough is enough.

On Mon, 10 Apr 2006 22:19:23 GMT, George Grapman
wrote:

report. If that fails then contact the credit bureau. By law they must
include you explanation in the report.

For practical purposes, that isn't true. The FICO credit score is all
that really matters. And your explanation won't have any impact at
all on your FICO credit score.

Credit bureaus and FICO are like a court. They judge whether people
have good or bad credit, by taking into account everything everyone
says to them. But they take into account what the creditors say a
lot more than what the debtors say. In other words, they're a biased
court. They don't have the same legal constraints as most courts, so
it's perfectly legal for them to be heavily biased. They generally
take the word of the creditors without question, and almost
automatically reject whatever the debtors say.

A big part of our freedom depends on having unbiased courts. The
credit court is one of our most important, for practical purposes, as
it can determine what class you're in, such as middle class, etc.
Therefore a huge chunk of our freedom has, for practical purposes,
been taken away by our credit system.

People who are unwilling to defend their freedom don't deserve it
anyway. If the American people weren't such docile sheep, the credit
bureaus and FICO would have been sued successfully so many times that
none of them would exist anymore.

So don't bother to put an explanation on your credit report. It just
shows that you don't understand. It's like a cockroach trying to
explain to a person with bug spray why the bug spray is unfair. The
cockroach doesn't bother to try to explain, because, being far more
intelligent than most Americans, he knows the person wouldn't hear him
anyway.

If that cockroach wants to have one chance in hell of getting a fair
deal, he has to explain to a judge why he thinks bug spray is
unhealthy. He can't do it by attaching an explanation to his credit
report.

"C. Massey" writes:

If AA is anything like Continental,

Happily it's not. :-)

--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

Actually, I have been rather successful with my Continental miles (my
sh-tload). One just needs to plan ahead and set the trip on the day that
they start taking miles for that trip. The miles is the other benefit of
the credit card usage indeed. I use it for everything and pay it all on
time.
Tomes

"Todd H." wrote in message ...
"C. Massey" writes:

If AA is anything like Continental,

Happily it's not. :-)

--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

I'd also ask them about setting up an automatic draft
plan - I did it
with all my utilities - peace of mind if going out of
town etc. -

Peace of mind? Knowing that some incompetent clerk at an
uncaring
company can dip into my checking account at will? Maybe
hit an extra
key by accident and debit my account for $433.00 instead
of $43.00?

Give me a break!

Forget automatic payment schemes - programs like
Microsoft Money
automatically remind you when bills are due so you'll
know to pay
them, even if you never got the bill. MM saved my ass a
couple of
months back when my homeowner's association screwed up
and didn't mail
out the quarterly bills to about half the homeowners.



i used to worry about this type of thing too, but now i
don't see it
as much of a concern and have many of my utilities paid
automatically via
CC or ACH. It's all automated... it's not like someone is
typing the
amount any more separately for the payment amount. The
bill is
generated way in advance & that same amount is getting
batch
transferred via computer for the ACH withdrawal.

i get the bills electronically 3 weeks in advance... so i
have plenty
of time to either get any errors resolved or to block ACH.
I've
never had an issue. My parents did have an issue a few
years
ago with Charter & refuse to do it with them, but it was a
long time
ago. Times and technology change.

i do my mortgage, gas, electric, TV, phone/DSL, & mobile
this
way. Only my trash & water do i do the traditional way, &
that's
because things aren't entirely electronic. My HOA i just
have
a monthly scheduled amount at the bank that gets sent on a
particular
day.

In article .com,
"Roger Carlson" wrote:

Hi. Every month, I have my electric bill (I live in Michigan; my
electricity provider is DTE) emailed to me. I usually pay the bill
online when I get email that it's ready to be paid. Unfortunately my
emailed bills got tagged as spam for 3 months, and I didn't realize it.
As a result, I didn't pay my electric bill for 3 months. I got a "last
resort" paper bill from DTE (and a disconnection notice!!) last week,
and I promptly paid the bill.

But that isn't the problem. The problem is this: Because of the unpaid
bills, I'm almost sure that DTE has put some bad information on my
credit report. This is really upsetting to me, because until now, my
credit report was perfect, and was my bargaining chip for lots of
things. I have a 13-year credit history with a score in the high 700's.

What can I do to reverse this? Who do I talk to in order to explain
that it was a total mishap? To whom do I explain that my email is
fixed, and that it'll never happen again? Do I talk to the credit
bureau? (Which one?) Do I talk to DTE? Do I talk to the 3rd party
company that handles the ebilling, MyCheckFree?

It's all such a mess now, and I don't want to be on the phone for 3
hours with mean people. Please help.

I suggest you check your credit record. You may find that this incident
has not been reported. If it has, you really have no choice but to call
in order to rectify the matter, but you should also send a written
request in order to preserve your rights.

In article et,
"Tomes" wrote:

"Mike T." wrote in message
reenews.net...

"val189" wrote in message
oups.com...
I'd ask the utility if they reported this against your credit rating.
I'd also ask them about setting up an automatic draft plan

Great idea. Next, open up a joint checking account with the first
stranger you see walking down the street. -Dave

Actually what the OP could check is if they have an option to put it on a
credit card automatically. This assumes that one does not have problems
with credit card debt or the like (sounds like the OP does not). This also
preserves a recourse if there are billing problems. I have this setup on
many of my bills (heating oil, cable, cell phone...) and it works for me
well.

I would not let them go straight into my bank account, no way for me. The
only bill that I let do that is my mortgage. The credit card provides that
insular layer, and when one pays it off in full every time there is no
additional cost.
Tomes

This is what I do. My phone and cable simply get charged to my credit
card. I have have been doing it that way for years. Its never been a
problem, ever. If I did have a problem, I would simply dispute the
charge and possibly close the credit card if it came down to it.

"anon" writes:
i used to worry about this type of thing too, but now i
don't see it
as much of a concern

Think again.

I used to pay my electric bill (NSTAR) by direct debit. One month, I
was going on vacation for several weeks and didn't want my account
debited while I was gone without my prior knowledge, so I called them
and told them to turn off the direct debit. When I came back, I found,
as expected, a bill indicating that I should send a check, which I did.
I then called them up and told them to resume direct debit next month.
What they did instead was direct debited me for *that* month, in
addition to the payment I'd already sent them and they'd already
processed, thus throwing my account out of whack (fortunately, I didn't
bounce any checks, but I certainly could have).

I complained to countless people at NSTAR about this. No one ever
acknowledged that it was unreasonable for them to direct debit a
payment for which they'd already sent someone a bill asking for payment
by check, and which had already been paid. Also, they insisted that it
would take 4-6 weeks to refund the overpayment, i.e., there was no
point to it because by then next month's charges would have been due,
so I was stuck without the use of my money (over $100, as I recall) for
a month.

I filed a complaint with the PUC about the fact that they took my money
without authorization, refused to refund it, and put me at risk of
bouncing checks. In the end, NSTAR gave me a credit of $25 for my
trouble. Whoopee.

Of course, I turned off the NSTAR direct debit and haven't used it
since.

I do still use direct debit for my other utilities, which haven't (yet)
screwed up one of my debits and then refused to acknowledge or fix the
problem. I'm not claiming that direct debit is totally evil; what I'm
saying is that you do need to be careful about it, and some utilities
are certainly better at getting it right than others.

wrote in message ...
On Mon, 10 Apr 2006 22:19:23 GMT, George Grapman
wrote:

report. If that fails then contact the credit bureau. By law they must
include you explanation in the report.

For practical purposes, that isn't true. The FICO credit score is all
that really matters. And your explanation won't have any impact at
all on your FICO credit score.

Credit bureaus and FICO are like a court.

Not even close. Judgements made by a court are legally binding. Judgements
made by FICO are just a number thrown out by a private party and are more
akin to product ratings issued by Consumer Reports or other consumer
publications.

Nothing forces a lender to pay any attention to FICO's "judgements" any more
than anyone forces you to pay attention to a Consumer Reports rating. And
nothing legally forces you do something based on a FICO. You might have
trouble getting people to let you use their money but it's not like you had
any fundamental right to use someone's money in the first place.

And the credit bureaus don't judge at all - they just provide a central
forum where investors in consumer lending can share their experiences (good
or bad) for others to judge whether lending to you would be a good
investment of their money, and they present those experiences in a
standardized format.

Consumers make decisions about buying and investing based on third party
reviews, unregulated consumer forums (like this one) and uncorroborated word
of mouth all the time. And they sure as hell give all that more weight than
anything the seller of the product has to say.

They only think that's unfair when the shoe's on the other foot and they're
the ones being judged.

"SpammersDie" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
...
On Mon, 10 Apr 2006 22:19:23 GMT, George Grapman
wrote:

report. If that fails then contact the credit bureau. By law they must
include you explanation in the report.

For practical purposes, that isn't true. The FICO credit score is all
that really matters. And your explanation won't have any impact at
all on your FICO credit score.

Credit bureaus and FICO are like a court.

Not even close. Judgements made by a court are legally binding. Judgements
made by FICO are just a number thrown out by a private party and are more
akin to product ratings issued by Consumer Reports or other consumer
publications.

Nothing forces a lender to pay any attention to FICO's "judgements" any
more than anyone forces you to pay attention to a Consumer Reports rating.

Uhhhh . . . his point (and it's a valid one) is that the FICO score is ALL
that matters. That's absolutely true. If your FICO score is not above a
certain number, then your "credit report" will never be seen by human eyes.
And, if your FICO score is HIGH ENOUGH, then your "credit report" will also
NEVER be seen by human eyes. -Dave

"Mike T." wrote in message
reenews.net...

"SpammersDie" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
...
On Mon, 10 Apr 2006 22:19:23 GMT, George Grapman
wrote:

report. If that fails then contact the credit bureau. By law they must
include you explanation in the report.

For practical purposes, that isn't true. The FICO credit score is all
that really matters. And your explanation won't have any impact at
all on your FICO credit score.

Credit bureaus and FICO are like a court.

Not even close. Judgements made by a court are legally binding.
Judgements made by FICO are just a number thrown out by a private party
and are more akin to product ratings issued by Consumer Reports or other
consumer publications.

Nothing forces a lender to pay any attention to FICO's "judgements" any
more than anyone forces you to pay attention to a Consumer Reports
rating.

Uhhhh . . . his point (and it's a valid one) is that the FICO score is ALL
that matters.

Valid or not, it doesn't change the fact that comparing FICO to a court is
completely wrong.They're simply an influential and widely-used investment
analyst service. Think of it as the equivalent of Morningstar for bonds
issued by individual consumers rather than cities or corporations.

Is your debt stressing you out? Need help? Well get ALL that unsecured
debt (credit cards, lines of credit, medical bills etc) negotiated and
settled. They eliminate ALL your interests rates and fees. Get out of
debt fast and improve your credit rating. This is NOT credit
counseling, debt consolidation, debt management or refinancing. It is
arbitration for your debts.

Call now for more information toll free at 1-800-705-0961 ( Ask for
Frankie) or visit them at http://www.fidelitydebt.com/

Is your debt stressing you out? Need help? Well get ALL that unsecured
debt (credit cards, lines of credit, medical bills etc) negotiated and
settled. We eliminate ALL your interests rates and fees. Get out of
debt fast and improve your credit rating. This is NOT credit
counseling, debt consolidation, debt management or refinancing. It is
arbitration for your debts.

Call now for more information toll free at 1-800-705-0961 ( Ask for
Frankie) or visit them at http://www.fidelitydebt.com/

If you are serious about getting out of debt we can definitely help.
Make that call now!!

"Geeman38" writes:

Is your debt stressing you out? Need help? Well get ALL that unsecured
debt (credit cards, lines of credit, medical bills etc) negotiated and
settled. We eliminate ALL your interests rates and fees. Get out of
debt fast and improve your credit rating. This is NOT credit
counseling, debt consolidation, debt management or refinancing. It is
arbitration for your debts.

It's spammers that are stressing me out.

*plonk*

--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

Only JACKASSES like you complain about spamming but you definitely have
no problem with promoting their pathetic website. If that is not
spamming I don't know what is.

HYPOCRITE!!

You criticize my information above but you seem to have no problem
promoting your own website. If that isn't spamming I don't know what
is. HYPOCRITE!!

In misc.consumers.frugal-living Geeman38 wrote:
Is your debt stressing you out? Need help? Well get ALL that unsecured
debt (credit cards, lines of credit, medical bills etc) negotiated and
settled. We eliminate ALL your interests rates and fees. Get out of
debt fast and improve your credit rating. This is NOT credit
counseling, debt consolidation, debt management or refinancing. It is
arbitration for your debts.

Call now for more information toll free at 1-800-705-0961 ( Ask for
Frankie) or visit them at http://www.fidelitydebt.com/

If you are serious about getting out of debt we can definitely help.
Make that call now!!

FIDELITY DEBT RIPPED ME OFF. Avoid them at all costs.

"Geeman38" writes:

Only JACKASSES like you complain about spamming but you definitely have
no problem with promoting their pathetic website. If that is not
spamming I don't know what is.

HYPOCRITE!!

Frankie baby,

Obviously you're a mature and professional businessman.

Let me assure you, it's not only jackasses like me who will flame some
astute business mind like you who seems intent on reducing the
signal/noise ratio of these consumer advocacy groups by shamelessly
multiposting their shills in response to any thread that mentions
credit.

Here's some free advice for ya. If you decide to make yourself a
valuable member of these newsgroups and post helpful advice on a
routine basis (even if it doesn't lead to an immediate sale), and take
an "Oh by the way, I am also a professional whatever" then maybe
you'll build up enough goodwill to attract some customers. It's
called subtlety.

But until then you're just an unwanted spammer who's only lookin to
use the forums directly for their commercial profit or to post their
advertising. And that makes you a spammer.

Now, for extra credit, find where on my exceedingly lame personal
website (thanks for visiting by the way) I'm selling anything or
generating one cent of ad income. Now there is one page buried deep
in all the other random info, but it has nothing to do with consumer
credit, housing, or frugal living.

Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

On 13 Apr 2006 10:28:55 -0700, "Geeman38"
wrote:

You criticize my information above but you seem to have no problem
promoting your own website. If that isn't spamming I don't know what
is. HYPOCRITE!!

Googling for comes up with 14 message
threads, in one thread he claims the company has been around for 8
years, but the site was created on 30-May-2005. Despite his denials,
it seems odd that only 1 postings was actually on topic (deodorant)
and not about "his" company.

And it wasn't very impressive to see the lack of information on google
for a company touting its expertise.

Btw, anyone notice that most (if not all) postings were April 13th?

In misc.industry.utilities.electric Roger Carlson wrote:

| Hi. Every month, I have my electric bill (I live in Michigan; my
| electricity provider is DTE) emailed to me. I usually pay the bill
| online when I get email that it's ready to be paid. Unfortunately my
| emailed bills got tagged as spam for 3 months, and I didn't realize it.
| As a result, I didn't pay my electric bill for 3 months. I got a "last
| resort" paper bill from DTE (and a disconnection notice!!) last week,
| and I promptly paid the bill.

You really should have noticed something missing withn a couple weeks
of when you should normally get your bill.

Most big corporation network administrators or their managers are just
plain stupid, or the company farms it out to the lowest bidder which
means a level of incompetence that would insult the Three Stooges.
That's how it probably got tagged as spam. It was probably coming from
a server that was also being used by spammers to relay their junk.


| But that isn't the problem. The problem is this: Because of the unpaid
| bills, I'm almost sure that DTE has put some bad information on my
| credit report. This is really upsetting to me, because until now, my
| credit report was perfect, and was my bargaining chip for lots of
| things. I have a 13-year credit history with a score in the high 700's.

In this case it's really your mistake that it went that far. I can
see maybe as much as a month late being their fault. But you really
should have been wondering where the bill was. These things generally
do come every month so you should have noticed it missing eventually.

Don't ever use email for such a thing. It just isn't that dependable.
If your provider can't provide you an account status page with printable
online statements any time you want to visit via a secure (encrypted)
web access, then just get paper bill.

FYI, I tried this many years ago with my phone company. The web site
was crap and most of the Javascript was broken and didn't work. When
I called to try to get it changed back to paper billing, turns out they
had no procedure to do that. Several phone calls and several managers
later, it finally got taken care of.


| What can I do to reverse this? Who do I talk to in order to explain
| that it was a total mishap? To whom do I explain that my email is
| fixed, and that it'll never happen again? Do I talk to the credit
| bureau? (Which one?) Do I talk to DTE? Do I talk to the 3rd party
| company that handles the ebilling, MyCheckFree?

You have all three credit reports?

The items should say paid late by now. If they show still due, then
dispute with the CRA. But paid late is valid: it's your fault. I do
know how to get that off, but I don't give that out to public.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Phil Howard KA9WGN | http://linuxhomepage.com/ http://ham.org/ |
| (first name) at ipal.net | http://phil.ipal.org/ http://ka9wgn.ham.org/ |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

In misc.industry.utilities.electric SpammersDie wrote:

| Nothing forces a lender to pay any attention to FICO's "judgements" any more
| than anyone forces you to pay attention to a Consumer Reports rating. And
| nothing legally forces you do something based on a FICO. You might have
| trouble getting people to let you use their money but it's not like you had
| any fundamental right to use someone's money in the first place.

However, you do have a fundamental right not be be libeled. Most consumers
are getting approximately correct scores. But that just makes the exceptions
all that much worse because no one will believe it.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Phil Howard KA9WGN | http://linuxhomepage.com/ http://ham.org/ |
| (first name) at ipal.net | http://phil.ipal.org/ http://ka9wgn.ham.org/ |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

In misc.industry.utilities.electric Geeman38 wrote:

| Only JACKASSES like you complain about spamming but you definitely have
| no problem with promoting their pathetic website. If that is not
| spamming I don't know what is.

Feel free to put your promotions in a signature of up to 4 or at most 5
lines. That's never been considered spamming as long as what it refers
to is legal.

So now you have a clue wound. Let's hope it heals well on you.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Phil Howard KA9WGN | http://linuxhomepage.com/ http://ham.org/ |
| (first name) at ipal.net | http://phil.ipal.org/ http://ka9wgn.ham.org/ |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

In misc.industry.utilities.electric Geeman38 wrote:

| Is your debt stressing you out? Need help? Well get ALL that unsecured
| debt (credit cards, lines of credit, medical bills etc) negotiated and
| settled. We eliminate ALL your interests rates and fees. Get out of
| debt fast and improve your credit rating. This is NOT credit
| counseling, debt consolidation, debt management or refinancing. It is
| arbitration for your debts.
|
| Call now for more information toll free at 1-800-705-0961 ( Ask for
| Frankie) or visit them at http://www.fidelitydebt.com/
|
| If you are serious about getting out of debt we can definitely help.
| Make that call now!!

Better yet, call 'em up and tell them that spammers should **** off!

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Phil Howard KA9WGN | http://linuxhomepage.com/ http://ham.org/ |
| (first name) at ipal.net | http://phil.ipal.org/ http://ka9wgn.ham.org/ |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

You really should have noticed something missing withn a couple weeks
of when you should normally get your bill.

You need a calendar to remind you of when your bills need to be paid.
(A computerized one that handles regularly-occuring events is useful,
and it can be used for lots of other things besides bills.)

In this case it's really your mistake that it went that far. I can
see maybe as much as a month late being their fault. But you really
should have been wondering where the bill was. These things generally
do come every month so you should have noticed it missing eventually.

Don't ever use email for such a thing. It just isn't that dependable.

Don't ever use postal mail for such a thing. It just isn't that
dependable. In spite of SPAM filter problems, my experience is
that postal mail is still less reliable than email. I've never had
my email go down for 5 days at a time, but my postal mail has
(physical mailbox destroyed). Also my postal mail has gone down
for a couple days at a time every five years or so due to a dog in
my yard (I don't own one; never have). And a couple of times I've
suspected mail stealing but it was never proven.

You still need a calendar to remind you of when your bills need to be
paid, even if they go missing, regardless of what method they are
using to deliver them to you.

| What can I do to reverse this?

In my opinion, you should do nothing to reverse this. You screwed up.

Who do I talk to in order to explain
| that it was a total mishap?

God.

To whom do I explain that my email is
| fixed, and that it'll never happen again?

God, or yourself.

Do I talk to the credit
| bureau? (Which one?) Do I talk to DTE? Do I talk to the 3rd party
| company that handles the ebilling, MyCheckFree?

I see no reason why they should care. If the report says paid late,
that's accurate. If the report says still overdue, dispute that.

You have all three credit reports?

The items should say paid late by now. If they show still due, then
dispute with the CRA. But paid late is valid: it's your fault. I do
know how to get that off, but I don't give that out to public.

Gordon L. Burditt