Complaint Hub » Blog Archive » I win! I'm a big winner!

We’re still waiting on a response for the big ticket, the $100 ticket. The wife wrote that letter. She’s a lawyer, so she should be better at convincing them, but we had a much stronger case on the one that I contested. So we’ll see.

Yes, I just quoted myself. Shut up.

A couple of days ago, we finally got the letter saying that they forgave the big ticket, too. We weren't sure what was going to happen - the car still had the old Virginia tags then. I'm sure if they tried they could get my SSN or VIN or something from Virginia and track down my DC registration that way, but that involves WORK, and I just wasn't sure they were actually going to do that. But I didn't want to contact the DMV after it was taking them forever to get back to us on this ticket, because that would absolve them of doing any work to connect me to the old ticket.

Anyway, it's moot now, because they finally succumbed to my wife's crushing grip of reason and tore up the ticket. That brings our record on contesting tickets to 4-0, I think.

Columbia Heights News - Washington, DC - Columbia Heights Day - October 6

The First Annual Columbia Heights Day Festival is scheduled for Saturday, October 6th from 11 AM to 6 PM.

But hey, at least we're having a Columbia Heights Day.  Not much detail at CH News, or at the CH Day website.  But there's supposed to be a meeting of local business owners tonight, so maybe after that they'll have a better idea of what's happening.  They're not giving themselves a whole lot of time.

Pepco came out and read the meter after all.  I just got off the phone with the first Pepco CSR who didn't make me want to break things.  He said the meter was read yesterday, and we've used 4344 kilowatt hours since we moved in.  Our latest bill was for 7942 kilowatt hours, or 183% of our actual electricity usage.  Based on what they charged us on our latest bill, I think that's about $450 that we've paid them that we don't owe them.

Actually, I haven't technically paid the latest bill.  I scheduled it, but it hasn't gone through yet.  But apparently they can't cancel the payment once I have a confirmation number, which is crap, but whatever.  We aren't going to pay another bill for a few months.

I'm not sure why I had to be home yesterday.  They read the meter after I left for work, despite their claims that someone had to be at the house.

I just got off the phone with Pepco customer service.  They told me they don't guarantee they'll actually arrive in the four hour window.  They have lots of meters to read, and sometimes they don't arrive on time.  I finally hung up on the CSR I was talking to because I was so furious.  I have no idea what I can do.  I can't take my business elsewhere.

Anyone have any suggestions?

I'm working from home this morning, waiting for Pepco to come and read our meter.  I'm not sure why I have to be here, since the meter is outside, but I do.  They promise to be here between 8am and noon.

Why am I waiting for Pepco, you might ask?  Isn't it their job to read my meter and charge me for electricity used?

Well, sort of.  You see, apparently Pepco can estimate my meter readings.  Based on what I don't know, because this condo has only existed as a condo since some time last year, and has only been inhabited since February.  I suppose they're basing the estimates on similar places in the area.

Or maybe they're pulling numbers out of the air.  As of last week, when we got our latest bill, it looked to me like we'd used about 4200 kilowatt hours since moving in.  Our bill claims we've used 7900.  That means they've overcharged us by something in the neighborhood of $300.

I'm sure they'll adjust the bill once they read the meter, and we won't pay anything for a few months, but it's absolutely infuriating that I have to make a special request and work from home for half a day (Okay, I'm not really complaining about that) just to get Pepco to charge us for the power we actually used.

Is it possible to have competition in power companies?  I know that, at least to some extent, it's probably not possible to share the infrastructure necessary to deliver power to my house.  It might not be possible at all.  I guess we're just going to have to put windmills and solar panels on the roof and go off the grid.

I keep seeing articles about how this week is supposed to be really bad for traffic because everyone is back to work after various summer vacations.  Yesterday (Tuesday) was supposed to be the worst.

But I'm not seeing it.  In fact, today was one of the least crowded days on the Metro that I've seen in a while.  I actually had a seat to myself from Mount Vernon Square all the way to Pentagon City on the Yellow line, which almost never happens.

I don't know if car traffic is worse - I haven't driven anywhere since Sunday, and I don't think that counts.  For those of you poor saps who drive to work in the DC Metro area - has it been bad this week?

That's two more parking tickets adjudicated. I guess that means forgiven. I leave looking that up as an exercise for you, the reader. DDOT got back to me, and said that the Zone 1 parking restrictions were not supposed to be enforced until August 27th, so both of my tickets will be forgiven.

So, if you live on the 1400 block of Harvard Street, NW, and you received a ticket for failure to display a Residential Parking Permit for Zone 1 before August 27th, 2007, you still have time to contest it. Contact the DMV, or contact Councilmember Graham's office if that doesn't work. Just don't pay that ticket.

To the person who found me by searching for "can you get a parking ticket in dc for having va tag where there are no sign":

Yes.  If it involves a non-moving car, you can get a ticket for it in DC.

If you remember that rule, you may save yourself a few parking tickets.  I won't say that you will save yourself from getting any parking tickets, because that's impossible.  But you can perhaps minimize them by assuming that you will always be ticketed.  You will usually be right.

Anyway, I suggest you contest any ticket you might receive.  It makes you feel better, and you can do it by mail, so it hardly costs anything.

Two more shot on Girard Street last night.  One died, one in the hospital.  I park on that street occasionally when our block is full, and it really doesn't seem that bad.  And there are frequently police cars around.

It kind of puts parking tickets in perspective, I guess.  I get pretty worked up over the city's campaign to make me sell my car, but at the same time, there are a lot more important things going on.

I got another ticket today.  Right on top of the note I left explaining the situation.  I understand that the parking enforcement people are doing their job.  But if I can get a ticket for failure to register my car because they've noticed it parked there for a while with non-DC tags, why can't they also notice that it's been registered for a few months, they've suddenly changed the rules for parking without telling anyone, and cut me a break?

Apparently paying attention from day to day only works when you're trying to bleed the taxpayers.  This is now six tickets in DC, including one before I moved here that was my fault (I misread a sign that was pretty clear, I'm not really sure what my problem was).  Do you know how many parking tickets I've gotten in the entire rest of the planet?  One.  I went to Blacksburg to pick up my brother from Virginia Tech and got a ticket on campus.  I parked illegally, figuring I wouldn't be there long.

So, on one hand, we have twelve-plus years of driving and parking in Maryland and Virginia.  One ticket.  In less than two years of parking in DC, I have six.  It is abundantly clear who is at fault here.

I don't park illegally.  I don't double park, I don't block hydrants, I don't park in front of driveways.  But six tickets.  It's mind-boggling.

I'm going to ask the wife to help me contest these two tickets, and I'm going to send a copy to our councilmember.  He's all about the ineffectual but flashy solutions to problems.  Maybe he'll give me a "get out of parking tickets free" card or something without addressing the underlying problem that this city needs to figure out a new way to combat parking and revenue issues.