Monopolies & Mega Corporations really need to go

ARGH I am so frustrated. So if you don't want to read about my aggravation then just skip this entry lol. Anyway, I am about two steps away from losing lights and phone/internet service. Here why:

My dear electric company - FPL - gave me an extension until Jan 5th to pay the bill we were behind on. I paid the bill Jan 5, they got it. I then get two notices from them this past weekend that if we don't pay just under $400 by today we will be disconnected. That's the first notice. The second notice says that because we were late they have taken us off of budget billing - which for those of you who don't know it averages out your monthly payments so that your bill is around the same every month instead of peaking during the summer. So now in addition to the $$ on the first notice there is new charges and the $500 or so left in the account which was supposed to get averaged out across the year. So now the total is $1,035. Besides the fact that we are both unemployed (the hunt is not going well for Alex sigh...everyone wants younger people with more college - he's an IT guy and of course overqualified for even a quick job fix like Home Depot or Starbucks etc) Besides now also the bill is insane to begin with and I called them and told them so. My bill literally doubled from the year before the only one who is home now who wasn't home last year is Alex how much more electric can one person generate? Still use the same ac, meals, laundry hot water etc. Not only did the prices go up but the kwh went up between 50% and 100%. Someone has to stop these yokels, this is insane. Our apartment is only 1200sf.

Now for the lovely phone company. Bellsouth has merged with AT&T and Cingular. Isn't that special? NOT!! I called about a month ago to see about reworking our voice mail (of which I got no satisfaction but ok, no problem) about an hour later our phone service is cut off and so is our internet! ARGH after four phone calls to them, we find out that the idiot we first spoke to left the window open, went to the next customer who wanted their service disconnected and disconnected our instead. Then they say they can't get us our internet for a week but the phone is working. ARGH I started flipping out in the background - Alex was on with them because I was really going to flip on somebody - I said I work online and my son needs to get his virtual school test done and submitted if not he is going to fail and I want my internet service back on. FINALLY around 8 or 9 that evening we got the internet back. We have lost internet - not shut off just problems with them working on the lines for the merger - at least - NO LIE - 30 times since. I get the bill, pay it la la la everything is fine right? WRONG! I get a bill this past weekend (I really just should NOT have gone to the mailbox this past weekend) and it says that previously they had sent us a past due notice for $249 for our phone number ......12 and that our new number ......34 will be shut off if payment isn't made immediately! WTH??!!??? First of all I still have my original phone number and there was no bill that came in for $249!!!???? I just paid the bill in full so I don't know what's going on, they insist I have a new number and that I owed money on our "old" one. CAN SOMEONE WITH BRAINS PLEASE WORK AT THESE PLACES????? For the love of God, sigh...... either way, we don't have it so all of this nonsense is going to end up getting us shut off somewhere along the way. So if you don't see me for awhile .......... you know why. Sorry had to vent. There has got to be some sort of suit being filed against these morons for this type of blatent disregard for consumers. Between the electric company and the phone company I am two steps from moving to God's Country and living off the land with no utility poles of any type anywhere in sight. OK, I'm done.................sort of.