Veteran of WWII dies after city curtails power to his home.

[ilbob]

my mothers husband is horrid at getting bills paid. he's got the money, but he procrastiates/gets distracted/forgets and sometimes the bills don't get paid when they're supposed to (like my cell and the power bill) and when service gets cut off i certainly don't blame the company that provides the service. i blame eric for being stupid.

You should be grateful he pays for your cell phone. not calling him names.

[gunsmith]

kind of like "Brave New World"

I knew a guy in Reno whose job it is to turn off power and I talked to him about just this kind of thing.
He tries two or three times to talk to the person before turning off power specifically because he cares about the elderly and families.

I guess this place was larger and impersonal.

[lupinus]

Blame may ultimately fall on him.  But it wouldn't have hurt had the people that they had to send to shut down the power, or place the restrictor or whatever, knocked on the door to let him know that they were shutting down the power because he failed to pay.

The numerous letters, notes, and power regulator weren't enough?  How to be know they didn't knock?

Not to mention the "My lights just went out the TV wont turn on it's getting a bit nippy in here and I haven't paid my power bill in months" factor didn't come into play?  Even once the power was cut off he knew something was wrong when the lights went out and it started getting cold.

I'm not bashing the guy by any means.  I truly feel sorry for him, but it came as the result of his negligence.  Especially if he had the money together, as the article points to, why did he not pay it or make the arrangement?  "I have a my pension check coming in two weeks and will have all my payment then."  One simple phone call, I'm sure they get the exact same one dozens of times per day by people behind on their bill and catching up. Saving money and not making a payment arrangement doesn't help matters at all.

Sad story, but in the end it was his negligence.

[BridgeRunner]

You should be grateful he pays for your cell phone. not calling him names.

Considering how many people have sell phone plans shared between family members, or pay for a share of the family budget with the understanding that other family members pay the rest, I don't think there's really enough there to make a judgment.

I pay my in-laws the cost of my cellphone, plus a fee for the privilege of being on the plan.  They are responsible for then paying the bill.  If my phone is shut off because they haven't paid the bill with the money I have given them, I have reason to be irked.