So I've been in my new apartment since June 3rd, and the first time they read my electric/gas meter was September 17th. My bill this month was 10x the previous months, because they've been billing me for estimates.
Turns out, the last meter reading was 8 months ago (February).
Aren't they supposed to read the meter when I start service with them? I mean, how could they reliably estimate my usage if they hadn't read the meter in 4 months? And the fact that they haven't checked it in 8 really irritates me. The customer service rep assures me that I am not paying for energy used by the previous tenants, but I suspect that's a dirty, dirty lie...