Comments on: Man Paid Electric Bill with Duffle Bags of Pennies

By: Beh

Beh — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 07:47:27 +0000

Whats do bad about making the clerk count coins? I really wouldn’t mind it if it was me, it would be getting paid whilst doing a whole lot less work.

By: Cee

Cee — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 02:52:55 +0000

And punishing the person behind the counter accomplishes what?

By: Vagabond

Vagabond — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 06:18:50 +0000

Let me get this straight…he was angry that he used so much electricity so he wanted to hold up the line at the payment center? He should have called the PSC in his state and filed a complaint if he felt he was paying too much.

By: DOJ

DOJ — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 05:56:11 +0000

Did the clerk have to sit and count it?
Or perhaps they just dumped them all in a coin counting machine…

By: Zo

Zo — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 04:22:38 +0000

They should have taken it and made him sit there until they finished counting.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 03:36:47 +0000

Paying an electric bill and tipping a server are two totally different things. The only effect paying in pennies has on that clerk is that they have to count it, while getting paid, it will not affect their pay, unless of course they get overtime. But to use your example, if the server gave me good service, I am capable of using my brain to separate the server from the cook. However, if the server slams my food down and tells me tough s**t, just eat it, they will not be receiving a tip. This is the type of treatment I have received from my electric company, apparently only graduates from their asshole academy are allowed to answer their phones. I have no pity for any of those people and frankly I hope people treat them like crap because they treat the customers like crap so they deserve it.
This is just my experience. I generally treat any service workers the same way they treat me.

By: Danny

Danny — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 02:30:28 +0000

Jenny Snyder,

You probably also short a server their tip because the chef overcooked your chicken don’t you? There are several other variables to the selfish situation you suggested. You don’t like it when people are rude to you for unnecessary reasons. I dont understand how people can be so cold and single minded

By: Danny

Danny — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 02:25:49 +0000

I am amazed with the response from all of you, but in a very good way. I totally agree that it was a very pointless and inconsiderate move effecting the wrong people. When I try to explain to friends and family that people shouldn’t be rude to the mcdonalds cashier because the cook messed up on their burger, or yell at the computer guy on the phone because their computer stopped working, they look at me like I’m out of my mind. FINALLY some people that get me.

Thank you guys!

By: Lloyd

Lloyd — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:56:14 +0000

This just isn’t funny. It’s not as if the executives of the power company were going to be locked in a room and forced to count $350 worth of pennies. It’s the poor unfortunate workers on the front line who have to deal with this jerk. Be careful, John Almany, karma’s a bitch.

By: La_Petite_Poi

La_Petite_Poi — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:27:21 +0000

I think this is kinda funny. If I was the clerk, I wouldn’t mind getting paid to count pennies for a little while.

By: Chandrielle

Chandrielle — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:19:43 +0000

Yet another person who will now forever be labeled as an a-hole.

By: Don Newbury

Don Newbury — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:53:35 +0000

I can’t stand jerks like this. Either pay it or grieve it. Don’t take it out on the poor clerk who has to put up with a-holes like him all day.

By: Jenny Snyder

Jenny Snyder — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:52:42 +0000

Am I the only one who thinks this guy rocks? After being shafted by my electric company for years now, I have no sympathy for the schmucks who work there. They knew the company was evil when they took the job. If they don’t want to deal with customers who are angry about being screwed over by a company that they have no choice but to patronize, then I would suggest they get another job.
Good for you, Mr. Almany!

By: Dandy

Dandy — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:18:09 +0000

Back in the ’70s a college student at MSU got in trouble with his landlord & they went to court.

He was forced to pay his back rent, and he did so with pennies – the judge said that that was a no-no.

So he paid with a watermelon-check – the judge ok’d that one…

By: Craig

Craig — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:58:45 +0000

What a dick. The electric company should shut off his electricity and give him a gas-powered generator instead.

By: Scott-O

Scott-O — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:55:48 +0000

What a moron. He went through the trouble of collecting the pennies, unwrapping them into duffel bags and then driving them to the office. So he wasted a few hours of his life to do what? Teach “the man” a lesson? I am sure the management at BVU is working hard to cut their rates and contemplating lay-offs to ensure this myopic retard doesn’t teach them another lesson.

By: Courageous Grace

Courageous Grace — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:01:55 +0000

@Earnest:

The amount of one’s electrical bill (based on same usage) will vary from state to state, and even from city to city. For example, my mother and I use approximately the same amount of electricity per month in our homes. She lives in a small town in north Texas and pays about $50 a month. I live in DFW and pay $150 a month. I have gas heat, water heater, range/oven.

By: LisaL

LisaL — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:44:05 +0000

I’m all for people trying to stick it to someone that’s wrongdoing them, but he only did this to be a douchebag. There was absolutely no reason for him to pull this stunt… at all.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:09:34 +0000

That’s ridiculous. Not only is he not making life any harder on the folks that could fix his issue, just on the poor workers who have to deal with the pennies, but he’s wasting his own time as well. Assuming that there is actually the right amount of pennies in the bag to pay his bill, and that he’s not scamming the company, he had to count them all himself,too. What a waste of his effort. Instead of counting hundreds of dollars in cents he could have had a much better chance at bringing about real change if he had done something real with his time, like calling someone at the company that might really be able to adjust the prices, or calling the government officials involved in energy policy, or something. Maybe they would have been able to do something for him, maybe not, but at least there would have been a chance. Just making a lowly cashier’s day harder has a near zero chance of being effective.

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:46:41 +0000

Ooh, that’s a big oops – thanks for catching that Marvin!

By: OddNumber

OddNumber — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:29:53 +0000

I had a friend in grad school that felt he was being unfairly taxed by a new fee that was being imposed (~$750/semester), so he dressed like a pirate and delivered a chest full of Sacagawea dollars (disclosure: the bank didn’t have enough coins, so half of the booty was actually dollar bills).

The penny thing is really a jerk move, and honestly had the bursar office not found it hilarious, then I would have said the same of his stunt.

I’ll try to find his post about online and add it to the queue.

By: Tony LaRocca

Tony LaRocca — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:21:52 +0000

I’m always for sticking it to the powers that be, but I have to agree with Miles – it’s only some poor low-wage schmuck who’s going to have to suffer.

By: Marvin

Marvin — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:03:34 +0000

Fact-check. John Almany is the name of the penny-ante asshat. The photographer is David Crigger of the Bristol (VA) Herald Courier.

By: paanta

paanta — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:01:21 +0000

@Earnest: Sounds great until every single one of your purchases is rounded up an average of $.125 to the nearest quarter. That’d probably cost me a buck a day or ~$350/yr.

Screw THAT idea.

By: Earnest Everhard

Earnest Everhard — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:36:55 +0000

Everything under a quarter should be eliminated. Just admit it, dimes, nickles, and pennies are worthless, unless you toss them in a jar, as I do, and redeem them once a year.

Why does he use so much electricity anyway. $350.00 would pay my bill for about 10 months. What does he have, 4 T.V.s running all day long?

I have no gas. It’s all electric. (wood heat) and my bills still average about $40.00 a month. (more in the winter because of the short days, and the blower on my furnace) How can someone use that much juice?

By: wuss

wuss — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 08:34:25 +0000

there’s no need to count all the pennies, weighing the bags should be just fine

By: Cori

Cori — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 08:26:26 +0000

Yeah, pretty assholish move. Besides, my family’s electrical bill is more than twice that. Then again, it’s winter here, and our heaters are electric. But the others who posted are right. You’re not sticking it to the man, you’re proving yourself an idiot to people with bigger problems than yourself.

By: Miles Toogo

Miles Toogo — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 08:22:13 +0000

WOW! I’ll bet they rolled back their prices right then and there!

The worst part about stunts like this is that some front desk community college graduate with three kids, a mortgage and a laid off husband (not to mention an equally unfair utility bill) will end up sorting it all out if they do in fact accept you pennies, NOT the “Powers That Be”. So basically, you’re just torturing a minimum wager to make your point.

Sorry man, d*ck move, no matter how you look at it.

By: SenorMysterioso

SenorMysterioso — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 07:49:11 +0000

quit being a d!¢k and just pay your bill like a normal person. This is never funny