Gas meter Con (Ed)
Reader must bear cost of mount
Dear John: I own a co-op apartment in which the gas meter is in the kitchen.
It was determined that the gas meter was defective and had a slow leak. So the gas supply was shut off. Now Con Ed wants me to install a meter bar to support a new meter.
The licensed plumber estimates this could cost up to $5,000.
Why am I responsible for paying for changing a defective Con Ed gas meter? Shouldn’t this be a Con Ed expense? It is its equipment that is defective. Thank you. S.Y.
Dear S.Y.: I don’t know why you would be responsible either. But Con Ed is insistent.
And I don’t think that embarrassing Con Ed into doing the right thing is going to work. Why? Because Con Ed has a monopoly in your building and throughout the city, so the company really doesn’t have an incentive to play nice.
Dear John: Love your column!
I’m writing regarding “Catching a driver” — about the bicyclist who was hit by a car and now the car’s driver is ignoring requests for her insurance information.
In case the person who wrote in doesn’t want to hire an attorney: I was once in a similar situation and skipped hiring a lawyer.
I contacted the driver’s insurance company directly. The representative was very helpful, took all of the information, and shortly thereafter the driver’s insurance company offered me a very generous settlement. R.C.
Dear R.C.: Thanks for the helpful information and the compliment.
This bicyclist only wants the money she paid in medical bills. She’s foreign and doesn’t realize how un-American that is.
Anyway, hopefully she has the insurance information by now — thanks to help from a kind New York state worker — and the company will realize that it will look much better in this column if it’s nice to the poor biker. And if it punishes the driver it insures for her behavior, it’ll look even more civic-minded.
Or the biker can just hire a shark of a lawyer and maybe get a lot more money and retire at 27 years old. Either way, I’m happy.
Let me tell you a little story that will make you feel a little better about drivers.
My car got hit in a train station parking lot the other day. I was at work. Small dent — about $1,200 worth. After I stopped cursing to myself, I realized there was a business card under my wiper blade.
The driver who hit me had called the police and reported the accident — gave the cops all of his/her insurance info.
My car was being fixed two days later.
I have to tell you, I was shocked. Someone actually took the trouble to take the blame.
Damn, people surprise you sometimes.