r/mildlyinfuriating 1d ago

Missing Peace Dominion Energy lets ANYONE call and turn off your power

I am moving into a new apartment tomorrow. I got all of my utilities set up last week with no issues. But suddenly late Saturday I get an email from the power company (Dominion Energy) stating that my request to shut off power at my new place has been submitted. At first I thought I had goofed up and hit stop service instead of start, so I call them this morning to get it fixed. They tell me on the phone that some other person claims to be moving into or from that unit the day after I move in and they requested they change. I correct them that I'm moving in and need the power on. They say no problem and fix it. 5hrs later it gets switched back to a stop service request! I call again and they tell me the same thing happened. They refuse to tell me any details about who is doing this and tell me to take it up with my leasing office. My leasing office is confised, they don't have anyone moving that week besides me. They suggest I send Dominion a copy of my lease to prove it is me that wants power on. I call Dominion and the refuse to let me send them my lease! They tell me that they are required to honor all requests to turn power on and off! I ask then if I could just call in and turn off my neighbors power, and they say YES! Repeat; ANYONE can call and turn of ANY ADDRESS' POWER!!!!! That's insane! I called my leasing and they think it is insane! Still working on a solution. My service request hasn't been flipped again yet, but I'm worried it might be. Not sure what will come of this.

4.9k Upvotes

335 comments sorted by

1.0k

u/YSoSkinny 1d ago

Call to turn off Dominion energy's office power

224

u/Southern-Draft-2901 1d ago

Please tell me OP did this, checkmate b*****es!

139

u/Parks1993 21h ago

You can swear on the internet

37

u/rosmaniac 21h ago

But you don't have to if you don't want to.

58

u/Exilicauda 19h ago

Then say boobie heads or something but censoring things you choose to say is just dorky lmao

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u/bergoldalex 19h ago

Your power company doesn’t want you to know this one little trick!

3.2k

u/NoFoodInMyBowl 1d ago

Heard a similar story on a podcast about a gas utility in Texas:
Homeowner: “hey gas utility, you turned my gas off”
Utility: “yes we got a turnoff request”
H: “I didn’t request it. Anyone can just turn my gas off? Turn it back on”
U: “there a $40 gas-on fee”
H: “but I didn’t want it off! Ok, I want to turn off the gas to everyone on my street”
U: “… …. ok we’ll waive the fee and be out there today”

912

u/CrewBeneficial9516 1d ago

Is it bad I know EXACTLY where this conversation comes from 🤣

206

u/NoFoodInMyBowl 1d ago

RT?

180

u/CrewBeneficial9516 1d ago

Good ol’ Gus

103

u/NoFoodInMyBowl 1d ago

Gus is my hero: always asking myself, WWGD?

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u/CrewBeneficial9516 23h ago

In this moment? Turn off his entire street

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u/Skyhav 23h ago

Gus' quick wit and no fucks to give attitude made for some great stories. I respect how they went about Good Morning Gus/ANMA but damn do I miss just listening to them shoot the shit.

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u/BiggityB05 23h ago

Haha I knew I remember hearing that story somewhere

8

u/grimeyduck 18h ago

Oh yeah! I also love Rootin' Tootin'

9

u/Foxyscribbles 18h ago

Immediately what I thought of.

269

u/Cheshire_The_Wolf 20h ago

As someone who actually worked for a utility company, I asked our trainer if there were systems in place to stop something like this. Turns out there is not.

81

u/sweet_teaness 18h ago

I had a friend with an abusive ex who liked to shut off her utilities.

6

u/ZephodsOtherHead 9h ago

I bet that went over well in court.

11

u/sweet_teaness 7h ago

He eventually ended back up in prison. The last time he did it he tried to get custody of the kids saying that she didn't have adequate housing due to no utilities. The call recording were subpoenaed. It violated his parole and restraining orders.

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u/JustLookingForMayhem 19h ago

Mainly because making hoops to turn off possibly dangerous infrastructure is a bad idea. That said, it does make it so bad actors can cause a lot of havoc.

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u/Abeytuhanu 16h ago edited 15h ago

I think the hoop of 'you can only turn off services in your name/authorized users' with an exception for emergency services personnel wouldn't be too onerous

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u/thrawn82 13h ago

Also free to turn off but a fee to turn on means every time there’s a mistake the utility gets rewarded for it. They are actual disincentivized to fix this problem.

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u/Ulquiorra1312 23h ago

Sounds like the utility requested it for infinite cash glitch

35

u/Punveur8 20h ago

love that they folded faster than my laundry

23

u/louiloui152 20h ago

Ah classic Gustavo

21

u/Starmoses 19h ago

God I miss old rooster teeth.

11

u/mythicaljayde 17h ago

...along with the other great pods mentioned, if you still want Geoff and Gavin (and producer Eric, Soundguy Nick and Andrew Panton) the Regulation Podcast (formerly F**kface at RT) has still been amazing.

5

u/NoFoodInMyBowl 18h ago

Listen to Morning Somewhere. It’s Burnie and Ash, and Burnie has RT peeps on sometimes. If you like D&D (or just collaborative storytelling), check out Tales From the Stinky Dragon. It has Gus and Barb and sometimes other RT people as guest voice actors for NPCs.

6

u/Klausterfobic 18h ago

Whats this podcast?

7

u/NoFoodInMyBowl 18h ago

Rooster Teeth Podcast. Story has got to be 10 years old though

6

u/skyulip 18h ago

gustavo in the wild

3

u/Mrrsh 16h ago

I was thinking the exact same thing. If anyone can turn anyone's power off DO IT. Make them realize how idiotic it is.

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1.8k

u/Hot-Win2571 Mildly Flair 1d ago

"Hello, Dominion Energy? What is your address?"

874

u/trekqueen 1d ago

Someone going to give addresses of data centers?

180

u/dazed_andamuzed 23h ago

Likely wouldn't matter, they tend to have backup power sources like generators.

234

u/ShookMyHeadAndSmiled 23h ago

At least they pay for the fuel themselves instead of jacking up my rates.

89

u/Kira_Caroso 23h ago

It has been leaked that multiple cities pay for them fully. They need a hundred feral animals with magnets clipped to their bodies released in them.

33

u/PsychologicalYou6416 21h ago

Good thing that it is grasshopper season.

23

u/GameFreak4321 RED 21h ago

Dump some form of graphite in the vents.

7

u/Remmon 14h ago

The feral animals might do some damage and will definitely cause a lot of disruption, but why the magnets? This isn't the 70s, hard drives are a lot better protected against magnetic influences than people seem to think and most other components are practically immune as well.

The reason floppies were so easily damaged by magnets is because they're in a plastic enclosure instead of metal like HDDs.

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u/Dickballs835682 23h ago

Not exactly better for the climate though

12

u/AutisticPenguin2 20h ago

It might be in the long term if we can turn them off of data centers permanently?

33

u/Calculagraph 22h ago

I mean, the climate is kind of a foregone issue at this point. Conservatism now is just rolling back the end of the disaster for our grandkids' grandkids.

I say this, of course, knowing full well I've fallen into the trap of putting short term needs before long term interests. I'm not proud of it, but I only get so much control now that I'm part of the unjobbed masses.

10

u/Ash_After_Dark 19h ago

"Doing the wrong thing without knowing it's wrong is ignorance. Doing the wrong thing despite knowing it's wrong is just plain stupid"

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u/Calculagraph 19h ago

If we're giving out platitudes; Wrong and right are relative to the conditions you're observing from.

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u/Science-Gone-Bad 19h ago

Unless they work like the Phone Companies

Dual power & generator backup …. All laid on top of each other in the same trench.

And then they got a backhoe to dig another trench across the main one. Power was off for 2 days, in the main phone network management building for 14 US states

Good times

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u/Thund3rf0000t 18h ago

I guarantee that would never happen they would be a business or corporate customer if you think the amount of money they get from those customers they would let ANYONE call in and cut their power NOPE because many times these centers have requirements of always on and if it is down for more than a certain time the utility pays them damages.

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u/081719 1d ago

Make it for Wednesday, when the heat is to peak. It gets mighty hot in Innsbrook.

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u/Infinite-Cloud-7937 1d ago

That's where they probably draw the line. Have to have some kind of security measures in place to keep businesses from getting shut off, I'm sure.

51

u/Additional-Side9420 23h ago

CEO's house? That shouldn't raise any red flags.

44

u/DruidicMagic 23h ago

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Please keep the power off permanently.

4

u/UsernameStolenbyyou 21h ago

120 Tredegar Street, Richmond, VA 23219

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u/Marquar234 20h ago

120 Tredegar Street? That's Wrigley Field.

327

u/OSCgal 1d ago

If you have a local subreddit, ask if anyone else has experienced the same thing. Maybe a bunch of you can approach a local news station with your your stories. Companies hate bad press!

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u/Adept-Opinion8080 19h ago

Not when they're monopolistic entities. Then they don't give a s. As a matter of fact, actually most companies don't give a s

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u/Local_Pin_7166 18h ago

Regulated monopolistic entities. They care deeply about their relationship with their regulator.

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u/malacoda99 14h ago

Of course they do. They have paid a lot of money to keep those regulators in line. Check out utilities' PAC spending at local, state and national levels to track a percentage of your monthly bills.

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u/hefty_load_o_shite 1d ago

Maybe you need to go inconvenience a lot of people to get this rapidly changed

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u/xbleeple 1d ago

I only paid for two months of gas at an apartment because of something like this. I put it in my name, set up the autopay, and then at some point someone called in to take over the account. My gas kept working and it didn’t occur to me that I hadn’t paid a bill in months until I moved out and contacted the gas company. They said everything was on the up and up for that address. So I just left it.

83

u/Handy-Eye-Candy 23h ago

Honestly if it gets flipped again I may just do that. Might set the AC to 0 degrees for good measure lol.

24

u/sillyduchess 18h ago

When I moved they accidentally only set up the plan for the electricity instead of gas and electricity and realised 1 1/2 years later but they were only allowed to back Bill us for 6 months

606

u/Erroniously_Spelt 1d ago

Oh! Find out the board of dominion energy, get their addresses, call to have each shut off.

284

u/codebygloom 1d ago

Funny that you would assume that the board would live in the area they service.

82

u/Palmettor 21h ago

I think you may underestimate just how much space Dominion services.

11

u/SevenFootHobbit 18h ago

Yeah but would they hold out against the borg long term?

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u/rogue780 19h ago

Never heard of them

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u/dmfreelance 19h ago

As someone who has worked with utility providers across the country, I promise you they are quite big

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u/Infinite-Cloud-7937 1d ago

Fucking genius.

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u/GlockAF 1d ago

Get a burner phone first, do it from that

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u/Ndmndh1016 19h ago

Oh im sure they have checks in place to make sure it cant happen to them.

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u/Room_Temp_Coffee 1d ago

Any chance they were still sending notifications to the previous tenant? They could be getting the opposite notice lol We know you said shut this off but we got another request to turn the power back on!

124

u/Handy-Eye-Candy 23h ago

That would make sense. Still insane to me there isn't any kind of verification.

221

u/wolftick 1d ago

Dominion Energy definitely sounds like an evil corporation from some dystopian sci-fi.

44

u/trekqueen 1d ago

It’s a power company in Virginia. Some of the area is referred to as Old Dominion and that’s where the originating company’s namesake comes from.

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u/PipsqueakPilot 20h ago

That said, they are an evil corporation from a dystopian setting.

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u/ReferenceMediocre369 1d ago

Never attribute to malice what can more easily be attributed to sheer idiocy.

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u/Same_Mood_8543 23h ago

Dominion is both. They are more than happy to commit fraud for profit and also to let complete morons set up their systems. Mostly because it's more profitable. 

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u/Electrical-Apple-631 23h ago

America’s new motto!

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u/Sarduci 1d ago

Wow, I think I’ve found my new hobby. I’m not saying everyone should call and just start canceling people’s power, but yeah, this is obviously an issue.

9

u/Sinisterfox23 21h ago

Oo, imagine if you called in, shut someone’s power off and then swatted them. Better not give anyone ideas…

58

u/jojohohanon 23h ago

Find the richest / most powerful person in your area served by dominion. …

39

u/Handy-Eye-Candy 23h ago

Probably the data centers near me. Although that sounds like a monumentally bad idea lol

40

u/xeresblue 22h ago

Time to be the hero that Gotham deserves!

14

u/valencevv 20h ago

Just do it from a pay phone or burner and not your personal phone.

13

u/keytapper 22h ago

No, you simply confused your address. Nothing was done intentionally 

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u/SnipesCC 19h ago

If you're in the Dominion area, the richest and most powerful person in the area is indeed pretty powerful.

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u/SASSIESASSQUATCH 21h ago

I’d probably start with all the politicians in the state. That may get it cleared up pretty quickly too.

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u/Ok_Pool_9767 1d ago

Request they turn the power off to everyone in their service area.

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u/Ok_Mention_9865 23h ago

When i move out of the state of Texas i turned the bills off in my name and my ex room mate that was staying turned them on in their name. 3 years later i got a bill of the power company for several hundred dollars and found out that after i left the roommate called them back told them they cant afford it ad turned it off and in their name and either they or the power company them selves turned it back on under my name.

What was worse the ex room mate left shortly after i did, someone else moved in and got it in their name but the power company kept my account open under that address, they did not charge me for the usage but they did keep tacking on a bunch of monthly fees even though someone else account was tied to the address.

I will give them credit for top rate customer service when i called them they figure out exactly what happened in a few minutes and removed all the extra charges that occurred after i called to turn off service but it was still insane to me that they just switched it back on in my name, and then kept it on for years.

20

u/blizzard36 19h ago

This is apparently something power companies just do... I was a beneficiary of it when I moved into my condo.

Sometime previously an owner had rented it out, it wasn't the couple I bought it from and it wasn't the flipper before them, so it had at least been most of a decade since it had been a rental. But the power company kept that landlord's info on file as a person to bill to keep the line active between tenants using it. So when the person I bought it from called to say they were moving out and had it taken out of their name a week before I called to put myself on it, they moved it to this previous landlord. So when I called to move it to my name I was told the current month was already paid, they'll send me a bill to establish me as a customer next month.

After 2 months I called them again, and we finally figured out what had happened. I got 3 free months out of it, and with as little electricity as I use I'm not sure whoever that old landlord was even noticed.

15

u/Ok_Mention_9865 19h ago

Whats crazy is if your using power and not paying they will cut you off and close your account, If your not using power and not paying they will keep it open for years and just keep adding on monthly fees.

81

u/Hot-Win2571 Mildly Flair 1d ago

You need to doublecheck your apartment number.

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u/Handy-Eye-Candy 1d ago

Already did that. They were confused because no one is moving in our out besides me that week. They've been pretty understanding and helpful so far.

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u/Chouxnicorn 22h ago

My guess would be someone you know who is either messing with you or secretly doesn’t like you. That person knows where you are moving and is messing with you. That or it’s someone in a nearby apartment who doesn’t want a new neighbor.

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u/Hot-Win2571 Mildly Flair 1d ago

And your street number. Maybe someone is moving out of a nearby building.

Or the previous tenant is turning off their old account.

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u/CrashTestDuckie 1d ago

Find the names of upper leadership at dominion and see if you can find their address through public records/deeds then call and have their service cut off

25

u/Impossible_Past5358 23h ago

I wouldn't put it past them to be on some sort of master list of "addresses to never shut off..."

11

u/Bubbly-Cod-3799 22h ago

People tried that in WV when Appalachian Power took too long to get the power back after a snow storm. It was discovered that he and the two other people with his same name were on a do not cut off list. Ironically, he did not receive special treatment in getting his power back on, but did own a back up generator.

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u/JalkianValour 1d ago

Odd, but sure could be handy if the neighbor upstairs is planning a party for the weekend and has a history of being loud and unreasonable

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u/sonofaresiii 22h ago

>  I ask then if I could just call in and turn off my neighbors power, and they say YES! Repeat; ANYONE can call and turn of ANY ADDRESS' POWER!!!!!

I know this is going to sound like internet bravado but my literal next words out of my mouth would have been to request every single apartment in the building, then every single building on the block, have their power shut off. And if they actually let me get that far I'd just keep going until they finally told me to stop.

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u/arkusmson 21h ago

Nah, don’t make your neighbours suffer.
Ask the power rep for their office address… then pause for dramatic effect. Then ask, “you have to honour ALL requests…”

While you are on the phone request power shut off to that address…

11

u/sonofaresiii 20h ago

Nah, don’t make your neighbours suffer.

You have grossly misunderstood some element of what's happening here

Ask the power rep for their office address… then pause for dramatic effect.

They would very obviously just say no.

Then ask, “you have to honour ALL requests…”

This is the most reddit thing I've ever heard. 

Like, no they don't, dude. Who's enforcing that, you?

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u/MrSoftShoe 22h ago

Something similar happened to me with PSE. Someone had the wrong address when moving. They did a "start service" request at my address instead of theirs and then when they realized there was a mistake, they did a "stop service" request. I got a notification from PSE that my power was going to be turned off (my landlord got a notification as well and immediately had the property management company contact and threaten me for breaching the lease). All was resolved eventually but seriously, that's a very bad system.

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u/Embarrassed_dancer 1d ago

Get the addresses of the C-suite employees at Dominion and turn off their power.

21

u/RenkenCrossing 1d ago

Local news, find their address sad submit the request… that will hit the headlines.

21

u/Brilliant_Cattle_602 22h ago

Get the address of their office and request the the power there is turned off. Do it daily.

Get the address of the CEO and request they their power is turned off as well.

3

u/6680j 21h ago

I need updates from this...

18

u/DueAbbreviations5097 17h ago

Just FYI as a woman who has been staked when you call set up any account ask to set up a pin or password so no one can make changes.

I do this with literally everything. My stalker died but I still do it.

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u/partlysettledin21220 1d ago

Nobody fix the glitch yet, give me like an hour!

15

u/Handy-Eye-Candy 23h ago

Not a glitch. It's just how they run it. Which is nuts.

15

u/PrincessJasmine420 19h ago

I think it’s time to request power shutoffs to some large businesses and government buildings. Maybe then they will change their policy.

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u/Tamajyn 19h ago

Bold of you to assume they'd apply the same rules to businesses as they apply to us

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u/KrissyKrave 18h ago

And then you end up in jail because the same rules do not apply for the rich. What needs to happen is a lawyer should be called so Dominion gets the picture.

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u/Gralb_the_muffin 23h ago

"ok" hangs up and starts calling for every unit in the building over and over until they realize they have a problem. But I'd also talk to a supervisor about potential lawsuits. "Hey so if I told you to turn off the power for my neighbor and they have a medical device connected to themselves and they proceeded to die because of the loss of power to said device or if a consumer fell down some stairs because they didn't get the call and the power went off suddenly... You know everyone is going to know it's your fault and you will be liable for the lawsuit due to your negligence in putting any barriers up to prevent someone from turning off anyone's power... And that might happen because I'm about to get a burner phone and start doing that until you find a way to stop"

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u/Electronic_Cod7202 1d ago

OP be glad reddit doesn't have your address 🤣

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u/crabbypatty01 1d ago

If this is true the nosy old Karen across the street is about to be in the dark

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u/DocSodom666 1d ago

Cool and when your mother's oxygen machine shuts off you know who to sue.

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u/Forward_Tie_9941 15h ago

Call and turn off the power at their address. The power office.

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u/BobTheCosmonaut 20h ago

120 Tredegar Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219 is the address for Dominion Energy's head offuce, just in case someone thinks their policy of allowing anyone to cut power for a location is a bit stupid

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u/SonOfDyeus 21h ago

The names of all C suite executives at Dominion Energy are probably available online. Find them, then find their home addresses. Request to discontinue services at all the addresses you find until they correct their policy.

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u/Commercial-Royal-988 16h ago

Here's what you do. Find the most expensive neighborhood they provide power too. Call every day and tell them to shut off one of those addresses randomly. The problem will sort itself out. Rich people throw money at problems and lawyers tend to clear up idiotic policies like this quickly.

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u/EdC1101 15h ago

What state are you in?
I would contact state utilities commission.

I would also report harassment from unknown persons via DE to police.

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u/Mikegandrew 22h ago

That is a security nightmare of comical proportionss. the fact that they literally admitted you could just social engineer your way into turning off a random neighbor's electricity because they don't even require basic proof of occupancy is wild. at this point you should honestly call back, ask for a supervisor, and ask them how they plan to handle the police report you are about to file for harassment, since dominion's brilliant system is actively enabling a stalker or a massive troll to mess with your housing. Please keep us updated because this is one of the most incompetent corporate policies ive ever heard of

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u/dmills13f 15h ago

Get the address to their headquarters building and call to turn the power off.

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u/Ok-Addition-1000 23h ago

Get the home addresses of all their executives.

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u/limbodog 21h ago

You're worried about your power? I'd be worried about the people moving in while you're still unpacking.

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u/macail 9h ago

Call and ask that power to their office be turned off. They gotta honor it, right!?!

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u/GrimmandLily 23h ago

My mom passed recently and I called her electricity provider and they said the same. No proof required, they’d just turn off her power when I asked.

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u/G0ldheart 23h ago

Call and turn off the power for the entire city.

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u/MeatCatRazzmatazz 23h ago

If it happens again, ask to turn off power to the whole complex.

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u/BrilliantPie2566 22h ago

Are you breaking up with someone and they're messing with you?

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u/Dreamingofapastlife 22h ago

Our power was out one day and I called to let them know. They said "you cancelled your account". I did not. Some other person with a similar name in a completely different neighborhood cancelled their account.

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u/Rilliztic 21h ago

If this is true I would go turn off the power for all public government buildings and i bet there will be a fix within 24 hours. 

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u/Wonderful_Piglet591 20h ago

I’m currently checking to see if anyone I hate lives in a dominion service area. Payback is a bitch.

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u/slash_networkboy 17h ago

Clearly the solution is to call and have power to their office turned off. Once they don't have power they can't shut yours off. :-)

~s. (Though I would ask to request to turn off their building power the next time I had to call them over this fiasco)

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u/DepressingBat 16h ago

Just start turning off everyone else's power.... they just told you exactly how to solve the issue. If you make it everyone else's issue then they will have to be the ones dealing with a hundred angry calls

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u/mordecai98 11h ago

Call Dominion and turn off the power at their address.

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u/Alarming_Definition9 20h ago

Dominion Energy is lying to you. It's literally illegal to allow people other than a tenant, landlord, or other documented person responsible for the bill, to shut power off to somewhere.

The only exception is in emergency situations, like a structure fire, and the person requesting the power shut off is legally required to provide information about who they are so the need for a shut off can be verified.

3

u/Bones99544 20h ago

Call your Public Service Commission and explain what is happening. They should at least know about what's going on. They might even have a solution.

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u/ThePureAxiom 20h ago

Request a few politicians' power get turned off and I'd wager that'll change in a hurry.

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u/Psychological_Ad2094 20h ago

Call and request power shut off on all government buildings, see how long until they start verifying people have the authority to shut stuff off.

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u/CynnerWasHere 20h ago

You should have asked the guy for his address

3

u/VirtusCanina 19h ago

I had the same shit happen with my old power company. Some shit head called them and said they were moving into my unit. They weren't and the power company was unhelpful, saying I needed to be on top of watching all my bills to figure out if someone took the power out of my name. Had a total migraine figuring this shit out because my landlord was handed the bills with neither them or the power company informing me. They held on to them for several months, then tried to dump late fees on me all at once. I shot that shit down.

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u/Thund3rf0000t 18h ago

sounds like a lawsuit especially if its during the winter or extremely 100+ summer days and you have a child. I would though get this to your local news or to your state AG cause once something like this is talked about in the local news or from high up they will change that so fast.

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u/Dock_Ellis45 16h ago

Who else has your social security number and Dominion account number? Because that's what needed to stop service at your address.

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u/Elphabeth 15h ago

That is insane. I can't really think of a good workaround for that, but it does need to be fixed.  Maybe something like a PIN or account pw like some cell phone companies use.  

My husband and I had an infuriating experience a few years ago when we were moving out of a rental into a home we'd purchased. We called to have the electricity shut off on a certain day, but the woman we spoke with didn't speak very good English and she kept repeating the incorrect date back to me. Eventually I had her on speaker phone and my husband and I both were trying to get her to confirm she had the correct date. She repeated the correct date back to us twice and it seemed like we were good, until 3 days before our move out date, the electricity shut off at exactly 5 p.m. when the office closed. And of course the city didn't have any kind of emergency option on their phone tree, so I ended up having to leave a message and was told that it might not be turned on back on until the next day. 

I desperately needed to finish packing because my husband had a terrible cold and it was all falling to me, and this was late May in Texas, so the highs were in the mid to upper 90s. They eventually got it turned back on late that night, but I wasted an entire evening just lying around the house sweating because I couldn't see anything in order to pack after dark. 

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u/DopesickJesus 12h ago

I’m not sure how it works there, but where I live if someone requests to START service, that would essentially STOP the previous service since it is switching to a new account. Maybe they don’t have your info / aren’t calling in to stop yours, but is enrolling in a whole new account which then stops yours?

Whether it’s malice or a genuine goof up on their end I wouldn’t be able to say.

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u/TheDevilsAdvokaat 11h ago

I had a similar problem with AGL.

I'd been living here for two years. Suddenly I get a notice from AGL that as requested my power will be shut off in a weeks time.

I called them. Turns out they had a request to shut off power in unit number N at an even address on my street...I live in Unit N at an odd address. So they had received a request to turn off power at the unit across the road from me, and then told me they were goign to turn off MY power.

I had to explain to them how they messed up. Then I also reminded them to notify that OTHER person that they were going to turn off their power. But really it seemed pretty slap-dash. After that we had no problems.

In your case they are being ridiculous. I would cancel them as a provider and switch to someone else..or trheaten to do so.

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u/RobLoughrey 9h ago

Call Dominion and asked to talk to a supervisor. The person you've been talking to need to be retrained.

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u/shadoeweever 22h ago

As soon as someone sues to replace a medicine that was ruined by no fridge due to a fraud cut off and win they might change it.

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u/vespers191 21h ago

Time to see about local politicians addresses.

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u/Ok_Day6378 20h ago

I used to work for an internet ISP and it was the same here until a couple of years ago. They prioritised convenience of sign up, over existing customer base. Basically they dont want to potentially 'hassle' a new customer by making them provide proof of occupancy and allowed anyone to switch a service at an address which usually caused the residents internet to stop.

Wasn't until last year they passed regulations that required new sign ups to provide proof they live at the address such as a copy of a lease agreement or sales contract. Australia btw

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u/Martylouie 19h ago

Do a power off request for Dominion's Chairman of the Board, CEO, and headquarters.

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u/Useful-Rooster-1901 19h ago

this is really good to know, ill be using it maliciously

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u/aucran 18h ago

Can we call and ask them to turn off a data centers power?

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u/Silent-Operation-631 17h ago

Get the address for electric company headquarters, call in and turn off their power.

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u/counsellour 17h ago

100% reach out to the local news and put them on blast. If they have an investigations team, they might even find out who is calling to shut off your power and why. In some cases, what your power company is doing may even be illegal and you might get a claim out of it especially if their practices become a publicity nightmare.

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u/Tibryn2 16h ago

Time to get the police involved: dominion might not want to give YOU any information but if you show these emails to the police they can get it in a heartbeat and will have to provide you that information so you can file a civil suit.

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u/ViviFuchs 10h ago

See if they will allow you to set an account passphrase so that if anybody calls, they will need to provide the passphrase in order to make any changes to the account...

That's about the best thing I can think of...

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u/biggestpiggest 9h ago

Tell them you have life sustaining energy needs and if they turn the power off your oxygen machine will stop and you could die. They should put a warning in the account.

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u/Lordofderp33 22h ago

Just report you are moving into the HQ of a large local media company. Should solve itself from there.

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u/bdogdotmpeg 22h ago

Had this happen multiple times at my apartment in NJ so it's apparently a flaw across multiple companies.

Seems like any request to open an account at an address automatically terminates the old one with zero say so from the current account holder.

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u/Adventurous_Shine606 21h ago

Excellent. You should immediately request that power be shut off at their headquarters.

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u/dumbdude545 21h ago

And when i try to pay mine they want my social, name etc. Lol

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u/HorrorBuff2769 20h ago

Duke Energy in NC is just as bad. Never again.

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u/Street-Juggernaut-23 19h ago

crazy that cable companies require proof of moving in before they cut services fir someone living there aready

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u/_ItsTheLittleThings_ 19h ago

Yep, been there! I recently called a utility company to turn it off bc my mom died and we sold the house. The company had no problem turning the utility off, but couldn’t give me the account number or amount owed for the final bill unless I submitted my mom’s death certificate and proof that I am the trustee. Explain the logic behind that one!

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u/7MLR7 19h ago

Escalate and report this to Dominion's Corporate Office. They need to install checks and balances because that's an irresponsible way of operating.

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u/Secret_Account07 RED 19h ago

I’ve moved many times and they always do some kind of verification. So what questions are they asking when someone calls in? Other than address? Do they have your account number? Security code? Email? Like what?

No way a utility provider simply asks for address and nothing else, right?

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u/Live_Distribution207 18h ago

What's your address? Perhaps I could get it shut off for you next time.

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u/BurningPickle 18h ago

Dominion Energy sounds like an evil corporation from some schlocky ‘80s action movie. Nothing good can come from a company with a name like that.

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u/SmartyMcPants4Life 18h ago

Can you get a password on your account that must be used to access it to shut it off?

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u/juanjing 18h ago

Call and turn off the power to their office.

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u/Raevson 18h ago

If this keeps up request a turn off for their office building...

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u/Breadicus_Rex 17h ago

Likely what is happening is someone is attempting to move in to your address, likely in error, which triggers two things. A connect order for the new account and a disconnect for the old account. A utility will rarely issue a full stop service order for an account and never allows someone to make changes to an account they don’t have access to.

You can keep following up with your utility like normal and request an incident be opened to figure out why this is happening or submit a complaint to your state’s public service commission, which will prompt them to investigate this with much more urgency.

Even if the disconnect goes through, your electricity/gas will not be shut off, someone else becomes responsible for the bill.

Many utilities even have a program for landlords where the service reverts to the landlord’s name even if the new connect goes through and the new account holder then has a disconnect issued.

Source: working in the utility sector with the entire time spent in the service order space.

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u/AsaCoco_Alumni 17h ago

Find out the address of their call centre, and phone in daily asking for it's power to go off.

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u/neighborofbrak 17h ago

Same issue with MetEd (a First Energy company). My apartment's electricity got changed to someone else in the middle of my lease. Took six months to straighten it out.

Tell them that your next call is to your state's Public Utilities Commission to file a report (or equivalent - figure this out before telling your utility).

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u/angelrider83 17h ago

On the other side of this. It’s annoying me that I can’t pay my mom’s utilities because she’s dead and the courts haven’t given me the right to pay stuff in her name yet. I don’t blame the courts or the utilities for the safety measures, but dang, if someone wanted to pay MY bill. Let them. Lol.

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u/screechingbint 17h ago

Find the address of the power company then call and request its power to be turned off.

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u/Ecstatic-Highway-246 16h ago

Ask the person on the phone for their address and ask them to turn off the power there. Or look up the CEO of the power company and see if you can find their address!

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u/praetorian1979 16h ago

I had to set up a password on my electricity years ago for BS reasons like yours. Good luck!

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u/gromit1991 14h ago

Was trying to change the email address for one of my utilities yesterday. The only thing I could change online was my preferred pronoun! Anything else had to be an email.

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u/neKtross 11h ago

Lol at this Point of would be my Mission calling and turning Off random adresses. I think it wouldnt Take Long until they Change their policies 😂😂

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u/KaldaraFox 10h ago

You know, as bad as utilities are in Indiana, I'm thankful that this nonsense isn't done by Centerpoint.