Atmos Energy Atmos Energy Holdings Customer Service Nightmare Dallas Texas

 I have been Atmos customer for more than 25 years. Then I had a heart attack. After 25 years of on-time payment, they cut off my gas on Friday, August 15 -- although the bill had been paid online on Thursday, August 14.

But since my husband, who called and made the payment via phone, wasn't "on the account" (despite the fact that I added him three times in the 17 years we've been married), the company refused to cancel the shut-off, or turn it back on until I got out of the hospital and called personally. I called this morning, and the gas might be back on Monday -- leaving us with no way to cook, and no hot water for the weekend.

The amount of the past-due bill? $28.16. The number of days it was past due? 14.

I tried reaching Atmos via email, Twitter, and Facebook – no online contact information was published. There’s no online chat, and no 24-hour number to handle billing problems. I tried calling from the hospital, but the hospital phone system cuts off calls after a few minutes of “on hold” time.

I would never tell anyone else what company to do business with, but I hope my personal experience here might be useful to anyone considering a new gas utility as they make up their own minds about what company to use.

I came away feeling that Atmos treated me the way an anachronistic monopoly that has forgotten that Texas now has deregulated utility service might have treated my parents back when they had no choices.

I felt as if they had absolutely concern that they were likely to use a long-time, prompt paying customer, or that there might possibly be a better way to treat people than to leave them without service for days due to a cut-off caused solely by the ineptness of the company’s own staff and its outdated, outmoded policies.