I recently rented a pole barn with a friend and put the electric in my name. I've never had an account with ComEd (electric bill in gf's name and later roommate's name) since I moved back to Illinois. Anyways, I got a letter in the mail and ComEd wants a $1199.00 deposit ($396.67 in 3 payments) for a building we're in 2-3 times a week and running electric for 3-5 hours. They state it's due to "insufficient credit information" which I take to mean I've never been a customer with them before and I don't have a heap of credit history. However, I'm having a hard time understanding how they can want so much for a building that won't see a bill over $25. I've rented buildings in the past around the same size (owner kept electric in their name and simply sent me a copy of the bill to pay) and never pushed $30 in a month running a compressor, lift, various power tools, wood heater, and misc. stuff working generally 6-7 days a week/8-10 hours a day. At this building our lighting is T5 and CFLs, no compressor or heater. Like I said, we're hardly at the building and use it mostly to store vehicles and occasionally tinker on projects (which will come to a halt come the cold and move to strictly storage). From what I've read, under Illinois law the deposit request can't exceed 1/6 of the annual bill, so wtf? I'm not looking forward to calling them when they finally open. If anything, I guess I'll cancel the account in my name and let my friend stick it in his name since he has an account already with them. But seriously, how do they get away with this BS? Anyone deal with this crap before? What a frickin' joke.

 

maybe they think you're going to use more electricity.

Our elec bill with them is 4-5 grand a month for woodworking equipment

 

I don't understand why they would think that though. According to my landlord their electric bill was around $30 a month for it. When I first called up ComEd to connect service, they asked if this was a business, and I said no, it's storage. They made no mention of needing a deposit, much less one that's 4 times what I estimate the annual usage will be. Farkin' rapists

Edit: Just got off the phone with ComEd. Apparently they consider pole barns/garages to be businesses (non-residential) and this was their standard deposit as such. Once I explained what was going on, they dropped my deposit down to $105. Much, much better!

 

They were trying to rip you off and see if you'd pay without questioning it.