Toledo Edison will work with noone

Nah, Toledo Edison and its permutations have been tough in good times and bad. About all I ever negotiated with them as a business owner paying $8-$10K per month was an occasional rescinding of their outrageous late fees if the payment reached them somewhat close to the due date (and thus within 1-2 days of a slow posting by their staff).

Even as a larger corporate client, I observed that the attitude of the folks who worked their could be summed up as typical of employees in a monopoly: "Where else are you going to get electricity?"

Not rude, mind you, just realistic.

The only other concession I could obtain in really tough times was to buy 3-4 days before they showed up to axe the power. If you pushed them beyond 30 days overdue, they had no problem theatening (and carrying out) immediate shutoff. I learned early on that Toledo Edison is about the last vendor you can squeeze time from when you have cash flow problems.

Now you know why some people with lower incomes may resort to "Check in to cash" type stores.

I do know you could try contacting 211 to see if there is help. If you have a medical necessity, such as Asthma, you can use a medical certificate from a Dr. which would help to allow you to extend the payment date for you.
You can also contact a St. Vincent DePaul rep at your neighborhood Catholic church. They may be able to assist you in this. Other church's may have some help in this area also.

I know your not trying to get an agency to pay the bill for you, but maybe they can help assist in giving you that extra week you need.

I don't have or want someone else to pay the bill, but with my paychecks coming irregularly, getting an extra week was very nice. Not no more.

The only problem with giving everyone money-in-hand is that there will be almost instantaneous inflation. I would like to have seen something worked out where perhaps people received money that could have went towards their debt, or some other plan that would have let the taxpayers receive the bailout and not the banks.

What has changed since banks and other corporations received the bailouts? Not much really. The housing market is still bottoming, job losses continue to stack up and banks still are not lending money. Sure the market has rallied, but even that is a fool's rally when there is nothing to support such a upward drive in stock prices. Until unemployment figures shift into a positive direction for a few, continuous months, there is nothing good on the horizon.

I found Toledo Edison to be tough, but fair, when during my first winter in my current apartment, my electric bill skyrocketed from an average of $45.00 a month through spring, summer and fall, to about $120.00 a month in the winter. I seriously had not budgeted for that. The heating costs really surprised me, and it took me two or three billing cycles to get a handle on it. Meanwhile, I had been paying every cent I could every month when the bill was due -- and this is probably key -- on time, but by the end of winter, I did carry a balance owed to them. I had called them a few times about it, and ultimately they put me on a payment plan to get rid of the balance over the next three months.

It wasn't fun, and of course there were late fees, but they did work with me. The outstanding balance never showed up as a bad account or as missed payments on my credit report, probably because I was paying them "something" every month by the due date.

So if you can't pay the bill in full when it's due, see if they'll accept partial payment on-time and accept the rest the next week or month. You'll have late fees assessed but doubtful they'll send you to collections or shut off your power. (That's not official advice! Just my experience.)

I understood that you weren't looking for someone to pay the bill, just help with getting an extension. My comment was trying to offer suggestions in getting help with that extension.

I asked them for 3 days extension this week and they said no because its not the winter heating season anymore. They didn't used to be such hardasses.

Typical Liberal-expecting a government handout. Want to keep your electricity on? Pay your bill!

That's not fair, Harley. You've mischaracterized the OP's intent. You've also mischaracterized some -- but not all, certainly! -- "liberals."

Otherwise: Yeah, right on.

Sorry Toledolatina, my post came across more rough than I intended. Sorry about that. No harm intended.

Harley, go away and take Opal with you.

I am not looking to not pay for anything. I'm just saying when things are tough, it was nice to get an extra week to pay my bill. They don't do it anymore. Oh well.

Man, Harley, what a fine Christian statement.

The Bible says if a man will not work he will not eat. I guess that could also translate to this situation: "If a man does not pay his electric bill he will not have electricity."