NICOR GAS
takes advanaged of people by overcharging them for gas usage in the summer my bill runs any where from 49.00 dollars no lower than
36.00 d0llar i know that my sound cheap but i only have a gas furnance and water heater its only me and my husband that lives in our
home. what a ripoff. most people bill run about 20.00 dollars a month.

I created this page to give a voice to the victims of Nicor Gas, Inc. Please feel free to post your stories below. Here is mine:

I started working at Nicor in 2009 shortly after I began to experience what I would consider blatant mistreatment of myself and my Asian/Indian coworker on behalf of our supervisor. My department consists of 3 White males, 1 Asian/Indian female, myself a Black female and our supervisor White. What I immediately noticed was the degrading and condescending manner in which our supervisor spoke to the other female and I. After working there less than 6 months I received an extremely negative and harsh review. As time continued I noticed a pattern of my supervisor deliberately discarding my work or delaying in submitting it to the proper departments in a timely fashion when I emailed to her for approval. I began collecting emailed proof of my report submissions to her and proof of her refusing to approve my reports for days beyond the due date without a reason and then her stating that she had no idea where my reports were. This treatment of deliberate work sabotage continued for several months and I spent months collecting documentation of this through emails and other written submissions. Approximately 6 months after a Black supervisor was hired and my supervisor was to be a direct report to her. When we asked why she was brought in solely to have one person report to her she responded that she was brought in to bridge the “gap” between our supervisor and the field employees.
From the time I began I also noticed other inequalities within the department the white males were afforded company credit cards and other privileges the minorities were not. I began to question things like why it was necessary for me to submit my work for approval to my supervisor and not my counterparts whom started working for the company around the same time I did. I also began to question why the white males within the department were receiving promotions and pay raises and not the minorities. After several attempts to seek help from management and being ignored I decided to choose a different route.
After months of collecting work sabotage documentation and confirming my suspicions of unequal treatment, unequal pay and alienation with the other minority female within the department and having her agree the same; I decided to speak up by contacting the “Nicor Ethics Hotline” an internal ethics reporting hotline (which is disproportionately used to fire blacks) . Immediately following an interview with 2 white employees in HR and my supervisor out the “blue” the Black supervisor (who was new to her position) was called in the “handle this”. A sad depiction of what some Black people will do to in order to please their perceived superiors. A few days following I was placed on a PIP and immediately fired. I had never had any history of write ups or the sort.
I decided to file a charge with the Illinois Department of Human Rights and after submitting all my documentation, having the parties at Nicor admit to the charges during the “fact finding conference”, and having Nicors’ Attorney withdraw from the case the next day after the conference. Somehow the IDHR investigator ignored all written evidence and confessions and dismissed the case. The investigation by the IDHR was held and the witnesses contacted by the IDHR were the SAME 3 perpetrators whom the charge was against. All witness I named were either not included in the report or refused to talk. Now I have No IDEA (neither did my attorney) how it is that the IDHR is using the same person the charge was filed against as a witness to confirm no discrimination took place …but they do.
In conclusion, it is my belief that Nicor offered some sort of compensation to the investigator in exchange for a dismissal of my case. I do not regret for one minute my decision to fight for equality and stand up to the ugliness of discrimination. It is sad that in 2011 we are still subjected to the same injustice and inequalities that this country was founded on. The sadder truth is the number of minorities whom are willing to turn on their counterparts in order to save themselves.

Service tech swaps out meter, impossible to re-connect.

All detailed here on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uIXRWoaQdo

I don't know where to go to submit a complaint to someone it will matter. My husband and I were behind 4 payments. I know that is bad however with the economy and have a child that started off with complications we focused on medical bills. So, when they turned off our gas we called to see the quickest we could get it turned on. They for some reason didn't take our debit card over the phone because of the logo on our card; which I have never heard that in my life. Ok so fine, whatever, we found a currency exchange (which keep in mind none of those are a direct pay to Nicor). My husband makes the payment and we have to wait for that to post. Now we were able to schedule an appointment to come out and have it turned back on. This happened on a Thursday and the earliest is this coming Wednesday. That is the earliest??? My husband called to see if there was anything they could do to bump up the date. We were told they have to cancel our existing appointment and wait for a call back, and then there were no guarantees we would get earlier and it could be way passed our scheduled date. Their policy is a call back from a Supervisor within 48 hours. Now, if I said that to a customer at my job I'd be fired. So now I have to wait a week with no gas and we have a infant that needs certain care. My husband and I could care less about us, we can survive but they won't make an exception for children or elderly? Is it because they are a monopoly and can get away with such an antiquated system as well as customer service? I don't know what to do to prevent this in the future to someone else. I want to stop this type of treatment to customers. Yes, were we late on our payment, and we understand we are in the wrong. We heard the people across the street from us are 9+ months behind and they just had their gas shut off. Can anyone direct me on how to log an official complaint. We've tried on the phone and get absolutely no where.

We had a balance of roughly $800, on 04/06/2010 we paid $300, on 04/17/2010 we paid $200, on 05/04/2010 our gas was shut off for a past due balance of $15.23, with no notice. I have 3 small children living in my home and they are telling me nobody can come hook the gas back up for 4 days!!! This is ridiculous and Nicor should not be allowed to just shut someone off with no notice, I am beyond livid!!!