Double Billing: Is it Common?

 Within the last week I twice received bills from utility companies that ignored payments received before the new bill was issued, let alone sent. The last instance was such a bill from Dominion Gas, a energy company doing business in West Virginia. My previous experience of this kind was with US Cellular, on December 23. It is possible that these are both honest mistakes, but for the following reasons I am getting suspicious. First, this is not the first time. Second, in both cases it is difficult and inconvenient to get in touch with the company. To me, this suggest the possibility of purposeful action in the hope that the consumer does not notice or, if she or he notices, gives up in frustration after many unsuccessful attempt to contact the company.

What are the experiences of readers "out there?"

GEVRIL 2 MEN'S ANA SPACE CHRONOGRAPH

I own a GV2 Ana Space "Chronotimer." The watch is very good looking, if you like large men's watches, which I do. The digital display suffers a bit from poor legibility, particularly with the back light off. The back light stays on for only a very short time. The glass is first class in terms of scratch resistance. I have owned the watch for one and half years and still have no scratch. In general, the materials used in making the watch appear to be of very good quality.
Reliability is another issue, however. On my watch the letter 2 in the twelve 'clock position fell off a short time after a bought the watch. The repair, which as under warranty, cost me about $50 when shipping and a mandatory minimum charge are included, and I had to wait a long time before the watch was returned. While the figure 2 was attached where it belonged, in the process of repairing, the number has suffered a few scratches, which are visible only very close up, but which do not instill great confidence in the quality of the support staff of this brand. By the way, there were also slight scuff marks on the back where the watch had been opened for the repair.

A bit more than a week ago, the analogue display stopped working completely. The battery is just over a month old and is good; I checked it. The digital display is still working. I will have to send the watch back to the U.S. representative, which I will do. I hope that the repairs will not take as long as last time and will be carried out with more care. In the meantime, I bought a cheap but nice looking Seiko Solar watch and I am happy with it.

Tag Heuer Curve Sunglasses

Last year ago a purchases a pair of Tag Heuer sunglasses from the company's Curve line. A year and a couple of weeks later, the right arm of the glasses broke off. Searching for repair information I learned that I am not the only one having this problem. The company does not repair more than one year after the purchase and the repair cost, according to a Tag Heuer dealer, is about one-third of the manufacturer's recommended price, which for these models is usually about $500. This is just not an acceptable performance of a supposedly high-quality product and I therefore want to warn other consumers before they waste there money as I did.