There was a time that I got a bill in college for when we weren't even there. We had turned off the breaker for the house so no electricity would even flow but there is still some small amount that somehow gets through, and insignificant amount of around 50 cents a month. When we returned to our house in August there were dozens of notices from the electric company warning of past due payment and that the electric was going to be turned off if we didn't pay this $1.50 in a house where there is clearly nobody there. They went through the trouble of turning the electricity off, which means sending a person out there to manually do it who is likely making $40 an hour not to mention all the paper and postage associated with the bills. In the end they tried to charge US for reconnection but when we refused and explained that it is very common for college students to not actually be in the city during summer they reluctantly complied and now there was what? maybe $50-$75 worth of supposed expenses associated with this insignificant bill? It's all so stupid. This was long before the days of getting electronic notifcations about bills and what not too, but I guess the system was already automated by an extra illogical robot at the time.