Illinois' 10-year electric rate freeze had expired and Ameren, the company that supplies power to Carterville and a huge swath of the rest of Illinois, raised its rates. A lot.

Robert decided to fight back by arranging to pay his bill entirely in pennies. 52,662 of them. Now it seems that Robert's "eff you" to Ameren was not in vain. From Forbes:

Ameren officials announced Monday that they'll be sending out $140 million in rebate checks and bill credits starting this week, promising each customer at least $85 back in the mail.

Starting Wednesday, checks will be sent to 935,000 residential customers and continue for a month, closely synched to the company's billing cycle. Credits will show up on bills sent to 133,000 residential customers behind in payments by at least two months and bills for 13,000 small business owners.

Ameren hopes the announcement is the start of a public image turnaround after a year of battering. Customers were caught off guard by huge rate increases in January after a 10-year rate freeze, and the backlash forced Ameren and ComEd to cut back the increases.

"Our customers have asked for rate relief and we are delivering it," Stan Ogden, an Ameren vice president in charge of customer service, said in a statement.

The checks and credits are part of a $1 billion rate relief package negotiated by the utilities and state lawmakers and signed into law by Gov. Rod Blagojevich two weeks ago to ease the customer outrage.

Ameren customers can expect at least $100 back in rebates and credits, but more will be coming depending on how much electricity you consume and if you use electricity to heat your home. ComEd customers can expect some relief as well. According to ComEd's spokesperson, ComEd customers will see a $60 credit on their October bills and $7 a month after that. If you don't see a credit on your bill, you'll want to contact ComEd to complain.

Ameren Customers to Receive Rebates [Forbes]

(Photo:C. Barr)

Packaged with the confirmation number, Bill was subjected to a series of sales pitches, one by one. Lowe's. Cable TV. Phone service. Security system. Coupons for something or another. When would the madness stop? Maybe with a timeshare opportunity in Las Vegas?

Maybe Bill is just a little too nice, but he should have asked for the confirmation and left it at that. No e-mailing of coupons, no sales pitches, just a goddamn confirmation number.

Companies are obviously desperate to work the phone for sales, since the Do-Not-Call List makes cold-calling harder. But this is excessive.

And remember, you can always say no. Toughen up, Bill!

Bill's e-mail, after the jump...

OK, so I'm not 100% sure what's going on here, but I figured I'd write and hopefully gain some insight into this...

I'm in the process of buying a house. Closing is in a few weeks, but I figured I'd get a jump on things to try and make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible.

I called my "local" electric company, AmerenIP, and spoke to a woman who knew her job pretty well and got me taken care of. She then said she'd transfer me to another company - I can't quite remember the name - for my "confirmation number."

I thought this was a little odd - I mean, why can't she give me a confirmation number herself? Still, who am I to say what might be happening, so I just said sure and waited.

Another lady picked up and said she would email me my confirmation number and a 10% off coupon for Lowe's if she could have my email address. Erm, okay. What - she can't just tell me the number? I'm pretty paranoid about my real email address so I gave her my spamtastic email.com account. I plan to fish it out later. Maybe.

Then she starts in with a new offer - that she'll help transfer over all of my other services. Free of charge, of course. I was getting a little on the paranoid side so hesitantly said "sure" (more out of curiosity than anything else) and she starts going through possible services I might have.

I let her know the cable's taken care of, along with high-speed internet. Check.

She asked about my local phone service. I told her I don't have or need local service. "Why?" "My girlfriend and I both have good cell service and don't need a land line." Her pitch basically amounted to, "Sir, we recommend basic phone service for 911 emergency calls so the police could locate you more quickly than they could with a cell phone." Having worked for the phone company before, I already know this is a line of crap - you can dial 911 on any phone that has a dial tone. Still, she continues her sales pitch more or less trying to scare me into signing up for basic phone service.. I make sure she knows we need no such thing.

Next on the menu of marketing offers was a "free home security consultation." By this point, I knew that Ameren had basically connected me with a telemarketer and told her that I really would not be needing this. I informed her I'd take care of the gas bill myself, and that I was going to disconnect.

Not to be distracted, she asked at the end if she could email me "$100 worth of coupons". Whatever. It's a junk account, and I was just ready to get off the phone by that point. I said okay, thnaked her for her time (old habits die hard) and got off the phone.

So seriously - what the hell? Since when did my service call become an opportunity for some third-party to make some money with dubious "services"?