I think most meters have wireless connectivity now, too. I've never once had someone physically check my meter.

Are there really people in the US driving from house to house reading the meters? In Germany you just get a letter (or an email nowadays) asking you to read the meter and tell them. Unless the values you're providing are obviously wrong, noone questions you.

If you lie there you'll be found out when you move out of your apparent or when the meter is changed after 20 or 30 years.

It’s ridiculous how obsolete US utility companies are, especially water companies that often require you to show up to their office in person to activate service or set up automatic payments (You want a voided paper check? I don’t even have checks for my account. What’s wrong with a debit card?).

And they go crazy with their estimated bills. I worked an IT job where I’d fly to some city in the US for a week of work, fly home on Friday, do laundry and submit expense reports, and do it all again the next week. Was pretty much never home. Got a water bill for $300+, and they wanted to try and argue with me that the bill was correct. They suggested maybe I had a leak somewhere, as if a leak that resulted in a $300+ bill wouldn’t have been causing some blatantly obvious issues that I would have seen.

Now they're doing readings from their trucks remotely via wireless technology.

I believe the joke is that since they stopped paying their bills, and the decoy prevents utility workers from coming and turning off the power, that’s the free power they are referring to in the meme.

In my country is the same ways but the value paid is corrected when they do get the measurement, so if you paid more in the estimate you get it deducted. Not sure what happens if they can never get a measurement.

Jokes on them. My electric company reads the meter from thier office and can shut power down remotely.

I'd fight em and refuse to pay the extra on the bill. It's not your responsibility to fix their fuck-up when they are the ones estimating and billing you. If they want their money they shouldve given you the correct bill the first time. It's like getting a cheeseburger for $5, and then the restaurant realizes inflation exists and comes banging on your door for another $10 a month later.