Ideas
Yes!!! I am months after this first comment.. never had this problem before... It is predetermined to break the game though.
I had a positive balance of $31... I got the notice that if I didn't pay my power would be shut off... I tried phone, computer, mailbox, replacing the mailbox, paying from another lot, I tried taking the entire family to another lot and back again, I tried moving half the family out and then the other half, it followed one of the adult sims, the last one to leave the house actually, they didn't have power at their new house either, still couldn't pay it... I then backed the game up, from a save... I played through three more full real hours, got to the same point, power off, nothing will turn it back on and no way to pay it. They go through the motions but it will not pay off the balance because it is positive!
EA, there needs to be a fix for this... you need to at least create a cheat code to 0 out your bills if you aren't going to fix the game!
The saddest part... it was a house with three kids, it happens every time on Christmas morning the Landgrabb's shut off the power. FYI, If I can figure a way around this... I am going to make it my mission to kill all the Landgrabb's!