I have a financial dispute with the provider of my gas service. Am I required to allow the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to resolve this dispute or am I entitled to have it adjudicated before a Magisterial District Justice?
If it matters, details of the dispute are as follows: I had the gas company shut off service at our second home over the summer because we wouldn't be using any gas and it should have been cheaper to pay the restart fee in the fall than to pay monthly fixed charges of ~$12 (charged whether or not any gas is used) for 6 months. Well as you might have guessed the gas company continued to register these monthly charges (though oddly they never sent a bill) even though no gas was used, or even could have been used if we wanted to. But when I went to have the gas turned back on last November, they wouldn't do it until I paid the "overdue charges". With winter coming, I just wanted the gas turned on. So I paid them. But it bothered me, so I sent a letter, a pretty courteous one, to the company's "customer service" and requested a refund. They just ignored it, so I sent a second letter. And when that was also ignored, I sent a third letter which wasn't quite so courteous and in which I demanded to have the charges reversed. But they've continued to just ignore me or respond with completely inapplicable simplistic comments like "it's a fixed fee, everyone pays it no matter how much gas you use".
So finally I've determined I just have to take this to a judge. I've never dealt with the Public Utility Commission, so I don't know what to expect. I'd definitely feel more comfortable filing my case with the local District Justice. But I don't want to pay filing fees then have the case thrown out on jurisdictional grounds. Any advice?

