Texas family hit with $8,000 electric bill

Originally posted by Sean48
reply to post by tothetenthpower

 

If they actually owe the money , they should be able to let them pay it in

payments , over a certain time period.

If the error was the other way, they overpaid 8,000., you certainly would

want to be reembursed.

Sadly, these companies don't operate this way. They'd probably offer you $8,000 in credit (which would be sacrificed if you cancelled your account or changed providers)


I think this lady has a great opportunity to litigate in this instance. I'd like to see the burden of proof on their end that there actually was a mistake in their software or someone entered not enough 0's etc.

What's to say they didn't just do an audit of their average monthly billing, identify certain ones that in their eyes, "paid too little", and then sent the collection-goons after them to reap more $$.

Quite ingenious actually. I'm sure they've done their own acceptable-loss studies and such to determine what the can get away with, what they can defend and what they can simply toss out.

reply to post by Arbitrageur


If that's the case than that is fair as hell really.

Although I am still weary about the company taking 5 years to see that there was a problem.

As for her, I would have shut my mouth too, I mean ofcourse she noticed, you'd have to be an idiot not to notice that you aren't being billed for your electric.

~Keeper

after a quick search on the net i found this
www.jea.com...

from that i guess its safe to say that she uses over 2500Kwh a month of electricity ,

seams a bit heavy for someone who dont need heating.

my guess is that the house has faulty wires or some neighbour steals from them

Originally posted by Arbitrageur
reply to post by Hedera Helix

 

I may regret asking this, but what does the live-in boyfriend have to do with it?

Are you saying the power company would have just looked the other way when they discovered the clerical error if she didn't have a live-in boyfriend? And did they even know that he was living there?

That's exactly what I'm saying. They would have let it slide and it never would have seen the light of day. They would have found someone more deserving to drop a bomb on.

Originally posted by tothetenthpower


As for her, I would have shut my mouth too, I mean ofcourse she noticed, you'd have to be an idiot not to notice that you aren't being billed for your electric.

~Keeper

Well, I think we have all agree that she probably just said nothing hoping that nobody would ever notice.

If this had gone on for 20 years, can you imagine the bill?

My thoughts is her ignorance, or shutting up, is no excuse not to pay. She's lucky they aren't demanding all the money up front.

whether she used it or not is not the question. there is a fairly common scam used by businesses to rip off consumer they will send you a letter stating that a year or 2 ago on date blah blah blah you missed a PAYMENT AND YOU NEED TO PAY THAT AMOUNT PLUS MONTLY PENALTIES for late bill plus current monthly charge. the plan is that you won't have copy of reciept so they can get free money. i personally have seen this scam done on my mother she lost her house over it,gateway tried and failed to do this to me over a computer they said i failed to finish paying for yhank good i kept all my reciepts. and my neighbors car insurance. if they legitimately scewed up her bill oh well too bad if she is made to pay it back then some people at electrically billing office should lose there jobs starting with the supervisor

Originally posted by proteus33
whether she used it or not is not the question. there is a fairly common scam used by businesses to rip off consumer they will send you a letter stating that a year or 2 ago on date blah blah blah you missed a PAYMENT AND YOU NEED TO PAY THAT AMOUNT PLUS MONTLY PENALTIES

Where does it say this woman has to pay any penalties for the mistake the company made?

She used the service, and is being asked to pay for it. She is not being penalized for late payments.

Read much?

"It's already hard trying to pay three or four hundred dollars a month. What if one month I can't pay my full amount? I'm worried they're going to turn my lights off," she said.

Does this sound like she was KNOWINGLY trying to get away with something??? It looks and sounds to me like she was already getting sucked dry by the electric company. Maybe she was growing pot under lights in her basement, eh? That would probably explain a $400 a month electric bill in Texas.

[edit on 15/5/2010 by Hedera Helix]

reply to post by Hedera Helix


Yes, it does.

If you moved into a house, that already had cable hooked up, would you call the cable company and tell them so, or would you just let that go, too? I have worked at a cable company for many years as well, and A LOT of people do this. Not having signed up for service, they won't be held responsible for the bill, when it is discovered, but this lady signed up for electric service.

Her bill showed no electric usage over and above what she was paying for the other services.

Her problem might not be that she meant to steal, but that she can't read. I don't know about you, but I actually read my bills before I stick a check in the mail.

Even if she is an idiot, she used the service!

edit to add back at ya..........

[edit on 15-5-2010 by Blanca Rose]

reply to post by Blanca Rose


And maybe she should file for bankruptcy... eh???

reply to post by Hedera Helix


concidering that there are atleast 3 meters for each house , 2 are being check regulary on a daily / weekly basis and one in your house for you to read.

seams pretty wierd that a falut like this wasent found withinn a 6month period,

besides its not like people collect and store data for a company like this on pen and paper, its pretty hard to scam an automated system that reads and prints in real time,

whats funny is that even if its a faulty meter , its not the customers fault.

reply to post by Hedera Helix


Well, that is a possibility.

Perhaps she will have better luck then, with a mortgage, and bills, having no credit.

She will probably be required to put up a depost with the new electric company.

Nobody wants this woman ruined, they just simply want her to pay for what she used.

reply to post by zerbot565


There are not 3 meters at every household! There is one meter, per unit.

Some meters have more than one dial, depending on the type of meter.

Quit spreading dissinformation!

Originally posted by Blanca Rose
reply to post by Hedera Helix

 

Well, that is a possibility.

Perhaps she will have better luck then, with a mortgage, and bills, having no credit.

She will probably be required to put up a depost with the new electric company.

Nobody wants this woman ruined, they just simply want her to pay for what she used.

Gee.. I wonder how all these big companies manage after filing chapter 11?

reply to post by Hedera Helix


That is a topic for another thread.

If it weren't for people not wanting to pay their bills, they might not have to file for chapter 11 to begin with.

Stick to the topic, and quit trying to derail a thread about a customer getting a bill for something they used.

reply to post by zerbot565

seams pretty wierd that a falut like this wasent found withinn a 6month period,

My thoughts exactly. Why should she be made to suffer for a prolonged period of time for their error? There should be a time limit on how far back they can go... ESPECIALLY if they're the ones in error.

reply to post by Blanca Rose


so what your saying is that the electrical company only has one meter they check per house ?


i have one in my boiler room which they check yearly
an other one across the street between my house and their line , and a third between that main line and the line thats linked to my house,

guess im delusional

and id assume they have meters at the company aswell for each block or ressidential area to monitor in the real time power consumption

Originally posted by Hedera Helix


My thoughts exactly. Why should she be made to suffer for a prolonged period of time for their error? There should be a time limit on how far back they can go... ESPECIALLY if they're the ones in error.

How has this woman been made to suffer? She did not have to pay for what she used, for a long time. Perhaps she stuck her electic bill money under the matress, or used it for something else.

Why don't you get it, that when an electric company makes a mistake, if they are not paid back for it, YOUR bill will go up, to cover those costs?

Nobody is making her suffer..........she probably had a great time on the extra money she did not spend, outside of what she was billed for.

Clue to the woman.....buy a house you can afford to pay your bills at!

She possibly needs to relocate to a home where she can afford her bills.

reply to post by Blanca Rose


I can think of a couple of covert alphabet agencies who fall in this category... go preach to them. And while you're at it... tell them you want a bunk in their underground facilities when the BIG ONE hits.

Originally posted by Hedera Helix

I can think of a couple of covert alphabet agencies who fall in this category... go preach to them. And while you're at it... tell them you want a bunk in their underground facilities when the BIG ONE hits.

Okay, and this has what to do with the topic?

Like I said before with my example of the cable company, if you get something for free, is it ok, because you think you have gotten away with it?

If you get too much change back at a cash register, do you point out the mistake to the cashier and hand the change back, because the person did not realize it, or do you keep it?

It's the same thing with getting a public utility for free, for years on end, because you turned a blind eye.

Theft, is not ok, even if it was due to error.