Texas family hit with $8,000 electric bill

$300-400 dollars a month?

In texas where I reside during the 100 degree summers with my AC running 24/7 and a bunch of computers on, my bill in the house never goes above $200 a month, so what was she doing to get to $300-400 a month?


If you do the math, $8000 dollars over five years is $134 a month.

Which sounds about right.


Anyway I'd be upset.

I get mad when the cable company tries adding surcharges for nothing!

reply to post by Blanca Rose


Where is your proof that she was intentionally STEALING electricity? From all accounts (other than your unproven accusations) she had no idea that the electric company was screwing up... none whatsoever. Yes/no???

Originally posted by zerbot565


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

You can request separate meters for out buildings and such, as for your boiler room, is it a building not attatched to the house?

People have to request separate meters for things like light poles and such. If you bought property where you have more than one, that is what the other owners requested.

If you don't need them, and don't like the bills, have them disconnected, or request that the electric company integrate them all, at their expense.

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

reply to post by Hedera Helix


She got bills, that showed no electic consumption. It states so in the article. Do you suppose she thought electicity was a freebie along with the other services she was billed for?

Your brain is an amazing thing when you use it.

reply to post by Blanca Rose


LOL... she got bills for NO ELECTRIC consumption??? What was the $300-$400 monthly bill covering... if it wasn't for ELECTRIC CONSUMPTION???

Originally posted by Hedera Helix
reply to post by Blanca Rose

 

LOL... she got bills for NO ELECTRIC consumption??? What was the $300-$400 monthly bill covering... if it wasn't for ELECTRIC CONSUMPTION???

Well, there you go. Go back and read the article. The electric company does not only serve the public with electricity. Feel free, to take back all your remarks, once you read the article.

It's okay, we all have foot in mouth syndrome at one time or another.

She got billed for other things, as the article states. Her bills, did not show electric consumption.........hello...........ding, ding, ding..........and she let it go on for five, yep, count 'em, five years.

Wow that's crazy. Is there any help they can get?

After reading the article and having worked in an industry that does charge later, I can say this: It is both of their faults. It is the fault of the woman for not asking why am I not being charged for the electric, and the other fault lies in the Electric company. If you think about it, and put some reason in it, the question must be asked, why did they not pick up on this for so long. 6 months, yes I can see, it is possible, 1 year maybe, 2 is a stretch, but they missed this for 5 years running. That is 60 times a meter checker has come by and had to check the meter, 60 visits to her house. I believe that the payment should be divided down by 4, and here is who should pay. 1/2 is to be eaten by the electric company for letting it go for so long. She may have used it, but the reality is, they not only did not do their job once, they failed to do it at least 62 times. When you change out the meter, it is the job of the electric company to come and sign off on it, that it was installed correctly and to check it. She should pay a quarter of the bill, about 2000, as she did use the electricity and the final quarter should be on the person who installed the new meter, as the fault lies with that. If you think about it in that way, it means that all of them are sharing in the fault as it was ALL of their responsibility for this problem.

Well, I am certainly happy that I read the article because it clearly states that she must pay her usual bill plus 98 dollars a month for the next 7 years (a payment plan) to pay off the debt.

Here is where it gets fuzzy for me. The electric company installed a new meter and the tech messed it up while programming it, so she has not been charged for any electric service for the past 5 years. Where she lives gas and electric are managed by the same company so she was paying a bill apparently for gas service only but the statement was said to be combined.

Now, personally I believe there should be a time frame of how long the company can go back to claim a clerical error (especially when it was their fault), a few months, a year, thus the litigation.

The article also goes on to say that the payments go toward the city budget and they (the company) has a policy to collect payment for all rendered services (well duh). Cities however create a budget every fiscal year, the budget from 5 years ago and last year, have all been created and spent. Perhaps her total should be whatever mistakes were made over the current fiscal year. This is the issue I would like to see resolved in court.

I could understand the demand for payment in full if she or someone in her household tampered with the meter to create the issue, but that is not what happened, the electric company screwed up, by their own admission.

reply to post by sdcigarpig


Yes, and also as for as many times that they were at the home to read the meter, she got a bill.

She used it, regardless of who is at fault.

Having signed up for the service, her part is to make sure the bill is correct everytime she gets a bill.

While the meter was not set up with the correct code, she knew she was using electricity every month, and not paying for it.

Sooner or later, what's the difference? Like I said, would you prefer her expenses be passed on to the other customers using the service?

Wow im wondering do you guys pay more for electricity in the states? I pay no more than £60 or £70 at the very most every month, most people in my area use 'pay as you go' card meters, like the pay as you go phones, you can view how much balance you have left at any given time, and no bill's at the end of the month

Granted its just me and its a one bedroom apartment, but I do use an electric heater most evenings.

My mums is a three bedroom house and she looks after kids, her bill is never more than £100 a month.

They wanna do it this way...Time to invest in solar, if they are in texas, and batteries for storage, take that 8000 they owe them and buy solar!!

reply to post by Lady_Tuatha


You can do the pay as you go thing in Arizona, or you could when I lived there. However, there will be no exceptions if you run short. Lights out!

edit to add:

They had, when I was living there, kiosks at the grocery store to feed your money into for pay as you go.



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

edit: i missed a key part of the article, invalidating any reply i had here.

[edit on 15-5-2010 by bigfatfurrytexan]

reply to post by sdcigarpig


Exactly, share the blame. Just as she had missed it, so had the electric company and the techs that came to the home for 5 years.

Originally posted by Blanca Rose
reply to post by Lady_Tuatha

 

You can do the pay as you go thing in Arizona, or you could when I lived there. However, there will be no exceptions if you run short. Lights out!

edit to add:

They had, when I was living there, kiosks at the grocery store to feed your money into for pay as you go.

Here the way it works is, if you run out over the weekend then it wont turn you off until 9am on monday morning, also it will set off an alarm to warn you when you are running low, you can also borrow a couple of pounds worth which you payback on your next top-up.



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

Originally posted by Hedera Helix

"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.

That would probably explain a $400 a month electric bill in Texas.

She doesn't have a $400 a month electric bill.

I took $8000 and divided by 60 months and got $133 a month, which isn't too different from my electric bill, mine's a little less but not much.

The other part of the bill was for gas.

They're giving her 7 years to pay it back, so take 8000 divided by 7 years, and you get $95 a month payback for the 5 years she got for free, plus $133 a month for current usage, so those two still don't add up to a $400 a month electric bill.

Originally posted by searching4truth

Exactly, share the blame. Just as she had missed it, so had the electric company and the techs that came to the home for 5 years.

Oh come on now............she got an itemized bill, explaining exactly what she was being charged for, and it did not list electricity.

She conveniently missed it, hoping she could get away with it forever.

She might be an idiot, which is a different story, but theft of service is what I think!

edit: i missed a key part of the article, invalidating any reply i had here.

[edit on 15-5-2010 by bigfatfurrytexan]

Originally posted by bigfatfurrytexan
a) the customer was already invoiced, and reconciled that invoice. The kw/h charge on that invoice is a contract.

If she was billed at the wrong rate, I can see the court siding with her as you suggest.

But since she was billed zero, I don't see the courts enforcing that. A contract requires some type of exchange, and the courts will probably consider the "contract" invalid if the kw/h charge is zero, which is essentially what happened.

There is a legal term used in contract law, called "consideration":

www.ask.com...

In common law it is a prerequisite that both parties offer some consideration before a contract can be thought of as binding.

If there's no consideration (payment) then the legal requirement for a contract hasn't been met. She made no payment for her electric service.