OT - but a perfect example of why to never allow a company to directly debit your checking account (via routing # or debit card) each month.

i thought all utilities were billed like this.

It's funny how no one complained when their bills were too low for several months.

@WhirlyBird: No kidding. Pay up, people.

I agree that the customers should pay what they used but the company should give them more time. 3 months to pay a back 'several' months of under-charges is somewhat short. That said, the company seems to be doing the right thing, why is this on Consumerist?

The customers basically got an interest-free loan from Aquila for a few months. It's only fair that they pay it back, although I definitely understand that some people who spent their reduced-bill savings may have trouble paying it back in three months. This is a good reminder to always have an emergency savings account.

Well I think since it's an admitted case of employee incompetence, then yes the gas company should eat it. It's not like the customers were stiffing them intentionally.

No, The customer should be responsible for the product they used. While it is great customer service for a company to eat the cost, it is by no means the companies responsability. I believe people expect companies to bend over backwards for them a little too much. No company is perfect, they are run by people after all. I think the customers should pay up, but they should be given pleanty of time. The company is right, they are just charging for what they are owed. people make mistakes, that doesn't mean you should get a free ride.

You use gas. You are billed improperly for that gas over period X.

Once the error is discovered, you are responsible for the billing error and must complete payment by period Y, which is equivalent in length until period X. As a benefit, you don't have to pay for the marginal interest rate on the cash short that Aquila held for the period of time in which they had provided more gas than they had received payment for.

they should pay. the company however should give them the same number of months as the mistake took place to pay the money back.

Why is this up for debate? When the government takes too few estimated taxes out of your paycheck for 12 months, come April do people get to say "Oh well, your mistake, I aint payin." I wish it worked like that.

They only think I think that would be messed up is that if they were charged a higher rate for the gas because it was not noticed until later and the price has gone up, if it has.

I would like to see Aquila suck it up and say "our bad, don't worry about it", but knowing that'll never happen they need to give their customers longer than 3 months to pay up. There are a lot of people who simply can't come up with an extra $300 per month to be able to pay this down.

How about if they finance a yearlong lone to these customers to reduce the pressure to come up with a lump sum of cash?

A friend of mine had this happen to them. They moved into a new apartment during the summer so they had no idea how much it was going to cost to heat the place during the winter. Their bill was not too high in December and January so they thought they had a nice insulated apartment. Then in February, they got the $500 makeup bill. They disputed and told that if they had known the amount up front, they would have dropped their thermostat a few degrees to lower the bill. After escalating it a few levels, they got them to drop the bill in half.

So what happens if, during the time that they were under-reading the meters, someone moved? After they transfer the bill to a new tenant / owner, they aren't responsible for future bills. So who gets stuck with making up the under-reading, the new tenant / owner?

This is a pet peeve of mine. Nicor Gas here in suburban Chicago has to "estimate" my readings most months because my gas meter is inside the house and I'm not usually home when their reader comes by. So I end up with months of waaaay over-estimated usage, followed by a month with a nearly zero usage, followed by more months of over-estimation. When I first complained to Nicor, they suggested that I take the readings and call them in. But then they wouldn't accept my readings because - duh - they had been overestimating for months and wanted proof (i.e. a reading by one of their guys) that the meter was as low as I said it was. So I called and complained again, and they basically shrugged and said "move your meter outside (at your expense)."

Gas company billing is all a scam.

I agree 100% with the utility in this case.

Sometimes, in places without radio equipped meters read from the street by a passing vehicle, a tech can't get into a home, so the utility will estimate based on prior usage and whether. Then, next month, you pay up if short and get credit if you were over billed.

Basically the same thing here.

I work at an energy assistance program, and the one thing that I think actually changes behavior is teaching people how to read and understand their bills. When someone learns how to determine how much electricity and gas they use, it makes it more likely they will conserve energy to save money because they can see the progress on their bill.

If these customers had been similarly knowledgeable (and assuming the bills provide the information the utilities we work with do), they'd have caught the errors themselves and the smart ones (the ones who know they'd have to catch it up at some point) would have checked the meter themselves and called it in (something you can usually do if the bill says the reading was estimated).

(Sorry for all the parenthesis in that last section :P)

you should just rename this site Companiest, where it's about people trying to scam companies out of a few bucks. Then these stories will at least be more in tune with the site's purpose.

Strange how these things are offered up for debate.

It's not the most pleasant thing to deal with a power utility, but I've never heard of customers not having to pay for their energy use because the meter was misread a few times (Cheryl Gregg's wisdom nothwithstanding).

I'm not blaming the consumer, but there is such a thing as understanding your own utility bills and realizing that you're being underbilled. If you're so out of touch with your energy use, you're part of the problem.

@blondegrlz:
In all fairness, it is your employer that does this, not the government.

If you read the linked article the mis-reads were for 2 months (mid-november to mid-december). It also says 'at least' 3 months (more if needed) to make up the difference. Aquila is my gas provider so I really did want to check out how they handle it and it really does seem fair.

There are a lot of people quick to trust the gas company here.

This could have been an easy way to drive winter profits up.

Most people don't know how to read their own gas, they trust the utility company to get it right.

If winter starts and people notice that their heating bills aren't too bad then they feel like its safe to keep the house a bit warmer and use more gas as a result.

Then the gas company gets to come back later and say ... uh oh ... look at all the extra gas you used ... PAY UP!

Its not right, those people were essentially lied to about their gas consumption, and they made a financial decision to raise the thermostat based on false data provided by the company.

@gamehendge2000: I'm not sure what the scam you're referring to is here. It was the company's mistake - it's not like the customers were messing with the meters.

I agree that they should pay for their usage, but it'd be interesting to see whether they used more gas than normal because of the lower bills in prior months.

@gamehendge2000: So true...

Pay up and 3 months is very generous since the misread gas bills are probably from the last 3 months anyway. I have Aquila and they suck but still these people need to pay their bills.

One thing that sucks about Aquila is that you have to pay $20 a months whether you use gas or not. All summer I pay my money just to have the pleasure of having Aquila around. Service fees are a rip off!

Same problem happens with Pepco and other utilities that "estimate" readings. In my case, they ran a few of those estimates low, resulting in a big make-up bill. Sure, the terminology is a little different ("estimate" does not have the connotation of "final"), but the result is the same. At the end of the day, I owe what I owe. (Bonus: Pepco did not offer me any grace period for the large make-up bill).

Yeah they should probably get a little more flexibility from the company, but they DO owe the money.

i agree, the gas company should eat the loss, if i bought gasoline, and the machine said it was 20cents cheaper, they wouldn't charge me the difference if i went back later, if you can't do it right thats your the companies problem.......

how is this any different....

The gas co. should eat it. It's not the customer's fault Aquila hired an idiot who can't properly read and record meter #s (it's not rocket science).

I think it's funny that if the situation was reversed, the company may say that they will not offer a refund because too much time has passed. Doesn't this come up from time to time?

vr4z - OK, but if the gas company accidentally overcharges you, you have to eat the loss.

Woo-hoo, free gas!

I noticed the gas customers weren't that concerned when they were paying half what they should be.

You used it, you pay for it.

That said, the company seems to be doing the right thing, why is this on Consumerist?

@nonzenze:

What do you think? Should Alquila have paid for the cost of its mistake or is it only fair for customers to pay for the gas they used?

while the gas company should get the money its owed

your still going to have people that go we paid for those months end of discussion while others will pay the extra money being charged

@WhirlyBird: while i agree the company should be able to recoup its losses it's sometimes difficult to tell what a utility bill will be. i remember when our power company got broken apart as a part of deregulation. we're on a plan where we just pay a flat fee each month and the difference is made up over the year, sometimes less sometimes more deal. however, the first bill after the power company had to sell off its plants resulted in a $600 bill and there was no warning that the price would skyrocket that way. these people probably didn't notice their bill was too low because it fit in a general price range that they were used to.

This happened to us, but they billed us really high for about 2 months and the last month the bill was around $50.

@beavis88: Seriously, would you complain if your bill was to low. Stop blaming the consumers, gas bills fluctuate depending on the season/month to month. So to compare directly you would have to remember what you payed a year ago.

Saying that, I would be pissed but I would understand and pay it.

I run into a similar situation with my gas bill. Every other month they do estimated readings. They're off so badly that I basically pay a month ahead of time.

For instance I've had a bill of ~$300 for a month and then next month getting charged for about $25.

I'm really surprised at the number of people who are siding with the gas company here. And full disclosure, I work for a natural gas utility.

The way I see it, it should be treated as a commodity. If you went to your local grocery store and bought a box of Frosted Flakes (which is unmarked with price), they said $1 please, and you pay it and leave; But the next time you go in, the guy ahead of you in line is charged $2 for his frosted flakes, and then you're charged $3 for your frosted flakes right after, and they cite that you were mischarged the first time and now you have to pay up.

This is why I'd side with the customer here.

Ok, imagine you go through the drive through at Wendy's every day. You order the same value meal, and it comes with a medium drink. One day they start giving you a large drink but not charging you any more.
After a few days of this you say "Hey I'm getting a large drink now" and they say "Well I guess that's what the value meal comes with." So, you keep on getting your large drinks with your value meal for a few months, and then one day you go through the line and they say "Yeah, we made a mistake and you were supposed to be getting medium drinks this whole time, so you owe us for the difference. Sorry about your luck."

That kind of thing would never happen at Wendy's, so why would it be acceptable with the gas company? The meters belong to them, the pipes and reading equipment belong to them, if they can't or choose not to read it properly that's hardly the fault of the consumer.
It's the same bullshit as "The register made a mistake/is down/can't process transactions" excuse. I'm not buying something from the register, I'm buying it from you. The system you use to properly charge me, take and organize the money I give you is none of my business, and if it's not working properly it's your problem not mine.

Yes, the customers did use the gas, but the utility made the billing error and should be responsible for their own mistake.

This happened to me in an old apartment. The meter broke and didn't charge me for 3 months. Then they hit me with a big bill, but gave me an equal amount of time to pay it (3 months).
I agree its no fun to get a bill like that. I complained and grumbled, but it was the fair thing to do, and if they'd been overcharging me, I would have expected a refund.

I think the customers should explain to the gas company that they understand, and will pay the extra, but that their bill payment policy only allows them to correct billing errors in the past three months.

Unfortunately, any undercharging which may have occurred more than three months ago can't be corrected.

It's their policy, you see.

There's an error in the post. According to the article you linked to:

Schwartz said Aquila is giving customers at least* three months to pay the bills and more time if they need it.

This is why I use balanced billing. It's easier to take a hit/spike over the course of a year than all at once.

@Boy Howdy: I came here to say this, also.

I work for an electric/natural gas utility a third the size of Aquila. We have checks and balances in place that prevent just this sort of thing from happening, including switching the meter readers' routes around every few months and automatic computer alerts that go to our customer service dept. when an area of reads is unusually high or low at any one time.

We are also getting ready to install automatic meter reading technology which will allow one employee to drive through several neighborhoods and read hundreds of meters in a day. Eventually the meter data will be automatically sent back to the utility, without the need for the reader. The consumer will also have access to his own info and will be able to monitor and adjust usage.

Step up, Aquila! If my little ute can do it, so can you!

@humphrmi: My meter is outside, yet Nicor "estimates" every other month. I suppose they do this because they can basically cut their meter reading costs in half (only read 6x per year, not 12). But, it's annoying. Why not just bill every other month then?

PUC time for this one. Asses screwed up and are nailing folks, some of them are probably on limited income. Think that the state needs to step in and force this operation to eat at least 1/2 the bills in dispute, and mitigate the rest in interest-free payments over a fixed time period.

The utility company here estimated our electric wrong for a whole year, then sent us a $900 bill after we moved. We had a few months to pay too.

Pay up, your bills were artificially low.