Utility Bill Surprisingly High? Check Whether It's 'Estimated'
Paul wants to know how his gas company can get away with estimated meter readings instead of actual numbers, especially since they lead to much higher bills. "This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of," he writes, "And we are hoping that The Consumerist will be able to help us out." It's pretty common practice, actually, and the solution is to call the company and request a real reading as soon as possible.
Pretty much every gas and electricity company relies on estimates. It's labor intensive to manually read every meter in a city, especially when meters aren't easy to access because they're behind a gate or locked away in a basement. To cut down on estimated bills, make sure your meters are easily accessible, or see if you can make an appointment for the reading so that you can be there to let the employee in.
If you live in an apartment, you should check with the complex's management to make sure that there's not a problem reaching the meters.
And finally, check your bill each month to make sure the reading is Actual and not Estimated—there should be a code or notice somewhere on the bill that tells you this, and if you can't find it you should call the billing department and ask for help locating it.
(Photo: The Jamoker)
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That happened to us once. They billed us for almost 200 cubic meters of water in one month. We normally use 10 or so a month.
This happens all the time here in Boston. It's a way for the utilities to save money by doing meter readings every two months rather than every month.
I've found their estimations to be seasonally correct, and any deviation is corrected without effort in the next bill.
I favor this system as it keeps costs low.
Ain't no excuse for putting in radio equipped meters. I live at a residence that has 6' tall fencing all around and they were estimating way over. After a couple of calls with their CSR and dropped some broad hints of taking it to the PUC, they put in a meter that could be read remotely.
Our bills dropped like rocks afterward.
At least here in Kentucky, it seems like Columbia Gas does alternates estimate and actual readings every other month. So if the estimated usage is high one month, you pay less the following month when the meter reader does an actual reading.
I had this problem in NYC for ages.
We lives in Brooklyn, in the basement apartment of a brownstone. Someone had to be home with a key to let the meter readers inside of the iron gate, the door, and the basement door. And they refused to come at times when one of us could be home.
So in four months, we ended up being overbilled a total of $650, when they finally came to do a reading. ConEd bastards.
@Inail: My electric company offers (as most do) a balanced billing option, where we pay a set amount that is reevaluated once per quarter according to actual usage. It's a win-win because we wind up paying lower, averaged bills in the summer when the temps get to 100 and stay there for weeks and we hide in the A/C, and the utility only needs to send a meter reader out every few months.
We live in a small city with its own utility company (unusual) and our utility bill 2-4 times a year has no relationship to reality. If the bill is estimated, in our city, its required that the bill state "ESTIMATED" in big bold letters. But the fact of the matter is many people in our city receive estimated bills without the required warning (responsiblity lies with both the city and the residents because many a water meter is covered over with years of dirt and plants). I keep close tabs on my bill - when I receive it I go out back and review the electric meter reading and the water meter reading. There have been times when my meter reads XXX1050 and my bill reads XXX3050 (clearly no connection to reality as our bill comes a couple weeks after our meter is read). I used to call the City and sit on hold for 45 minutes but I've got an e-mail address that I use now and I copy the city manager, the mayor and my commissioner. I always ask for a response and an explanation, I never receive either but my bill does get corrected.
Ugh!! its a huge pain.
I haven't paid a gas bill in over a year because when we moved in, the gas company estimated our bill over the period of four months based on last year's usage. Well, the people who lived in this condo before must have been huffing the gas directly, as the bill was easily for 10x what we actually use. I've been slowly eating away at the credit balance for a while, and won't use it all before we move out at the end of the month.
Of course, in my new residence, I have to start with a deposit for "lack of credit information". Bastards.
@Inail: This is a particularly nasty one. As most localities that provide water also provide sewer service. And they bill you for sewer service based on your water usage. Guess what, there's no meter on your sewer.
I used to get 2-3 months of "estimates" from my gas company. Even if they overcharge, you get your money back.
On a side note, I've paid as much as $200 in a month for gas heating, and I keep my house at 65 degrees, in a 1200 square foot house. This year I am hoping my programmable thermostat and better sealing around my windows helps keep that lower.
This is great! Some states do not charge sales tax on winter-month gas/electric bills. I'd much rather pre-buy energy during the tax moratoriums!
Of course, shame on the greedy states that impose sales tax on natural gas and electricity at all.
@SadSam: You do keep a copy of both the erroneous bill and the corrected bill in each case? If you do, and you can show a pattern of this behavior, maybe you can take the case upstream to the regulatory agency that governs the utility company in your town.
National Grid estimated my December bill, I am officially refusing to pay my December bill until they read my meter. There is no way I went from 80 kW to 420 kW in a month. They say they will come this month...well they will get paid this month.
These companies almost always allow you to call in your readings, or to complete them online.
Look into these options. They've helped make my existence on Long Island more reasonable, as I was paying after I bought a home power bills estimated on the past year of high consumption by the previous owner.
I just noticed that ComEd (Glen Ellyn, IL; Chicago suburb) does Actual readings for the billed (previous) month, and estimates for the unbilled (current) month. I'll be sure to check those numbers month to month for now on. Thanks, Consumerist!
I keep copies of everything. And I've shared our experience with neighbors who quickly figured out that they were being overcharged as well. Sadly, I expect the vast majority of people have no idea. The utility is a huge money making power plant for the city. I'm not sure what agency regulates the city utility - if any - but I'm going to look into it.
While the mon@tinmanx: While the money you pay isn't lost, gas prices do fluctuate, so the gas companies could pretty easily just "estimate" your gas usage on months when prices are high, and then actually send someone out to check your meter on months when prices are low, effectively moving your gas consumption to high price months.
EG.
Let's say I use 6 ccf of gas per month. Month 1 gas prices are $3 per cff, month 2 gas prices are $2.50 per ccf, the gas company estimates I use 10 ccf of gas for the first month, so:
10 * 3 = 30
2 * 2.50 = 5
total is 35
when it should have been
6 * 3 = 18
6 * 2.5 = 15
total is 33
also, i have a flat service charge of about $10 on every gas bill and my meter is visible (not readable) from the street, so for that kind of money, I think they could send someone by to take a minute and read my meter.
Minnegasco used to do this before MidAmerican bought them out. We would get bills for 4x the actual usage. When your a starving college student, suddenly having to come up with 4x your biggest utility in the dead of winter is a big burden. Of course if you can't pay their inflated bill you risked being cut off in the winter.
Most have automated systems now.
I live in Illinois and one option is to read your own meter and call or send in your reading on a postcard. You can sign up for the utility's "dial in" program and do this every month. Illinois' Citizens Utility Board has a meter reading guide on their website.
Here on Long Island you can actually enter the readings yourself in between actual meter readings. They will accept your number as long as its reasonable based on past actual usage. That way you don't get his with their seasonal average numbers which could be vastly different. Only catch is you have to use the online acct. management system. But I figure if your reading The Consumerist, you know how to sign up for your utilities online.
They estimated mine during 4 months of a really hot summer (2007). But they didn't tell me it was estimated. So when September rolls around and they finally read the meter, I owe an extra $200 or so. This was NOT a happy surprise for me. They made two successive corrections to my bill, but couldn't substantiate it because the meter had allegedly malfunctioned during the summer (which they would have known had they only checked the meter!)
From that point onward, I've been reading my electric and gas meters on the 15th and 30th of every month. It takes 30 seconds and helps me to ensure that there are no surprises. Once bitten, twice shy.
Connecticut Light & Power reads the meter remotely (whether or not that is correct is beyond me).
Also, some companies like NYSEG offer you the option of self-reporting your meter reading every other month, so they don't have to estimate.
@cortana: Yes, and people mostly use the sewer directly without a toilet, sink, or shower running.
/sa... oh hell, if you couldn't guess, why should I tell you?
There's been a recent spate of these stories in New England. Ice storm knocks out electricity for weeks but customers are being billed by the estimate, based on last year's usage.
Estimated bills is an unscrupulous utility's best friend. Case in point: A massive ice storm devastated much of Massachusetts in December. One local utility, Unitil, had many of its customers without power for at least a week, some for 11 days, mainly because of its botched response to the storm.
A couple of weeks later, Unitil surprised its customers with estimated bills 40% higher than usual, even though power was out for 30% of the month. Given Unitil's high rates and poor response to the storm, that stunt was pretty much the straw that broke the camel's back. It wouldn't surprise me if Unitil was replaced with a different utility soon.
(The Unitil debacle was submitted as a tip to consumerist, but they didn't run with it for some reason).
This is a good time to post question since it's fairly in topic:
I got a bill for 65 dollars a month ago. When I called the company, they said that was my usage. That's crap. I live in a studio apartment with two rooms. Usually, I've paid 25 dollars or so. The next month, i get another bill saying 50 dollars, puttng me at 12 dollars for two months usage. Is there anything I can do about it? Ive been living here for 2 years. I've never, even in the summer when I use my ac almost all the time, had bills this high.
@Ghede: While I see your point - have you ever:
Washed a car outside?
Boiled water?
Fed a pet water?
Watered plants?
All water using activities that in most places don't subsequently use the sewer.
I was the first resident in my last apartment. In the building too. There was no history with which to estimate and I moved into the apt. in the summer. I should only have owed their garbage monthly service fee, but my first bill was $300 or something ridiculous. I guess they just wanted $300.
I called and had them fix it. It's not my job to loan them money.
@Darkkeyboard: I should add, that's what my meter reading is. It's not estimated charges, it's the actual meter. I think that the wiring's messed up here and someone's getting free electricity.
And that's 122 dollars for 2 months.
@Saboth: Lucky! I've paid $263 a month for a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment and we keep it at 60/62 when we're home, 57/58 at night.
Yes, we've insulated it pretty well too (plastic on windows).
@tinmanx: We have a family friend who is on estimated billing. She lives in a normal single family home with normal usage, and she's currently like £300-£400 in credit with the gas company. It'll take about 9 months for that to catch up. Why give the gas company a loan, especially if it's one you can't afford?
She's switching to actual billing ASAP.
I called Dominion East Ohio (DEO) on this when I first moved into my apartment last year. Like many of you, I live in a secured building and the meters are located in a locked utility room. DEO alternates between actual and estimated readings each month. The CSR told me just to ignore the estimated bill and then pay for two months when DEO gets an actual reading from the meters. I've been doing this for over a year now and have never been charged a late fee or had a service interruption.
I don't know if this is common practice or not in other regions, but it doesn't hurt to call up your providers to see if this is acceptable. When I called DEO, they recommended this method to me...
I estimate that I will be switching providers if this happens to me.
@IrvCrapper: Yes. This is a great suggestion.
We phone in our readings and are only required to have someone check the metre (to make sure we're not seriously fudging it?) once or twice a year. Everybody wins.
Three notes about this:
1. I had lived in an apartment in Brockport, NY for about a year. When I moved out, they took an actual reading, (none had been estimates) and ended up billing me for more gas that month than I had used the entire year prior. It was a clerical error. Had it been compared to an estimate, the error could have been caught before giving me apoplexy.
2. Make sure it is possible for your meters to be accessed. If your meter is in your basement, be there to let the reader in. If they can't read it, they can't do anything but estimate. If you're paranoid, suck it up.
3. National Grid have installed remote-read meters where I live now. There are no more estimated readings, only actual ones.
Funny thing about this procedure is that certain qualities of wattage or therms are billed at higher rates once you ascend a fixed amount deemed "normal" or "necessary" to survival.
If I don't exceed these quantities, but my estimate says that I did, am I refunded the higher rate at which I've paid in my over-billed months?
@IrvCrapper: I'm surprised it took this long for someone to mention this. When we lived in a house, I'd call in the reading all the time because they would always overestimate by quite a bit. They would usually come around when my wife was home alone, and she didn't want to let a stranger in. Though I'd let them in once or twice a year if I was home.
@Darkkeyboard: Sometimes the meter does go bad. Call your utility and ask them to check it. The guy I worked with had this happen to his gas meter. Unfortunately there's no way to determine how much you actually used, but you might get a decent CSR who looks at your past usage history and gives you a credit of some sort.
@Optimistic Prime: Forgot to add, did you get a PS3 or XB360, those things suck a lot of power... :P
I know some utilities have some sort of meter that can be read by just having a truck drive down the street and pick up the radio transmissions of the meter.
In our neck of the woods meters are read every other month for power and gas. I've never had a real problem with Allegheny Power, but Dominion Hope does seem to have an oddball estimation scheme. I just enter an actual reading online for the gas company whenever we're due for an estimated reading. Never had any problem with that.
I have always done the budgeted amount for both utilities and never regretted it. We don't have the low bills for gas in the summer, but I don't get surprised with super high bills in the winter either.
Even if your company doesn't have an online reporting function, you should be able to call them and find out when you need to report your actual usage. Then you call them with the number every month, and they do their actual reading every 2 or 3 months(which verifies that you're giving them correct numbers) and you should only be billed for what you're reporting is your actual usage, rather than the estimated usages . . . .
Water Bills: Mine have always had a "watering credit" of 15%-25%, depending on time of year. This reduces the sewer portion of your bill--which is a big deal here, where sewer is about 65% of the total bill.
@AlexJP: And those "estimations" were particularly ridiculous. One man was charged somethihng like $1,500 more than usual. Unitil seems to have rounded up quite a bit. And even though they promise to adjust the next bill to take into account any overestimates, I'd be pretty unhappy if I had to scrape together an extra $1500 because the utilities company couldn't get their act together.
In fairness though, when you 'estimate pay' and underpay your estimated charges, utility companies are much more lenient than cable or telephone companies about underpaying or skipping paying. Utility bills can go months before they are cut off.
The money you pay is not lost, the next time they read your meter your bill will be lower. Or like my parents, we got credit on our next bill because the grossly over estimated.
I guess paying more up front will get some people P'ed.