The Thing About A $1.3 Million Electric Bill Is There’s No Way You’ll Have To Pay It

Unless you have a couple hundred air conditioners running full blast in hundreds of houses where the lights never go off, you will never owe $1.3 million on your electric bill. Doesn’t mean you can’t have the fun of receiving such a bill, however, as one Texas woman found out recently.

Kristin opened up her bill from Potentia Energy and figured there might be a slight uptick, this being a warmer time of year and all, but wasn’t quite prepared for the $1,381,783.92 facing her.

“I opened it. I read it. Then just went, ‘Oh, my gosh. That’s a lot of money,'” she told the Abilene Reporter News.

She doesn’t provide electricity to the whole neighborhood, and her last bill was about $100, so Kristin rightly figured it was a mistake. She took a picture of the bill and then called the electric company. They had someone on the line to help her from billing within four minutes, apologizing profusely.

“It was either computer error or human error, they said. They said they would look into it, and send me a new bill right away,” she said.

Usually in her area, the charge for a kilowatt-hour is around 8.2 to 12.1 cents. According to Kristin’s bill, that charge was around $1,000 per kwh. The company told her she wouldn’t have to pay the amount or the late fee if the issue wasn’t resolved by the due date.

Turns out the huge bill had been flagged by internal auditors, says Potentia Energy, and was flagged to be held before it was mistakenly sent out to a third-party billing vendor.

“I’ve been pretty calm about it,” she said. “I mean, I’ve seen medical bills higher than that. I’m just glad I opened the bill and not my father, who has a heart condition.”

Previously in crazy bills: Family Surprised To See They’d Managed To Rack Up $100K Electricity Bill; Man Claims His $800 Water Bill Is An Error Since He Hasn’t Used 80,000 Gallons Of Water In The Last Month

*Thanks for the tip, Rowell!

Abilene woman zapped with $1M-plus electric bill [Abilene Reporter News]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.