|
Consumer complaints surge over ComEd power bills
January 31, 2011 —They're called “balloon bills,” and they're making Commonwealth Edison Co. customers fit to burst.
By Claire Bushey, Crain's Chicago Business Under state rules, Chicago-based ComEd is required to get a meter reading from every customer at least once every 60 days. If its employees can't get access to the device, however, the electric utility is allowed to issue an estimated bill. Trouble comes when an actual reading is eventually taken and consumers learn they've been underpaying, often for several months. For some customers, trouble is doubled: As ComEd updates accounts, it sometimes charges today's rates for electricity used in the first half of 2010, before prices rose 8% to 10% in June. “It's a tough surprise for people when you open your bill and go, ‘Whoa,' “ says David Kolata, executive director of Chicago-based consumer watchdog Citizens Utility Board, which says the number of complaints about unexpectedly high power bills tripled in 2010. The Illinois Commerce Commission, which oversees utilities, also saw complaints related to inaccurate meters and unusually high bills skyrocket, to 1,283 last year from 524 in 2009. The snafus could play both ways as ComEd pushes state legislation this spring that would enable utilities to hike rates automatically each year in exchange for bigger investments in infrastructure. Lawmakers might not want to be seen rewarding the Exelon Corp. subsidiary while it can't get its billing straight. On the other hand, ComEd could argue that the new rate plan would reduce the problem because it would commit the company to spend more on such investments as automating meters. A ComEd spokesman says last summer's heat probably is to blame for the complaints since customers used more electricity to keep their homes and businesses cool and got billed for it months after the fact. The utility misses 25% of its 3.2 million meters every month and will be hiring more meter readers by April 1 to improve its performance, the spokesman adds. Mr. Kolata says CUB has talked with the utility and is investigating the upsurge in complaints. OTHER UPSETS This isn't the first time a Chicago-area utility has upset customers with shockingly high makeup bills. Nicor Inc. provoked an outcry in 2008 when it told natural-gas consumers that they owed the Naperville-based company hundreds of dollars more after their meters went unchecked for months. Nicor also charged some customers higher rates than it should have. After the ICC informally raised questions with Nicor, complaints fell by half the next year and dropped by half again in 2010. The ICC hasn't taken this step with ComEd and is handling each case individually, a spokeswoman says. “The goal is to try to get this fixed as opposed to a formal investigation,” she says. “That would be the same way we would approach it with ComEd.” Victoria Cook of northwest suburban Cary joined ComEd's ticked-off customers after getting billed $393 in November. Until then, Ms. Cook had never paid more than $180 a month. When she called the utility, a customer-service representative explained that the company had read her meter in October after underestimating her electricity usage for eight months. Now it was billing her for the difference. She grudgingly paid. “It's the only place to go for electric that I know of, unless I put a wind turbine in my backyard and make my own,” she says. “You have to just pay it.” Afterward, she realized the company had actually overcharged her about $15, billing her at current, higher rates for electricity she used last spring. Ms. Cook, who operates a home-based coaching business for professional women, says she's learned from the billing bungle. This month, rather than rely on a ComEd meter reading, she called it in herself. |