City Public Service, San Antonio’s Energy Monopoly, Threatens to disconnect my service

I bought the house I live in back in 2006 (March/April, don’t remember exactly) and realized the electricity meter was messed up. I called CPS and notified them of this, they have it on file, sometime around September of 2006 if I remember correctly.

The CSR was fairly rude and eventually told me there was nothing wrong with the meter, I didn’t know what I was talking about, and they wouldn’t replace the meter. I left it at that, thinking I had done my part as a happy customer of CPS. Fast forward to May of 2010, someone came out and replaced my meter, stating it was bad. September 10th, I received a letter stating I’m being billed $693.08 for my unbilled usage from November 2009 through April 2010, but their rules & regulations only allow them to bill for three (3) months.

I don’t feel this is something I should have to pay since I notified them years ago of the failing meter. Had they corrected the problem when I asked, I wouldn’t be asked to pay almost $700 of back billing today.

I called and explained I had notified them of the failing meter, and felt I shouldn’t have to pay this back-bill, since I had notified them years prior. At first, the CSR argued with me round and round that my meter was functioning properly prior to when it failed on September 24th of 2009. I pulled up my bill with readings from 9/21/2009, and it showed I used 6 or 7 kwh for the 30-day billing cycle (obviously failing). On that exact same bill, it lists ‘previous month’, which was the same (6 or 7), as well as previous year. For previous year, it listed I used 22 kwh, which I’m guessing that’s from roughly 9/08. The CSR insisted my meter was functioning properly at that time, but clearly 22 kwhrs isn’t a proper reading. She even went so far to tell me these were my meter readings: 6999 on 9-16-08 and 8790 on 10-17-08, showing a usage of 1791 kwhrs. I checked my bank history and paid $49.40 on 10/31/08, which should be for that meter reading. I asked her how 1791 kwhrs equates to less than $50, to which she couldn’t answer. Based off fuel charges from 9/09, the kwh usage alone for 1791kwhrs would be near $140.

I don’t feel it’s fair to me as a customer of CPS for them to back-bill me 3 months when I notified them years prior their equipment had failed. The CSR kept saying, “you’ve had free electricity for the last 2 years, maybe we should just back bill you for that.” I don’t care for the threats, so I explained it’s not possible, due to their own rules and regulations limiting them to three months.

I feel like they messed up, even after I notified them, and they’re trying to get some retribution out of it. I understand if I specifically ignored the incorrect readings, it did benefit me, but I wanted them to replace the meter immediately so I would not be in the situation I’m in now. This $700 is on top of my coming bill, so I’m looking at a near $1000 bill soon. They even have it on record that I called them back in 2006 requesting the meter be replaced. The CSR began to place the blame on me for not continually calling back to notify them.

I asked for a supervisor, who told me the same things, basically said I had free electricity and to quit complaining. He did go on to say they miscalculated the $700 and it should be lower. He offered to have it recalculated and send me an update, and would note on my account that I do not have to pay the $700 immediately; there wouldn’t be any negative marks for not paying the $700 right away. However, he completely ignored that I did my due diligence as a consumer by notifying them of their failed equipment.

October 23rd, I received a disconnection notice, stating I needed to pay the entire bill on or before October 28th. I did as they originally asked and paid the current charges of $248.81 on October 8th, and let the $700 ride, awaiting updated paperwork from CPS. I have yet to receive that, and this new bill shows I owe $713.34, plus my current usage since the last bill, totaling around $880.
What choices do I have? They have the monopoly on electricity here, it’s ‘pay us or else’ tactics the CSR used.