Additional claims of bad billing practices and poor customer service are confronting New York State Electric & Gas.
Lockport resident Susan Pelloth told the Union-Sun & Journal this week that she was blindsided by her April electric-and-gas bill from NYSEG.
For the past few years, Pelloth has been on a budget plan, in which her monthly bill is based on total use during the previous year, and the amount has consistently been $350 or less.
In April, the charge was $1,400.
“At what point does it become the company’s responsibility to say, ‘Hey, you have a pretty big deficit here,’?” Pelloth said, showing her e-bills from the company going back to September 2022.
Pelloth said she has tried repeatedly to speak with someone at NYSEG and has only gotten “canned” responses. At one point, a customer service representative asked her to stay on the budget plan — but add in her debt, for a monthly payment of $550 to power her two-bedroom home.
“They’ll never do this to me again,” Pelloth declared.
Pelloth read the US&J’s May 2 report about NYSEG’s billing practices being under investigation and decided to add her complaint to the stack being looked at by the state Public Service Commission. She was asked for more information and gave it happily, she said.
Meanwhile, the Public Service Commission is also in the midst of deliberations on NYSEG’s and sister company Rochester Gas & Electric’s requests for a delivery rate increase. NYSEG wants the state’s approval to raise its electric delivery rate by about 30%, which would increase the average customer’s monthly electric charges by $18; and raise its gas delivery rate by about 21%, for a $15 spike in the gas bill.
“As inflation and other economic impacts (are) affecting customers here in New York and across the country, the companies recognize the importance of balancing the critical investments our grid requires as well as the needs and expectations of our customers,” NYSEG stated on behalf of itself and RG&E in a May 26, 2022, news release about the rate hike requests.
Also in Lockport, previously, commercial property owner Jack Martin shared with the US&J his struggle to get accurate bills from NYSEG. 12 West Main got hit with way-outsized spring quarterly bills last year and again this year, and post-bill meter reading showed the charges should have been $250 or less.
Making matters worse, Martin said: He had to pay the erroneous bills prior to adjustment; and the difference became a credit toward future charges only after he filed a complaint with the Public Service Commission.
This week, Martin said he received a NYSEG bill for another of his properties, 14-16 West Main, and suspects the amount owed is inaccurate on that one, too.
In late April, NYSEG spokesperson Alexis Arnold told the US&J that a “severe” shortage of workers, brought on by the Covid pandemic, was behind the inaccurate bills, and the company was addressing the problem.
“In fact, we have already made significant progress by hiring 120 new customer service representatives, with more to come, which has resulted in reducing customer issues and streamlining our billing processes,” Arnold said in a written statement.
Asked this week about NYSEG’s request for a rate increase and its continuing customer service problems, spokesperson Shelby Cohen said the two are related. Revenue to hire more customer service representatives is “part of” the reason for the request, she said.
“NYSEG and RG&E’s proposed plan to the Public Service Commission will enable more needed investment in the companies’ infrastructure, provide for a better customer experience and provide benefits for the companies’ most vulnerable customers,” Cohen said in a written statement.
Martin said he’ll file another complaint with the Public Service Commission, but he’s not confident it’ll get him anywhere.
“I think people should look very closely at everything on the bill,” he said. “Don’t take it for granted that they’re on the up and up and treating you fairly. It doesn’t work that way.”
As for Pelloth, she said she’s staying on NYSEG’s budget plan, but only because she’s afraid to go off of it.
“What if the winter comes and they hit me with a $4,000 bill?” she said.
Pelloth said she has taken to calling NYSEG every day, including Saturdays and Sundays, to ask how much electricity she used. Then she makes a payment of $1 or $2. Each day. Even when she’s told there is no balance and she’ll only receive credit.
“It gives me a little satisfaction,” she said. “I said to them, ‘you’re taking a payment and giving me a confirmation number.’”