There are days when I think about things – how things are vs. how things should be, and sometimes I laugh and sometimes I wonder what’s the world coming to. I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve been on the phone with our electric company about our electric bill. I lost count at 4 hours. Vince got involved and he spent a good bit of time talking to them. Nothing they told me made sense. The funniest answer I got to my question about why we didn’t get a bill in February was “because February is a short month”. Isn’t February always a short month . . even on leap year? I cannot remember in my entire adult life not getting an electric bill in February because it was a short month. The February bill should have been sent on February 6 and should have been due February 22. That was for the January power. The guy read he meter on February 1, as scheduled. I was outside. I talked to him!
The electric company ended up giving me a $40 credit, probably hoping that was enough to get me to go away. After a while, we still had not received a bill and I called back and they gave me another $50 credit so we had a $90 credit.
Electric Bill
Finally, on February 21, they generated a bill and apparently it was for $54.24 (which is almost exactly what the January bill was) so that left me with a $35.66 credit. But, that February 21 bill did not give me any credit for the power we sent back because in late January, our TDU changed (TDU is who owns/services the lines while the REP sells you the actual power) and somehow in the change over, they didn’t report the power we sent back. “Your meter doesn’t talk to our system!” But my meter doesn’t have to “talk” to your system because a human came out and read my meter. Nope . . that argument got me nowhere.
My guess is that the most recent $118.69 credit means that, in addition to the $35.66 credit we already had, the extra $83.03 credit represents the net after we were charged for power in February and the power we sent back in January and February was credited.
Those are purely guesses on my part. I am NOT calling to try to figure it out. It will shake itself out over the next few months but it’s a funny (not in a good way) feeling knowing how much time I spent trying to figure this all out and how many people I talked to who didn’t have a clue (and most didn’t care) and no matter how much time I spent talking to them, I could not get answers.
Another guess on my part is that new bills will be generated on March 6 or 7 and due on March 22, and we’ll be back on track. Even though I got terribly frustrated with no one being able to explain to me why we were not getting billed, we did get a new TDU out of this deal and I’m 100% happy about that. We were paying close to .09/kwh just for delivery charges. The new TDU charged a little over .04 and I believe the next bill will show the rate being a little over .03 because of an already scheduled rate reduction. Whatever the numbers, we’ll be paying almost 2/3rds less for the transmission charges and for those of us with solar panels, that means we’ll probably never have an electric bill over $20 and our credits should add up in the fall and spring so that they cover the charges in the summer when our a/c runs non-stop.
Those electric bills are another reason to stay where we are. Close medical care, Addie . . those are reasons to go to MO. 🙂
Diann says
Oh to have that problem! Count that as a blessing.. ha
Sherrill Pecere says
UGH, what a pain!! I get so annoyed talking to businesses on the phone. Totally aggravating! Is Rita staying home alone all day while you’re gone?
Susan says
I never heard of a company crediting an account because they want to make the customer happy, either. LOL What fun times in Texas! So, curious, is your solar paying back at the rate you thought it would? I remember all the thinking and math and planning that went into that whole process!
Judy Laquidara says
The solar panels are doing almost to the penny what we had figured they would do. Sometimes (rarely) we have clouds that throw it all off but there was a calculator where you put in your zip code and it calculates how many “solar hours” you get each day/week/month, and you can plug in your electric rates and pretty much get exactly what your payback will be. We had figured 8 years but after replacing our a/c with a much more efficient unit, that made a pretty big difference, and we’ll be paid back in about 6-3/4 years. As of May 1, we will have had the panels four years and be starting on our 5th year. Hard to believe, huh?
In Texas, we get to pick our electric company. They have rates all over the place. Some offer free nights and weekends and it’s a competitive market so they do want to keep their customers happy. We actually pay .047/kwh just for the power and a little over .03 for the distribution. We don’t get to pick our distribution company. But, we pay .047 for what we use and they pay us .075 for what we send back. It’s strange that they pay us way more than we pay them but . . we just take it and say “thank you!” 🙂
Andrea says
I am right there with you on not getting how no one there seems to understand their billing system. I can see a new clerk not knowing everything, but how can they possibly think that a human reading the actual usage on a meter is irrelevant? So frustrating!