I have had an ongoing dialogue about my utility bill with the apartment office and the billing company for the last few days.
This has been prompted by my latest utility bill.
My bill is actually for the period from 1/24/2012 to 2/27/2012. If you live in Dallas, you know that February 2012 was much milder than usual — as it was, actually, in many places. I probably did not run my heat half the time; the other half of the time, my thermostat was set so low that it seldom kicked on.
I was expecting a much lower bill — but, much to my surprise, my bill was approximately 15% HIGHER than it was for January's billing period.
I went to the apartment office on Saturday, but the manager was not there, and I had to speak with the assistant manager. She told me I would need to call the billing company, which acts as the go–between for the actual electricity provider and the apartment manager.
It is the apartment manager who collects my utility payment every month, but the assistant manager could do nothing except recommend that I try to contact the customer service number for the collection company.
I haven't had any luck with that number in the past — I usually get a recording or some kind of automated response, even when I press the number that allegedly will take me to a real person. I wasn't too encouraged by this, but I decided to try it this morning.
Lo and behold, I did reach someone, and I pointed out to her that the meter readings on my bill were accompanied by an E, which the bill indicates means an "Estimated Read."
She put me on hold for a couple of minutes, presumably while she consulted with her superior, then returned to tell me that the reading was the actual reading, not an estimate.
So I returned to the apartment manager's office, stopping at my meter to see what the current reading is. You can see the reading for yourself at the top of this post.
As you can see from the image of the portion of my bill that is devoted to my electrical consumption, the utility company says my reading at the end of January was 1800 Kwh, and my reading at the end of February was 2820 Kwh.
But as you can also see, the reading on my meter today — April 2 — is 1982 Kwh.
I intend to post regular electricity consumption numbers on this blog, along with the digital pictures I take of my meter. We'll see how the numbers compare to what the billing company says.
Stay tuned.
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