Just an update on the continuing saga of our power situation. You can read Foot-In-Mouth Disease and Foot-In-Mouth Disease (Size 22) for the history of this debacle.
This past Monday we received our April-May electricity bill. It was $807.24 (BSD or USD - the currency trades at par here), which equates to about $1,500.00 Canadian. The fuel charge part of this bill (which includes the additional surcharge referred to in the earlier post), was more than half of the total billing.
$807.24?? Granted, the charges were estimated, but definitely not based on the history of our consumption. The estimated reading date was May 11. We received the bill on May 17.
My mother was totally irate. Like the dutiful daughter I am, I go and read the meter. This being 6 days later, it showed a reading that was about 1000 kilowatt hours less than the estimated one. Now, to figure out what the overcharge would be, one would need a math genius, a supercomputer and an algorithm even Einstein probably couldn't decipher. Nah, I'm just to lazy to do the math, but the bills are insanely structured.
Moms went even further and called a reporter at the local newspaper, The Freeport News who was very interested in our story. She listened to our concerns and complaints. After collecting copy of the bill and photos of the meter a short article appeared in Wednesday's paper. It wasn't the headliner, but it did appear on the front page.
Upon complaining to the power company, it admitted it did not estimate the bill based on our usage history and adjusted the bill to reflect the reading of May 17. The new total: $359.24.
I can't wait to see next month's bill.
