Westar says meter mis-reads aren't a problem
5:34 p.m. Friday, August 8, 2008
Serah McBride just put in new windows, and a new air conditioning unit, and her bill was still triple what it usually is.
Westar says this mistake doesn't happen often, and it could be just a fluke case.
But Serah says it's too often.
"I thought that maybe they had misread the meter the last couple of months, and they were just catching it up this month, so basically their mistake is messing up my family's budget. If it's happened to me, then it most likely has happened to someone else, but you will never know how many people," said McBride.
Westar says bills are also higher because of fuel charges.
See our original report on this story here.
From Westar
You'll see (in this chart) how much the dramatic increase in the fuel charge is impacting this month's bills compared to May and last year.
Also, I have the information on meter reader training. I'll say it on camera, but meter readers go through an average of three weeks of daily training with manuals, videos and shadowing experienced meter reading before they are given a route to read. Once they and their supervisors are comfortable with their skill level, they begin their route. Then their meter reads are audited for a two-to-three week period for accuracy (someone goes out and re-checks the reads).
I checked with the Topeka meter reader supervisor. He told me that misreads account for an estimated 1/10 of 1% of billing corrections, which I explained earlier is 1-1.5% of all bills we issue annually. Earlier, Mike said that we don't track misreads. That's why - because the percentage is so small.
All of that said, yes, occasionally there is human error, and a meter is misread.
We encourage customers who call about their bills to please call the Westar Energy Customer Contact Center at 800-383-1183. That way we can re-read a meter, check to make sure it's working properly or at the very least, explain customer usage and the fuel charge and how they're impacting the bill. We can also put customers on the average payment plan or a pay agreement.
From Karla Olsen, Director of Corporate Communications, Westar Energy
Comments
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Aug. 8, 2008 at 10:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)chowdee (anonymous)
Our June bill was 112.00, July 236.00 (we got new windows on July 15th) August bill is 297.00.
Aug. 9, 2008 at 12:45 a.m. (Suggest removal)serah (anonymous)
Westar's billing director, Mark, called me back after they had sent someone out to re-read my meter and said that my usage was accurate. They explained that last months bill was mis-read. They are going to recalculate the last two bills and take off maybe $15-$20 from this months bill and let us make a payment arrangement for what should have been last months bill. I never questioned it last month because we had a .91 credit balance because we had double paid for May. It sucks that this happened, but I am glad that they were able to look into the situation quickly and have tried to give us some options. I would urge people to scan thier monthly bill and call in if something doesn't look quite right whether it's too high or maybe really low. Hope this information helps! :)
Aug. 12, 2008 at 7:51 p.m. (Suggest removal)tejanoboy (anonymous)
My June bill was $141.00 for July 271.00 and just received my bill for this month $322.00. This starting to get out of hand. You make a monthly budget and then have to adjust it. I can understand adjusting 10 to 15 dollars, but when you have to adjust $181.00, that gets serious. My wife had surgery on July 10th and is still off until September, sick time all used up. I get paid once a month and do not know how I am going to pay for this bill. I called and talked to a guy at Westar who was as rude as you can get. I asked why my bill was $271.00, he said with an attitude, because you used more watts and besides your bill last year was around this much, so nothing has really changed. He must have had a bad day, he should have to pay my bill that would make his day and mine. I spoke with a lady when I received my last bill for 322 she tried to explain it to me, still did not understand it, but, she was nice and made it a little easier to take. Still do not know how I am going to pay for it.
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