DWP billing quagmire
March 23, 2015 1:14 PM Subscribe
Last July we received notice that the DWP had mistakenly charged us due to the installation of a new meter at our house and that we owed like a thousand dollars in usage.
We went on a payment plan, but the truth is we believe that the billing is incorrect.
The two times I have called into LADWP it has been over an hour of being put on hold and then customer service agents that have nothing more to say than that a new meter was put in, there were errors in the readings and we own $1000 which they will gladly place on a payment plan for us.
I know there is some serious issues with their billing system which have recently come to surface.
I am wondering what recourse or what plan should we make to try and get some real concrete answer to how this happened, and to contest the overages they say are our responsibility.
Its Kafka at its best for sure, but there is some real money at stake and I am not sure what to do.
Any and all thoughts appreciated.
Henry
We went on a payment plan, but the truth is we believe that the billing is incorrect.
The two times I have called into LADWP it has been over an hour of being put on hold and then customer service agents that have nothing more to say than that a new meter was put in, there were errors in the readings and we own $1000 which they will gladly place on a payment plan for us.
I know there is some serious issues with their billing system which have recently come to surface.
I am wondering what recourse or what plan should we make to try and get some real concrete answer to how this happened, and to contest the overages they say are our responsibility.
Its Kafka at its best for sure, but there is some real money at stake and I am not sure what to do.
Any and all thoughts appreciated.
Henry
Response by poster: There is a spike in one month that is impossibly high for sure, like 4x our usual cost. The rest of the time periods we made payments that look in line with our historical useage
posted by silsurf at 1:28 PM on March 23, 2015
posted by silsurf at 1:28 PM on March 23, 2015
Last July we received notice ... that we owed like a thousand dollars in usage.
Was this notice in the format of a typical bill, or was it a special letter? How did it explain the usage charges? Were there starting and ending meter readings? Where did the charge amount come from?
posted by jon1270 at 1:52 PM on March 23, 2015
Was this notice in the format of a typical bill, or was it a special letter? How did it explain the usage charges? Were there starting and ending meter readings? Where did the charge amount come from?
posted by jon1270 at 1:52 PM on March 23, 2015
Response by poster: It was a typical bill, their bills the the most convoluted and difficult to understand of any utility I have ever seen. Their is a highlighted are which reads:
This bill corrects a previous bill and contains your new charges. Previous charge were cancelled and the rebilled correctly. Details on the following pages.
I printed out the last four years of DWP from Quicken and they are almost identical except for this new $1400 correction they say we owe.
posted by silsurf at 2:23 PM on March 23, 2015
This bill corrects a previous bill and contains your new charges. Previous charge were cancelled and the rebilled correctly. Details on the following pages.
I printed out the last four years of DWP from Quicken and they are almost identical except for this new $1400 correction they say we owe.
posted by silsurf at 2:23 PM on March 23, 2015
Response by poster: There is no explanation for the changes, just says "Sorry for the inconvenience"
I spent 45 minutes on the phone with them this morning with very little information coming back to me. Every question I asked the CSR put me on hold, spoke to a supervisor for about ten minutes then got back to me and started talking really fast, not letting me ask any question or even interject. It was really infuriating.
posted by silsurf at 2:25 PM on March 23, 2015
I spent 45 minutes on the phone with them this morning with very little information coming back to me. Every question I asked the CSR put me on hold, spoke to a supervisor for about ten minutes then got back to me and started talking really fast, not letting me ask any question or even interject. It was really infuriating.
posted by silsurf at 2:25 PM on March 23, 2015
Stop calling. Send a letter. Tell them you dispute the $1400 charge, a charge that despite numerous calls, has been billed to your account without sufficient explanation.
posted by DarlingBri at 2:43 PM on March 23, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by DarlingBri at 2:43 PM on March 23, 2015 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Hows this?
To Whom it may concern,
I am writing to dispute changes to my account which after multiple conversations with customer service I have no adequate answer to why these charges exist.
In July of 2014 a small notice came on my bill that we owed an additional $1476.39. the only reason given was
“This bill corrects a previous bill and contains your new charges. Previous charge were cancelled and the re-billed correctly. Details on the following pages.”
The details were nothing more than a tabulated column saying “cancelled amount”, and “corrected amount”.
I have done extensive research of my payments to LADWP from January, 2011 through December 31st 2014 and the payments made are consistent throughout that period, there is absolutely no grounds for any increase based on my historical usage.
I would also like to report that the customer service agents I spoke with her terse, unfriendly not helpful and the two calls I made before deciding to write this letter amount to more the 120 minutes of my times. A vast amount of time that yield nothing substation regarding my billing situation.
I am fully aware of the issues that LADWP has had in their billing system recently and I do not wish to become a pawn in a broken, if not corrupt system.
Do you think it should be sent to just LADWP General Correspondence? That is the only address on the website that is non specific
posted by silsurf at 3:10 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
To Whom it may concern,
I am writing to dispute changes to my account which after multiple conversations with customer service I have no adequate answer to why these charges exist.
In July of 2014 a small notice came on my bill that we owed an additional $1476.39. the only reason given was
“This bill corrects a previous bill and contains your new charges. Previous charge were cancelled and the re-billed correctly. Details on the following pages.”
The details were nothing more than a tabulated column saying “cancelled amount”, and “corrected amount”.
I have done extensive research of my payments to LADWP from January, 2011 through December 31st 2014 and the payments made are consistent throughout that period, there is absolutely no grounds for any increase based on my historical usage.
I would also like to report that the customer service agents I spoke with her terse, unfriendly not helpful and the two calls I made before deciding to write this letter amount to more the 120 minutes of my times. A vast amount of time that yield nothing substation regarding my billing situation.
I am fully aware of the issues that LADWP has had in their billing system recently and I do not wish to become a pawn in a broken, if not corrupt system.
Do you think it should be sent to just LADWP General Correspondence? That is the only address on the website that is non specific
posted by silsurf at 3:10 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
This has been such a huge and ongoing debacle that I'd call my city councilor to see what they can do. They probably have an info packet all ready to go for you given the amount of people who have found themselves in your boat.
posted by feloniousmonk at 3:14 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by feloniousmonk at 3:14 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
Rewrite the letter with just the sentence stating you dispute the charges + any relevant facts. Leave out all of the complaining and editorializing. They do not need to know about your phone calls, they're on file, anyway.
So, pare it down to maybe 4 to 6 sentences, maximum. State that you want the erroneous charge removed from your account as a closing statement.
Send it certified and return receipt.
posted by jbenben at 3:17 PM on March 23, 2015 [4 favorites]
So, pare it down to maybe 4 to 6 sentences, maximum. State that you want the erroneous charge removed from your account as a closing statement.
Send it certified and return receipt.
posted by jbenben at 3:17 PM on March 23, 2015 [4 favorites]
And send a copy to Michael Hiltzik and Steve Lopez at the LA Times.
posted by mogget at 3:22 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by mogget at 3:22 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
Also, CC the Board of Directors. Crap (around here at the water district I am employed by) never rolls downhill quicker than when they get a direct complaint to a board member from a consumer. Ours are elected by geographic area, so if you have a specific representative so much the better. Meetings are also generally open to the public if you get really excited.
posted by k8oglyph at 4:30 PM on March 23, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by k8oglyph at 4:30 PM on March 23, 2015 [4 favorites]
I live in a small condo complex, ten units. A few years ago the city upgraded the water meter, but put on the wrong kind of meter, we were being charged two K per month. We had no idea what had happened, we had to make some noise to get someone out to assess things. We eventually got a credit for the over charges.
posted by Oyéah at 8:56 PM on March 23, 2015
posted by Oyéah at 8:56 PM on March 23, 2015
To Whom it May Concern:
I am writing to dispute changes to my account #123456789 as after multiple conversations with customer service I have no adequate answer to why these charges exist.
In July of 2014 a small notice came on my bill that we owed an additional $1476.39. The only reason given was: This bill corrects a previous bill and contains your new charges. Previous charge were cancelled and the re-billed correctly. Details on the following pages." The details were nothing more than a tabulated column saying "Cancelled Amount", and "Corrected Amount."
I have done extensive research of my bills from LADWP from January, 2011 through December 31st 2014 and both useage and bill amounts are consistent throughout that period. Therefore, unless and until you can provide an explanation, I can find absolutely no grounds for this $1476.39 charge.
posted by DarlingBri at 9:11 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
I am writing to dispute changes to my account #123456789 as after multiple conversations with customer service I have no adequate answer to why these charges exist.
In July of 2014 a small notice came on my bill that we owed an additional $1476.39. The only reason given was: This bill corrects a previous bill and contains your new charges. Previous charge were cancelled and the re-billed correctly. Details on the following pages." The details were nothing more than a tabulated column saying "Cancelled Amount", and "Corrected Amount."
I have done extensive research of my bills from LADWP from January, 2011 through December 31st 2014 and both useage and bill amounts are consistent throughout that period. Therefore, unless and until you can provide an explanation, I can find absolutely no grounds for this $1476.39 charge.
posted by DarlingBri at 9:11 PM on March 23, 2015 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Spoke with councilmen's office, letters have been sent, now we wait and see...
posted by silsurf at 12:08 PM on March 24, 2015
posted by silsurf at 12:08 PM on March 24, 2015
Hi, not sure if this will help but I have had similar issues with the DWP - they were billing us hundreds of dollars quarterly, which turned out to be "estimated" charges based on "past bills", NOT what we actually used. We went out and read the meter ourselves and compared the numbers to our bill and they were thousands of KwH over what we had actually used. We sat on hold with DWP for hours, several times and eventually we got them to admit that the charges would be "adjusted" at some unknown point in the future to reflect our actual usage. Since we were renters, we complained that we would probably have moved out by the time they adjusted it. They refused to adjust the bill we already had, or refund our over payment - however, our overpayment was applied to our account and we didn't have to pay anything else to the DWP for the remainder of our lease. Hopefully this is somewhat helpful - this is how they operate and you have to be persistent, but it is possible to at least sort of fix. Based on your description, it really sounds like they put in a new meter and have you on the "estimated charges" check your bill carefully for small print saying "ESTIMATED" somewhere, and you have your answer.
posted by annie o at 5:57 PM on March 28, 2015
posted by annie o at 5:57 PM on March 28, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Betelgeuse at 1:22 PM on March 23, 2015