Chicago Couple Gets $108,000 Electric Bill

We would’ve told the electric company to GTFOHWTBS:

Kathy Rajter is one of the thousands of Oak Park residents who now get their energy supplied by a third party — Integrys Energy — under the village’s new electrical aggregation program. When the first bill under the new program reached her mailbox last week, Rajter was keen to see her “savings.”

What she saw was a bill for $107,625.16. “The taxes (and fees alone) on the bill were $16,000,” Kathy Rajter said. She and her husband, David, had used 2,236 kilowatt hours the previous month, when their bill was $276. The new bill showed them consuming a whopping 1.6 million kilowatt hours, a total more in line with a large industrial customer.

Obviously, a mistake had been made — one that could have created huge problems for the Rajters this Friday, when her electric bill was to be automatically deducted from her checking account.

“I have automatic withdrawal, and I have overdraft protection,” she said. “Imagine if I’d just set the bill aside — it would have wiped out my entire checking and savings.”

While Integrys supplies the Rajters’ electricity, ComEd still handles the billing. Neither company was sure exactly how the mistake happened, and Rajter called ComEd and asked them to come to her house and physically read her meter. “They just said ‘Sometime next week,’” she said. “It’s kind of comical if you look at it that way,” Rajter said, not exactly laughing.

And she said she won’t be laughing Friday if there’s no money left in her bank accounts — though ComEd has assured her the scheduled deduction has been canceled.

A ComEd spokesman Tuesday said the company could not tell on short notice of exactly how the mistake occurred, but hoped to know soon. In the meantime the utility said the Rajters’ electric bill has been zeroed out, and apologized for any inconvenience.

What would you do if this happened to you???

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