This past year, we were steadily receiving bills from the PUD reflecting our declining use of electricity. In our case, we had switched to gas heat and hot water, as well as decreased our electricity usage dramatically through changing our habits. We should have gotten an award. Instead we received a visit from a PUD investigator claiming that our energy usage had fallen off so dramatically that we must have a problem with our meter, or (implied) be tampering with it.
The “investigator” asked us some questions, looked at the meter and commented on our meter lock’s disintegration, which left (implied) the slightest hint of suspicion. He put a new lock on it and went on his way. Though annoyed, we didn’t think much of the visit until we received an outrageous bill, some $350 more than a usual winter bill. My wife and I must be one of the 16 others the PUD says disputed their bill in the last year.
Right away I suspect that the PUD is at fault in this matter with the Doteys (“$1,373 jolt,” news story, June 15). Although not intentionally, the PUD seems to place blame on the Doteys and others, by claiming their meters are almost never wrong. In our case it was the meter reader who was a digit off in reading our kilowatt usage. With indoor marijuana growing operations rampant and stolen meters occurring more often, it’s easy for the PUD to look at the customer as the guilty party. Not everyone in Snohomish County steals electricity.
I, for one, expect precision in the billing cycle. When I visited the PUD just before Christmas, a very nice individual in customer service took our bill upstairs and found that the meter had indeed been improperly read. Had it not been for our visit by their investigator a month or two prior, our eyebrows probably wouldn’t have raised as high at the mistake in their billing cycle.
When I put the two incidents together, it makes the PUD suspect. It seems to me that a lot more people should be questioning their bill. Gee, I hope it’s not a racket.
Everett
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