Woman pays wrong electric bill for whole year; DEMCO confirms mix-up
BATON ROUGE - Crystal Taylor learned last week that she's been paying someone else's bill for the last year. The mix-up has her concerned, and she contacted 2 On Your Side for help.
"I'm getting billed for someone else's usage," said Taylor.
It all came to light last week when Taylor says her power went out. She reported an outage, and a DEMCO serviceman responded.
"He said, 'well, I'm responding to your call, but there's no outage in your area,'" she said. "I was like, well, I have no power."
She says the serviceman told her the power was disconnected due to non-payment, but Taylor says she paid her bill in full. She says when the serviceman looked up the account, he discovered the meter on her house doesn't match the meter number that's on her bill.
Taylor's meter was swapped for a new, smart meter last February. She says that means she's been paying for another property's electricity for a year.
DEMCO tells 2 On Your Side it will do everything it can to get this sorted out and make this bill right. In the meantime, Taylor received another bill and it's the highest one yet, at $537.
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Taylor says she heard from DEMCO, but it was not the news she was hoping for. DEMCO says it has confirmed that Taylor's meter was swapped for another one located at a business nearby. An audit of both meters found that Taylor's actual usage was greater than the usage on the meter she was paying for. Taylor doesn't understand how that can be and says she's still looking for answers.
DEMCO says it plans to conduct an energy audit, and Taylor won't owe anything because it was DEMCO's error. Again, Taylor doesn't understand how her usage can be greater than a business. She fears that the mix-up could go beyond just these two meters.
Friday, 2 On Your Side asked DEMCO if there are more meters involved in the mix-up, and that information was not readily available.