Umm...great

Publius · November 2011

We just got the equivalent of a $1,500 USD electrical bill for a time period of two months--three weeks of which we were in the US and did not use any electricity here at all.

This led to a pretty bad fight last night between H and I about our energy consumption habits. (TBH, we're not that bad. We don't have central air, just individual units in each room. At most we have two of those on at a time but usually we just leave the AC off unless we're sleeping and instead use the ceiling fans).

This morning I went and looked at the English explanations of their electricity bills online. Guess what--they never actually read the meter. Either they pulled consumption numbers out of their collective asses, or they just assigned us 100% consumption 100% of the time. I am livid.

Moral of the story: don't open bills in a foreign language after a pitcher of sangria. Also, find a friend who speaks Bahasa so that you have someone to call and yell at the electric company for you.

AmericanInOz · November 2011

eeeeek - yea our last two quarterly bills were >$1000 and dh keeps blaiming me - saying I use the dryer too much (when I barely EVER use it!!!)

we even paid extra to have a guy come out and check our meter is running correctly and *sigh* it is

good luck - I hope you can get your bill reduced!!!

snowyowl · November 2011

Yuck. Sounds like they just want to see what they can get away with. I hope you get that sorted out easily!

mrshooi · November 2011

They do the same thing here, because we are in a compound we get charged at a higher rate, also they only come and read the meter when they feel like it (barely at all) and just assume. Our bill came through almost double the previous bill! DH also blamed me and my apparent over use of the air con, I had to remind him that he is the one who tells me to put it on more! ARGH!

MouseInLux · November 2011

A friend here had a bill like that come through the mail recently. They even checked the meter. Tuns out their fridge was from the ice age and was using so much electricity that even with everything turned off in the apartment the meter was flying around! They quickly got a new fridge and now have much lower power bills!

azure_azure · November 2011

That happened to us here. They based the rate on what the previous tenants used. We called them to explain that we were extremely careful with what we use and to check again. We actually wrote the numbers from the meter down when we moved in, gave them that info plus the current amount. This helped and after a few months we got a credit for the surcharge.

Hope you get it sorted out!

Publius · November 2011

I think we've got it figured out. This is a new building. The owner of the unit took possession in Feb., we moved in in July, and they just read the meter for the first time a few weeks ago. So even though the bill is dated for the last two months it's really for all electricity used since they put the meter in last Feb. Thankfully we checked the meter when we moved in, so the landlord is responsible for a big chunk of this.

Umm...great

Re: Umm...great

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