PG&E Red Tape
I've been using PG&E's Automatic Payment
Service (APS) to pay my gas and electric bill automatically via an electronic
draft out of my checking account. I liked the convenience of APS until a
mis-read gas meter turned into a months-long battle to get my money
back.
Some time in late November 2003 the
PG&E meter reader mis-read my gas meter. I'm pretty sure the reading should
have been 2048
but he or she read it as
3148.
I'm signed up for APS so a paper statement is mailed to me as a courtesy, to let
me know how much money PG&E will take from my bank account and approximately
when that transaction will occur. On December 1, 2003 I received my
monthly PG&E statement and was surprised to see a total over
$1500--eek--nearly an order of magnitude higher than usual! In a normal month I
use around 100 therms of natural gas but the mis-reading of the meter made it
look like I had used more that 1200 therms that month. I called PG&E
immediately and pointed out the error. The customer service rep promised to
correct the payment amount before the draft transaction from my bank account.
Whew, I thought, glad I got that taken care
of.
On December 13, 2003 I
noticed that PG&E had taken the >$1500 from my bank account anyway.
Rats. Another call to customer service. The rep promised to reverse the draft
to refund the money back into my bank account. Ok, that'll
work.
On December 30, 2003 I
still had no refund. A quick call to customer service to check status. "Refund
in progress". Ok, I'm anxious to get my money back, but PG&E is a big
company so give them a little time to work. On January 7, 2004 my next
bill arrives showing my account has a huge credit balance from which the next
month's services have been deducted. Ok, they have my money and are keeping
track of it, but I'd sure like it back in my bank account earning some (meager)
interest. Another quick call to customer service--"refund in progress" again.
The rep claims it might take another billing cycle to process.
Sheesh.
On March 8, 2004 I still
had no refund. Another call to customer service--the fifth if you're keeping
score--this time the rep said there was no way to reverse a bank draft to refund
money in my account. I wondered aloud what they had been working on for the
past 3 months. Her suggestion now was to submit a new request for a refund,
this time for a check to be sent to me, probably in a "few weeks". This didn't
sound like real progress to me so I asked to talk to a supervisor. The
supervisor was very polite and immediately connected me with Gloria in APS who
said she would process my refund request "today" and I'd probably receive it in
7 days. I also had Gloria cancel my participation in APS. If a mis-read meter
causes me this much hassle to get my money back I'll find some other way to
pay.
Today is March 19, 2004 and
I just received my refund check.
Hooray!
Several things went wrong
during more than three months it took for me to get my refund, some of them
PG&E's fault and some of them my fault. Gloria said customer service should
have been able to stop the original APS draft as soon as I pointed out it was
incorrect back on 12/1/03 (PG&E's fault). Then she told me I could have had
my bank reverse the draft if I had called them soon after I noticed the
incorrect draft back on 12/15/03. I didn't know I could do that, but now I do
(my fault). Gloria didn't know why it took so long to flow through the process
inside of PG&E before landing on her desk; neither do I (PG&E's fault).
She tried to call me on 3/5/04 but PG&E had old contact information on file
for me. They had the home telephone number of the house I lived in 7 years ago,
and a work phone 5 companies old (my fault). Still it took over 3 months before
the first attempt to contact me. And they could have sent a letter to the same
address they send my monthly statement.
Posted: Fri - March 19, 2004 at 12:17 AM