Got a weird one from Entergy New Orleans. Client has been getting charged for overlapping billing periods on their LGS-1 schedule. Somehow they're showing usage for June 15-July 14 AND June 28-July 27 on separate bills. Customer service swears it's not a double billing but the kWh charges are definitely overlapping for about two weeks. Anyone seen this before? The total overcharge is around $1,200 so far and they want to keep "investigating" while charging interest on the disputed amount.
Entergy period overlap charges - anyone else seeing this?
Juan, OG&E did something similar to one of my accounts in Oklahoma City last year. Turned out their new AMI system was creating phantom meter reads when the actual meter was swapped out. The old meter's final reading and the new meter's initial reading were creating an overlap period. Took three months and escalation to the corporate office to get it sorted. Document everything and demand they show you the actual meter reading logs, not just the billing summary.
I've seen this with Alabama Power when they do meter upgrades. The billing system sometimes creates a "final" bill for the old meter and a "start" bill for the new meter with overlapping periods. The key is getting them to admit the error in writing. Once they acknowledge the overlap, they usually credit the entire disputed amount plus interest. But Entergy is notorious for dragging their feet on these corrections.
Entergy Mississippi pulled this same stunt on a client in Jackson. They claimed it was due to a "billing cycle adjustment" but couldn't explain why the adjustment created two separate bills with overlapping periods. Filed a complaint with the PSC and suddenly they found the error and issued a $2,100 credit. Sometimes you have to go nuclear on these utilities to get their attention.
Update on this - Tallahassee has been seeing similar issues with some of the smaller municipal utilities in north Florida. It's almost always related to AMI meter deployments or billing system upgrades. The utilities know about these glitches but hope customers won't notice. Juan, demand they provide meter reading logs for both the alleged periods and threaten regulatory action if they don't resolve it within 30 days.