Carole Busick has no idea how much electricity she used last month, but she’s pretty sure it was not the amount printed on her ComEd bill: zero.
Since her meter began malfunctioning in October, the Matteson resident has received bills showing no usage in eight of the last 11 months, including each of the last five.
Busick said she tried to do the right thing by alerting ComEd to the issue, but the utility seemed uninterested.
“I have been calling ComEd every other month since this started, and I am told they will put in a repair request, but nothing ever happens,” she said in early September. “Last week I called again and was told I have a service date of Jan. 12, 2012.”
For those keeping track at home, that would be roughly four months from now, and about 15 months after Busick’s meter stopped functioning properly.
Incensed at ComEd’s lack of urgency, Busick emailed What’s Your Problem?
“I’ve called, and they say, ‘Is there anyone living in the house?’ I say, ‘Yeah, we live here,'” Busick said. “How can a service company like ComEd get away with this blatant disregard of their customers’ needs?”
Busick said her primary concern is that ComEd would discover the mistake and estimate her usage for the past year, then present her with an astronomical bill. In late August, she canceled her automatic bill-pay service so the utility could not withdraw the entire amount at once from her bank account.
“They’re not going to get their fingers in my checking account,” she said.
While she has no problem paying what she owes, Busick was also worried ComEd would overestimate her usage.
“It would be a guess on their part,” she said. “It’s not like I’ve let this go and then all of a sudden called a year later. I’ve been pushing to get this done, but they just don’t send anybody out.”
The Problem Solver called ComEd spokeswoman Martha Swaney on Tuesday. Within hours, a ComEd representative called Busick to cancel the January visit and set up a new appointment.
It was agreed a technician will visit her home Sept. 27, the first mutually agreeable date.
The ComEd representative told Busick it would only charge her for the past two months of electricity, which would be estimated based on her usage during the same months last year.
In a statement, ComEd apologized for the delay that Busick experienced in resolving her matter: “This delay is unacceptable. We will be reviewing our processes to ensure that these requests are addressed in a timely manner.”
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