r/bayarea • u/Prestigious-Hour6707 • 5d ago

YOOO PG&E WTF Work & Housing

800sq foot apartment. 2 people. Are. You. Kidding. Me.

Called PG&E to tell them they made a mistake. They said “hmm no it looks like the meter is working fine. Nothing we can do, that’s the price.”

No appliance change. No lifestyle changes. And even if we had, how the F*CKK could a 1bd apartment create a $630 bill?? Also yes, the previous bill. On me for not checking our auto payments. Just assumed they wouldn’t be more than $120….!? Dumb assumption on my part

I hate PG&E.

^I know it’s a hostile statement. But I think we can all agree an exception can be made for PG&E…

1.0k Upvotes

79% Upvoted

View all comments

192

u/avoidy 5d ago

I went away for two weeks to visit family in Florida. Literally wasn't home. All the lights were off, everything unplugged. PG&E bill for that month when I wasn't even home was somehow higher than last month's.

They just dream up a number and bill us. What're we gonna do, switch to another provider? Fuck PG&E. Steals money from average folks and then burns down their towns. I hope they burn one day.

33

u/Crash_Stamp 5d ago

“And burns down their towns”…. We’re so fucked. This is depressing.

9

u/Speculawyer 5d ago

Was the heating system and water heater turned off? That's what uses energy. LED lights use nearly nothing.

3

u/blankenstaff 5d ago

I hate PG&e with every cell of my body, but. They do not just make up numbers. I know that because I track my electricity and gas usage like a mofo and I compare it to the billing.

5

u/2brightside 5d ago

No but they make "mistakes".

6

u/blankenstaff 5d ago

You're right. A couple weeks ago there was an outage on my block. Pg&e estimated my usage during that outage to be non-zero. Infuriating.

I have a smart meter, so my guess is that when they detect the smart meter not able to send data (because there's no power going to it because PG&e is down), they have written code that is faulty in that it estimates the usage rather than cross-checking to see if the power is out. Ridiculous.

Still, my mental health requires me not to think about these things as often as my tendency would dictate.

1

u/appathevan 5d ago

I had a weird situation where my gas meter was old and not sending readings. I didn’t realize until a crew came to replace it about 5 months after I moved in. They said that during that time PGE “estimated” my gas use during that time.

5

u/24moop 5d ago

They also offer town explosions if you’d prefer

2

u/Astral-American 5d ago edited 5d ago

Check your bill (easier if you have an online account) to see if your bill was/is being estimated.

If the answer is no to estimations of your electric and gas meter usage, call the 1-800# and ask to have your meters checked.

1

u/btashawn 4d ago

i did this & they told me they don’t send people out unless the smart meter isn’t communicating. they’re full of sh-t tbh

2

u/DirtierGibson 5d ago

Yeah something is up here. You need to get that investigated.

You know you can visualize your energy consumption down to the hour on their website, right?

1

u/doubleramencups 5d ago

burnt down or exploded the choice isn't yours and you will like it

1

u/HapaSure 4d ago

They’re a terrorist organization at this point.

1

u/Comprehensive-Key160 3d ago

I had a similar situation happen to me when I lived in San Diego and I had turned the breaker off before leaving. Contacted SDG&E and once I told them I had the breaker off they came and found out they had been charging me for the wrong meter for the entire 3 years I lived here. I was eventually credited back some of the money I was overcharged but never saw receipts to prove it was correct. The technician they sent out also told me that sometimes when the smart meters aren't working properly, they use an algorithm to estimate what they think you would have used and charge you that "random" number. Energy companies can kick rocks