Teresa I
Rochester Hills,#2Consumer Comment
Sun, July 10, 2011
I'm having the exact same problem with DTE as the writer from Milan. Two years ago, due to to temporary issues, I got approximately 100.00 behind in my electric bill from DTE. At that time my bill was less than 25.00 dollars a month. I lived in a 400 sq. ft. apartment with NO air conditioning. I agreed to pay 31.00 a month to bring my bill back into the black.
DTE immediately took me off of paper billing, without my consent, and just started sending me my bill via email, which I paid faithfully. However, I noticed that my bill was creeping up and up. First double, now more than triple the amount I was originally being billed. I can assure everyone that my lifestyle, nor my paycheck, has tripled in the past 24 months. My last bill was for almost 70.00. No air conditioning. No one home 5 days a week. And nothing being made clear in the bills sent via email. I was finally able to check the billing statement through the web (which I don't have regular access too) only to discover DTE claims I have a "balance" of over 200.00 on my account.
From my calculations, my original amount owing, the one I asked to be placed on the payment plan two years ago to repay, has been repaid at least twice. This new balance is complete fiction, and an outrageous rip-off in my view.
I moved into a nicer home on June 17th, and fully expected DTE to correct the billing problem from my old address. They have not. In fact, they went so far as to continue my "payment plan" billing at my new address, which I never asked for, nor care to continue. DTE is billing me another 70.00 at my new address, for less than three weeks of service.
Because DTE is a government sanctioned and protected monopoly, and because Michigan residence are forced to use and rely on this monopoly for the electric service they need to survive, clearly they feel safe treating customers as they choose, billing them for pure fictions, and then threatening them with shut off notices if they don't comply with these extortion tactics.
To put it mildly, I am outraged, and there ought to be a law forbidding DTE from ripping off their enslaved customers this way. I will be calling them within the next week, and if I have to pay the bogus balance from my old address, I will do so just to avoid their government protected extortion practice in the future.
I also want back on to paper billing. I don't own a printer, and don't always have full web service. How dare they simply assume I do? How dare they force me into their stupid "green" religion? What DTE needs is a good old fashioned dose of fear from a competent competitor.