Gas Company's Error Puts Pricey Bills In Customers' Mail
Aquile Giving Customers Time To Pay New Bills
POSTED: 5:35 pm CST February 20, 2008
UPDATED: 8:56 pm CST February 20, 2008
DAVID CITY, Neb. -- Some David City residents said they owe up to $1,000 to their gas company after a billing error was found and corrected.When Amanda Stutzman got her bill from Aquila this month, it was more than $1,000."When I saw this, I'm like, this can't be right. How can it go from $90 to over $1,000? We were, like, we didn't use that much in the last month," Stutzman said.Aquila officials said the bills are correct. From mid-November through mid-January, Aquila's Rick Schwartz said, one meter reader incorrectly recorded usage for as many as 1,100 customers. It caused gas bills in 10 communities to be too low. The communities include Bee, David City, Garrison, Osceola, Rising City, Shelby, Staplehurst and Ulysses.Customers have to pay the difference."We realize it was our mistake, and we definitely apologize for that," Schwartz said.Schwartz said Aquila is giving customers at least three months to pay the bills and more time if they need it."We won't be shutting anyone off because of our mistake, and again, we'll work with them on getting their bill paid," he said.Schwartz said that charging the correct amount is a matter of fairness to other Aquila customers."All we're collecting for is the product they used," Schwartz said.Resident Cheryl Gregg said it is Aquila's mistake and the company should take the responsibility for it."A lot of companies that you go into, if they make a mistake, they take the loss. That's kind of how it works," Gregg said.Aquila officials said that it was a training issue, and they are taking steps to make sure these kinds of errors don't happen again.
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