Enmax customers reminded to monitor statements, after billing mixup

CALGARY- Signing up for automatic billing ended up costing a Calgary Enmax customer.

Paul Lacken runs his business from his home, and his utility bills average $500 per month. When his most recent bill came in at nearly $1,000, he was shocked, and called the company to find out what happened.

It turns out a late meter reading meant he wasn’t charged for natural gas used in February, and it was added to the March bill.

“I would have expected that at least I would have been notified by my carrier that they haven’t billed me for two months, or maybe an approximation of what my bill would be based on prior month,” he complained, adding he feels there should be a system in place to warn people ahead of time.

“It’s not something that happens every day, it can happen but it isn’t particularly common,” says Doris Kaufmann-Woodcock from Enmax. “One thing that we do actually recommend is customers check their bills on a regular basis to make sure that are being billed for the services that they should be.”

While Lacken is able to pay the catch up bill, he says he’s concerned what would happen to people on fixed incomes in the same situation. Enmax says that in those cases, a payment plan is worked out.