Exorbitant Bills for Consumers Energy Customers

Consumers Energy customers in a rural area of Van Buren County are outraged after getting bills that they say are more than 13 times the normal charge. “My bill went from $300 a month to $4,887 and I was like what the hell happened?” said Christina McCaid in an interview with Fox17.

The lack of readings of their analog meters is not because Consumers Energy just doesn't have the fortitude to be out in Michigan winters. The time period Consumers wasn't reading the meter was 14 to 24 months. Dennis McKee cited "dogs in the yard" and "poor visibility" as excuses. Really?! For two years  there's been poor visibility. On top of that the gas meters were read regularly.  It's clear to us that the real reason is that Consumers Energy has another selling point for smart meters. Ticking off a few low-income customers is a small price for the utility to pay when they can bend the ear of the legislators on why smart meters are so necessary. Dennis McKee, the Consumers Energy spokesman, was his usual suave, salesmanly self, intoning with great resonance that Consumers is dealing with these problems by changing analog meters to smart meters. The newscasters said, "Well, you can look at your bill and see whether it says 'actual' read or 'estimated' read. I know full well that is untrue. I have received a number of bills that have said "actual" when they were not. How do I know? I called the company when my next bill was higher than normal, and they said, "That's because your last read was estimated." When I told them it said it was an actual read, they reiterated that in fact was not an actual read.

“What really irritates me is that Consumers Energy can't come out and read my damn meter, but you can get out of the car and change the damn meter. It really burns me to no end,” said Berry, whose meter bill went up three thousand dollars, to Dennis McKee, Consumers Energy's mouthpiece. 

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IMPORTANT--This happened in the district of Aric Nesbitt, chair of the House Energy Policy Committee. He needs to hear from his constituents that we do not want smart meters and we want an analog opt-out.