This time last year I made a commitment to myself to get my electric bill down to a manageable amount. You see, it was, to me an outrageous amount. September 2007, my FPL bill was topping $285. For one person living quite meagerly, it was just way too high. So, i did what all normal sane (not) people do, I turned off my air. And the experiment started.
And its been off exactly one year since October 2007. ( i might have had a few breakdowns as October and November slowly come down)
You can see how the grid Plummets.
I went a whole year without air. I'm very proud of this accomplishment.
BUT!
its also probably why i'm so livid right now, upon receiving a notice that this months bill was $180.
HUH? last months bill was $81.
For some reason FPL has more than doubled my electric bill this month. WHY?
This month, they "estimated my bill" rather than get their behinds out and actually read my meter. Now of course, they had all kinds of responses as to why they might not have read it.
They said that I must have dogs. Well, yes I do. BUT, thats never stopped you from reading the meter in the past 5 years.
Oh, but it must be a new meter reader, they quip. WELL, funny, usually the new guys honk, and since I'm home all day every day, i'll let them in and i'll also walk them from neighbor to neighbor too. Its never stopped them before.
I've lived here for 5 years. NEVER once getting my bill "ESTIMATED".
I don't believe in coincedences... So, WHY THIS MONTH?
All answers came when she explained how they come up with the formula to estimate the bill.
For an estimated bill they will average the preceding month. AND the month 1 year ago.
They don't average out the last 8 months, or 6 months, or heck even a whole year. NO... they average out that ONE month September 2007 and August 2008 to come up with my "estimated bill"... for September 2008. hmmm...
Fabulous!
What is so funny about all this (funny= irksome not funny = haha) is if you look at my graph you can see how my bill has been averaging.
So this makes me wonder....
TRICK OR COINKY DINK?
I tend to err on the side of TRICKERY. Especially when it comes to big business.
Generally, August and September months will be our highest billable months all year.
So. check it out. You can go to FPL.COM and find out if its something FPL likes to do on a regular basis or is this really an anomolie. Check and find your highest month and see too, if you were "estimated" one year to the month.
Zoinks!!! I've been away from here for too long! Noble looks amazing; you did a good job, mama!
ReplyDeleteFrom what I understand, for Florida's Power Leeches (FPL), you have to select the averaging option for your bill. They should not be doing that unless you tell them to average across the year.
Call them back and tell them you don't want that option! Otherwise, you'd have to wait another year to really see the benefits.
I was in the averaging option for over a year. I didn't like it. I like to pay every month exactly what i use. This is why i'm so miffed. They didn't bill my actual use this month, the estimated it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliment on Noble. He's my smelly guy.