PALMVIEW - A Palmview woman is shocked when she received an electric bill totaling more than $2,000. She says there's no way she could have used that much power, so she called 5 On Your Side.
The woman says she's been going back and forth with the electric company for about a month, trying to figure out why she's being charged so much.
Socorro Rodriguez and her son live alone. She says they don't use too much electricity and their bill usually doesn't go over $200 dollars until last month. Rodriguez says, "There's no way I'm going to pay $2,000. I'm sorry."
Rodriguez got a bill for about $2,044. She tells us she feels worried."
"How am I going to come up with all this money," she asks.
She called Stream Energy, but says she couldn't get any real answers. She says, "I called the company and asked if maybe there was a mistake. And they said no, that they had checked."
Then she noticed that her electric meter reads "error." Rodriguez asks, "How can you charge me $2,000 if it reads error?"
Tired of trying to figure out if the problem was with the meter or the company or something else, she called 5 On Your Side.
Here's what we found out from the energy company. They billed Rodriguez based on a meter reading taken by AEP. They're asking AEP to go back and check the meter and double-check the energy use.
"I'm feeling a little bit at ease," says Rodriguez. Stream Energy says the first meter reading was probably a mistake. Rodriguez hopes so. She says she doesn't have $2,000 dollars to shell out.
