An Edmonton woman got a jolt when she received an $11,253 electricity bill after one month in her new downtown condo.
Vivian Kwan has lived in the Ultima building across from Rogers Place since June. When she checked her personal email over the weekend, she found her first power bill from EPCOR, which had been sent on Thursday.
“It’s such an absurd amount,” Kwan said of her bill, which suggested that over 24 days, she’d used 122,400 kWh of electricity — enough for the 33-storey building.
On Monday morning, she called EPCOR for help, thinking there would be an easy fix. She said the customer service representative she talked to for 36 minutes told her there was nothing they could do because the bill reflected the address she’d entered, which was her building, not her suite.
“I was told that they have the ability to backdate or reverse certain bills, but they can only do it if it’s their mistake,” Kwan said. “They’re like, ‘Oh, because this is your fault, we can’t.'”
Wrong address
Prior to moving in, Kwan registered with EPCOR for power — other utilities are included in her rent. She used EPCOR’s online self-service tool, but said she encountered technical difficulties.
“I was trying to manually punch in my new address, but it gave me a couple error messages saying, ‘Couldn’t find the address,’ ” Kwan said, noting that eventually the system appeared to find a match.
Vivian Kwan moved into a condo in the Ultima Tower in June. Her first EPCOR bill seemed to reflect charges for the entire building. (Vivian Kwan )
Although that match didn’t include her unit, she said the mailing address that she provided clearly does.
Kwan said the customer service representative suggested she ask her landlord for reimbursement for the bill.
“Honestly, this experience doesn’t really leave a good impression for me,” she said, noting that her landlord was equally baffled by the situation and like her, expects EPCOR should be able to rectify it.
Kwan works in an administrative role at the University of Alberta’s faculty of science. She only graduated two years ago and is still mired in student debt.
“Oh, definitely, I have 11 grand lying around just to pay utility bills,” she said sarcastically.
Kwan said the EPCOR bill is about a quarter of her loans.
“That amount just stresses me out,” she said.
‘Something has gone off the rails’
Frustrated by her conversation with EPCOR’s customer service department, Kwan posted about it on Facebook and Twitter. EPCOR responded to one of her tweets and then called to tell her the company would look into her bill.
EPCOR spokesperson Tim Le Riche said on Monday afternoon that the company is aware of the situation.
“Something has gone off the rails in the enrolment process and we’ll correct it,” Le Riche said, confirming that EPCOR is in touch with the customer, but not that she wouldn’t have to pay the $11,000.
Le Riche said without a privacy waiver from the customer, he couldn’t provide any more information.
As of Monday night, Kwan’s bill is still $11,253. She said she’s thankful she didn’t sign up for pre-authorized withdrawals.
“If that happened, that would have been a nightmare,” she said.
Kwan said she has changed utility companies going forward.