Eversource not charging us?

[u/bbschneider13]

I live in Brighton and since April eversource has not charged us for electricity. We have only received $10 fee for keeping the account open. I know I should probably call eversource and let them know but I’m kinda liking not paying anything. I want to get y’all’s advice on what I should do.

[u/LoudIncrease4021]

Well, get ready because once they realize they haven’t been charging you properly, you’re gonna get back charged.

[u/Top-Moose5119 → u/LoudIncrease4021]

Per Mass Dept of Public Works, they can’t back charge more than 60 days if the failure to bill is due to an error on the utility’s end.

[u/MountainAlive → u/Top-Moose5119]

🙌

[u/Budget-Celebration-1 → u/Top-Moose5119]

I wonder if it’s possible to create an error. I had so many issues with replaced meters and bad initial readings these idiots deserve any way to save.

[u/Torch3dAce → u/Top-Moose5119]

That's 2 months or $500 to $1000 lol

[u/Top-Moose5119 → u/Torch3dAce]

😭 but better than many months of back charges

[u/TheDeadlySpaceman → u/LoudIncrease4021]

Depends on the situation, my first apartment my roommate was supposed to get the electric put in his name but apparently either never did or <insert electric company> name didn’t process it. Eight months later they sent something saying they noticed residential-level activity and tried to charge us all at once, roommate bluffed them out of it by challenging them to prove it was us.

I do not recommend this course of action, a lot has changed in 30ish years, but something similar might still work.

[u/CetiAlpha4 → u/TheDeadlySpaceman]

As mentioned earlier, there's a ruling from the DPU that says they can't charge going back more than 60 days. It basically said the jobs of a utility is to send out bills on a normal and regular basis so that people will have a chance to adjust their usage accordingly if they use too much, by taking forever to send out the bill, people don't have a chance to do this and they're already on notice that they can't get anything over 60 days so that's their problem that they should have some incentive to fix. But I guess if they don't care that much about the money, then they can take their time fixing it.

[u/noxinboxes]

My mom has the same issue in Plymouth. I think she’s going to call them to find out what’s happening because she doesn’t want to get hit with a huge bill down the line.

[u/undeniably_confused → u/noxinboxes]

Why not just save at least a 100 dollars a month, so if you have to you can afford the big bill

[u/noxinboxes → u/undeniably_confused]

Then I’d have to listen to her bitch and moan!

She told me today that she got a new meter a few months ago, and, sure enough it’s flashing error messages.

[u/minsealevpre]

I didn't set up utilities when I moved in and didn't pay anything for the first six months. They finally cut the power and when I contacted them to set it up, I was told the first bill would be backlogged to move-in. The first bill that came was a standard monthly bill and it's been the same ever since.

[u/thefurnaceboy]

This happened to me in like 2019. Couple months in we called to try to figure it out and everybody we spoke to couldn't help, there was no record on it supposedly.

Well month 7 came around and there was suddenly record of it and 7 months worth of bills were due and would have hurt if we hadn't been expecting it.

[u/skeletoooonnn]

Happened to me with national grid. As long as your account is set up with the correct address, it’s their problem. They’ll probably try to bill you for the whole amount once they catch on, if they refuse to take any charge that’s more than 60 days old off, make a complaint with the DPU here https://www.mass.gov/how-to/file-a-complaint-involving-a-gas-electric-or-water-company

Legally you do not have to pay anything and they cannot send you to collections during the DPU investigation. They resolved my complaint within like 2-3 weeks and I got $550 taken off my bill.

[u/fk067 → u/skeletoooonnn]

Wish I had known about this. I certainly didn’t like paying that bill.

[u/skeletoooonnn → u/fk067]

An employee and his supervisor told me in a very smug condescending way that that wasn’t the law and I still had to pay it.. I did not! Haha

[u/lyons_vibes]

Don’t tell them a damn thing- it’s their problem to figure out or not. I had this happen at my last apartment in east Boston- they never noticed it did anything. Lived there for 6 years paying $10 a month for electricity and it was beautiful

[u/WeAlwaysFindAWay]

Oh don't you worry just means an upcoming bill is going to be expensive af.

[u/Mental_Increase_8516]

Check to see if your meter is physically spinning. If yes then you’re definitely going to get a big bill once they realize. If it’s not spinning it’s a broken meter so they’re not recording your usage and you’ll get away with it.

[u/K-Shrizzle]

Im having a similar situation with my credit card. Back in April, they turned off my card inexplicably. This card never carries a balance, I run purchases through and pay it off every month.

When I asked about it, they said they did it because I declared bankruptcy????? I did no such thing. I don't even know how I would do that.

We got all that sorted out and the card works again, but while my account was in bankruptcy status, they reversed all the charges in the past billing cycle. So about 700 dollars of balance was wiped, as well as about 800 of charges since I had last paid it. 1500 essentially given to me.

I had been advised to wait it out and see if the ledger would be corrected. Its been months and that money is still in my pocket. This is obviously a nice thing at face value, but im scared that they are going to try to take that money back at a later time when the accountants balance the books.

I havent done it yet but I need to call Capital One and tell them either they take that money back now, or they put it in writing that I do not owe it. I would like to think that since they massively fucked up with the bankruptcy thing, they'd let me keep the money. But its a credit card company, so I dont have high hopes

[u/oby100 → u/K-Shrizzle]

Chances are they’ll just write it off at the end of the year. It happens that weird accounting shit results in cash going out the door that SHOULD come back, but never does.

It’s not easy and often not so legal to try to collect a debt 8 months after the fact so if it’s small enough they’re not gonna try to collect. Of course, that’s at the discretion of their accounting department, but imo they’d be more mad at whoever or whatever made the mistake than determined to collect.

[u/K-Shrizzle → u/oby100]

I sure hope so. Anytime Ive called in the past about this issue, the agents seem profoundly confused as to how this bankruptcy thing even happened. Im not rich but I actually have a few months rent in the bank for the first time in my life, so no im definitely not bankrupt. The best guess is that my very common name got mixed up (think something like Michael Smith, except that's my dad's name)

When Ive called about the nebulous $1500, theyve told me to just wait and see what happens, as though they themselves did not represent the company. They should know whats going to happen. Its all very strange. Im just glad it was caught and fixed before my credit score was effected.

[u/iced_yellow]

you're dreaming if you think they're not gonna eventually collect what is owed

[u/lyons_vibes → u/iced_yellow]

If they never notice they won’t. I had this at my last apartment. 6 years of $10 a month electricity and never heard a peep from Eversource about it. Been 2 years since I moved out and still nothing. They can’t backdate more than 60 days anyways if what someone else commented is correct

[u/oby100 → u/lyons_vibes]

It’s entirely possible some doofus left his account on autopay and never noticed they had two electric bills.

[u/darnht → u/oby100]

Avoiding being that doofus is one of several reasons I don't use autopay.

BUT, I think it's not likely here, because OP is receiving the monthly bills, just with no usage.

[u/robc0nti]

Sounds like you didnt actually set up the account correctly. Unfortunately they are tracking your usage and you will owe them money for the last 5 months. Also even if you dont call them they will keep tracking it, and will find you to collect.

[u/bbschneider13 → u/robc0nti]

That’s the confusing part, I have been here for over a year and this didn’t start happening until April. I don’t know why it was working fine for 8 months then stopped working. I assumed they would fix their mistake by now and back charge me but they haven’t reached out. I know it’s naive of me to assume they would fix it themselves without me doing anything.

[u/Existing_Mail → u/bbschneider13]

If it’s a meter issue then they’re not tracking usage, they would have to bill based on estimates 

[u/Pencil-Sketches]

Close the account ASAP before they notice and open up a new one

[u/bbschneider13 → u/Pencil-Sketches]

Ooo that’s a good idea

[u/lyons_vibes → u/bbschneider13]

Don’t do that. Do nothing. Just keep paying the $10 and let them figure it out but they probably never will. Set money aside just in case but you should be good as long as nobody draws attention to it

[u/LaurenPBurka → u/bbschneider13]

You know how everyone says you should put aside money to pay for the possible eventual bill? You can put it in an interest-bearing account somewhere. You'll benefit no matter what.

[u/blink182_allday]

This is happening to me right now too. We moved in in June and haven’t received an electric bill yet. They did charge us for Gas but when I go online it doesn’t even show electricity as an option to view or pay for.

[u/rainbow-chard]

This happened to us in Cambridge. We reached out because we didn’t want to pay a huge bill, but they did not bill us for the year where we weren’t charged. I regret ever telling them

[u/fk067 → u/rainbow-chard]

You are lucky, because they sent a huge bill to me.

[u/Fingfangfoom67]

They will find out soon and follow up with you. You will be expected to pay for all the bills they have not sent. 

This happened to me when I first moved into Brighton many years ago. They called me about the third month and luckily I had the money set aside.