Digital Hydro Meters - watch your bills!

So... we're Toronto Hydro customers. yippee. So what? Well, I just want to get that out of the way, because I'm not sure if the following is a reflection on the company, or the meters (which are employed by hydro companies throughout North America).

I used to pay our hydro bill, but 3 bills ago, D took over paying them. That doesn't have any bearing on the story, other than to say that I wasn't quite as aware of the amounts on the bills recently.

We had a fairly 'usual' hydro bill amount. Obviously, it would be slightly higher in the summer (A/C) than in winter (lights on timers, so the more hours of darkness weren't a big impact for us).

The last bill I paid was in June (based on a late May reading).

Then they changed our hydro meter from the old analog ones to a new digital meter. Very fancy, supposedly more accurate... and no requirement to have someone come out to read it.

The next bill (based on a late July reading, usually) was listed as an "estimate"... probably because of the change in meters. Ok... it was about $40 more than our 'usual', but it was also summer, we'd had a couple of heat waves... possible it was accurate, I suppose.

The next bill (based on a late September reading) was about $125 higher than 'usual'... but I didn't see it for it to raise flags with me.

The most recent bill (based on a late November reading) was about $300 higher than 'usual'!!!! WTF!?!?!? Umm... no. Well, we paid the damn thing because I don't want my credit rating to be screwed (the bill's in my name), but we did some investigation before calling them.

Here's the thing...

The bill says the meter reading of November 26th was 6770... D did a visual check of the meter on December 22nd (nearly a full month after the bill's reading) and it showed 4515. Ain't no way in hell that meter ran backwards or rolled over in that month, so obviously the damn thing is pooched and 'called home' with the wrong number... or their billing system pooched it.

So I called Hydro this morning to try to sort it out... and I don't think I quite got my point across to the woman I was dealing with. Although, I did get across that there's an issue with the last 3 bills, that the reading one month after the current bill is LOWER than the one on the bill, and that our lifestyle has not changed significantly since we moved into this house over a year ago, but the last 3 bills have been getting increasingly higher out of our 'usual' range.

They're sending someone in person to look at the meter within the next 7 days, but we won't see any adjustment (if there is one) until the next bill... which I expect to see sometime mid-February... stay tuned, and in the mean time, Keep an eye on your bills if you've been switched to a digital meter!!