DTE Insanity

[S6Sputnik]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

This past summer, DTE sent us a huge bill and told us that they had been estimating our power usage rather than billing us from meter readings. The bill was something over $1,000. We yelled and screamed at them so they put us into collection so we just paid it to protect our credit rating (however after we paid it, they continued to report it as a new collection account month after month).

We got regular bills for a while. They were hefty, but did not seem out of line. Then in November, we got a bill for less than $200, normally the bill was around three times that or more, so I called them. They said that they had been estimating our power usage and not reading the meters and the $200 was just a "default" estimate. Previously they had been estimating our power based on our usage, but after a certain number of estimates it returns to the "default" amount. (Later another representative said that this is untrue and basically asserted that I was ying when I said that their representative told me that on the telephone). They said that they would have to come out and read the meter on a scheduled appointment. The funny thing is we had seen the meter reader guy come every month and usually said "Hi" to him and watched him read the meter. He read the meter, they were lying.

We scheduled a meter reading appointment and they called and canceled and told us to call to reschedule. We called to reschedule and they put us on hold for almost an hour. After that, they told us that we never had a meter reading scheduled and asked us why we would need to schedule a meter reading. This malarkey went on for months and eventually in January of this year, they sent us a new updated bill, this time for $2500. This is over and above the hefty monthly bills that we were already paying. We had to put this on a payment plan to pay it over a year.

Then this month they sent us another "extra" bill. this time for about $1600 again on top of the monthly bills that we have been paying.

When I call them I get:

The run around: "I do not deal with that problem. I do not know who you need to talk to"

Lies: "we are not reading your meter because you have a dog"

or just pure nonsense.

Has anyone heard of anything like this before? Does anyone know what our remedy is? I could sue them, but that is a bit absurd for this amount of money, besides, it should be a simple matter of figuring out the correct readings. I cannot seem to get their attention. I think that they are governed by the public utility commission, but the PUC does not seem to have any dispute resolution that I can find. I asked them about getting this into a dispute resolution system, with the PUC or anyone else and they said: "We do not do that, that is up to you to figure out."

These people are crazy.

This must be for a business? My 15000 sq foot furniture store uses $2200 at the height of summer in Central Texas.

DTE is screwed up, but they need to replace your meter and check your multipliers.
Also look at what your meter ended at on your last bill of 2006 and compare that with the last bill from 2007. The total KWh should be obvious as should the cost per KWh . Have one of their managers go over the bills with you one by one.

If you get the run around send a certified letter to

DTE Energy
C/O Mr. Tony Earley, CEO of DTE Energy Co
2000 2nd Avenue
Detroit, MI 48226

Someone in his office needs to be able to get your records right for good. If not you send a certified letter to Granholm's office regarding the poor monopolistic treatment you are receiving from DTE, and copy Mr. Earley on that letter.

[therrboomer]

Most utility companies have a gizmo (that's short for don't know correct name of device) on your meter that the meter reader person can read remotely from the DTE vehicle.

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by S6Sputnik

This must be for a business? My 15000 sq foot furniture store uses $2200 at the height of summer in Central Texas.

DTE is screwed up, but they need to replace your meter and check your multipliers.
Also look at what your meter ended at on your last bill of 2006 and compare that with the last bill from 2007. The total KWh should be obvious as should the cost per KWh . Have one of their managers go over the bills with you one by one.

If you get the run around send a certified letter to

DTE Energy
C/O Mr. Tony Earley, CEO of DTE Energy Co
2000 2nd Avenue
Detroit, MI 48226

Someone in his office needs to be able to get your records right for good. If not you send a certified letter to Granholm's office regarding the poor monopolistic treatment you are receiving from DTE, and copy Mr. Earley on that letter.

Thank you. This is very helpful. If I can somehow get their attention, perhaps I can get this resolved without suing them.

No it is a house. What really makes it odd is that we bought a super efficient boiler and a tankless water heater, bot of which should substantially reduce gas use. On top of that we keep our thermostats at 63.

I will try this contact. Thank you.

[Coldjensens]

this gets better. DTE finally responded. They sent someone out to look at the meter and he said that it is the gas that mostly the cause of the huge expense, not electric, but electric is still high ($10/day).
Finally the gas guy comes out and re-reads the meter. There was some odd thing where he said that he was only sent out to read the meter not to trouble shoot despite what we asked for and although he was the guy who would trouble shoot, he could not do it since he was signed up only for a meter read.
What does he determine? Now they say that we owe them another $2500! That of course is on top of the $2500 extra billing from January, and the $1700 extra billing from February, and the $700-1000 extra billing from last summer, and the $500 - $700 we paid them each month.

I think that they have been drinking too much Detroit City water laced with hallucinogens.

[Joanie B]

Something is wrong there....obviously.

Is your house new construction?
If not, then they have a history of usage at that address - ask to see it.
If it is new constuction, you should canvas your neighbors (if you have any) with similar sized homes and ask about their bills.
In fact, DTE should have average usage statistics for a home your size in your area.

You mentioned having new, high efficiency mechanicals installed.
Were they installed correctly?
Is there an enormous leak underground somewhere?
Is someone illegally hooked up to your service? Like maybe your entire neighborhood?

And lastly, how about this? Maybe the meter is broken! They're not exempt from failing.
I can't imagine that there is no one at DTE that will take your problem seriously and audit your usage/account.
Insist on a new meter and a meeting with a real person.
In fact, maybe it's time for an attorney. Couldn't be much worse than those enormous bills.

[Joanie B]

Here's a link to file a complaint with the Michigan Public Service Commission
MPSC - Complaints
There's a number to call if you'd rather do that.

[theshoota]

Currently experiencing a serious degredation in the service of dte. trying to get the power on for some tenants in a rental. In which there was some theft going on by the previous tenant. They are holding my buisness hostage. trying to hold me, or the new tenant liable for the old bill. I can not find my old lease for the old tenant, but do have rent reciepts, rental credit application along with ss numbers and drivers license numbers, and i know that they recieved mail there for a year and half.
After visiting the office on 3 seperate occasions, and the service being turned on in the wrong address once. (this is a two family flat) other times leaving the office thinking the problem was straightened out only to learn the next day they where still not going to remove the block from the act. and sevice would not be turned on. going to the office i usually bring all my info, registered deed, rental credit apps, rental lease, drivers lic. ect. because you never know what they will ask for or need, or how many times they'll ask you for copies of the same info or refuse to copy the info in the first visit.
They can not legally hold up the property this way, can they? im currently keeping a journal of all the propblems im having. Looking for people that deal with dte on a regular basis to do the same. and to converse with them about there similiar problems.
I have been talking to my lawyer, waitingfor a reply from him. My personal bills are all in good standing, and have reported theft recently of elec from other tenants.
This is not the only problem, i have noticed that dte will almost always miss there scheduled appts. with out a call, leaving you to waite an entire day for them. Its so bad that i tell current tenants to recall customer service to reconfirm there appointments, and they glad they did because dte had no record of the scheduled apt.
the shoota
Please email Sign In subject (DTE)

[Coldjensens]

WE finally got some issues resolved with DTE. They reduced the amount they are claiming is due, but they still claim a huge amount of extra billings wihout showing us how they get to that number. It is as if they are just selecting random numbers to charge us. (By

they messed up our credit rating and did nto remove the incorrect reports despite reportedly promising to do so. Two days ago, my wife spent three plus hours on the telephone with teir customer service. Each person would talk to her for a bit and then transfer her to someone who would transfer her again and so on until she gave up. She would call back and say do not transfer me under any circumstances. If you cannot answer my question, we will talk about somethig else, but do not transfer me.

No luck transfer transfer transfer.

Yesterday I learned that DTE got rid of their in house customer service and contracted it all out to some outside company. No wonder we cannot get anywhere. No one has any authority at all.