Con Edison review: overcharging 44

My mother is going through a similar situaition, she is being charged almost $1000.00 on her Con edison bill, when she is a single woman with no children who is basically very old fashioned; she doesn't even own a microwave! I spoke with the con edison representative and he stated he would have a representative call to see if it was necessary for a technician to go and check her meter. the representative that called was very rude and did not try to be helpful, he did not ask her any questions. He told my mother that all she wanted was for con ed to tell her she did'nt have to pay and he will not send a technician over. She now faces a disconnection at the end of the month. I do not know what else to do.

Thak you,
Giselle Ellis

We had the same problems for over 8 months. they over charged us by $825. We live in a studio apartment and use the gas for cooking maybe 2-3 times a week averaging maybe 30 minutes per time. About 3 months ago we requested their techs to come out and check our lines and meter and see if there was anything wrong with them, but everything was good, So we continued to pay. (avg. $90 - $ 120 per month) So, my land lord came up one day to fix our thermostat as i thought this may be the problem. To my surprise , he said that we don't pay for the heating. He said that these were crazy prices and to call Coned straight away. So after several call over several months telling us that our bills were perfectly normal, i spoke to a nice woman who actually took some time to really check out what was going on and finally admitted that coned has made a huge mistake and would be refunding us straight away.. She said that Coned were charging us of a reading that they did in june (which was high) and even though they had carried out 3 meter readings after it, all well below the June reading, they kept June meter as an average. For what reason i don't know. But they did..
Hope this helps...

I am paying average $150-180 a month all throughout the year. my rent is supposed to include the heating. I simply do not know whether this is normal. I live in mid-town manhattan one bedroom apartment. I think it's about 650 sq feet. nothing big at all..
I used to live in downtown one bedroom apartment, about 800 sq. feet, and the heating wasn't included in the rent. even then I paid less than $150 a month.
Can somebody let me know whether I am paying too much or this is normal price in the NYC?

for the last 3 years my bill has skyrocketed. I live in a studio apartment i am in my house approxiamately maybe 8-10 hours a day. I went from paying 36.00 to paying close to 100.00 per month it is getting out of hand. In march they had threaten to turn it off -I have paid as of this date 150.00-just check my mail box they are telling me that i owe another 103.00-everytime i have paid the bill in the past that was suppose to be the current bill. I manage my office at work and we are not being charged what they are charging me. I think my money is going to remodel their new offices on the river. Who can I really complain to.

we live in HUD housing in westchester, we are paying hundreds of dollars to con edison since our management put in "New Lights" on the premises, how do we find out if they made a deal or if conedison is overcharging us? our bills used to be 50-100 in the winter, now 200-$1, 000.. help us, who do we write to to investigate? ps. we are the only section 8 housing paying for hot water and con edison seperatly...

Con Ed does very little if anything about complaints ... I spent two years trying to get Con Ed to identify why I was getting $600-800 monthly bills ... I even had two Con Ed technicians come to my house who admitted there was something wrong ... and one of them told me Con Ed should do something about it but will not ... I wrote a letter to Con Ed CEO Kevin Burke at his office at 4 Irving Place NY, NY 10005 asking for help ... he referred me to his executive Marilyn Caselli to resolve the issue ... all she did was send a Con Ed crew out that zapped my 52 inch Televesion by accident and then say there was nothing wrong. I was annoyed that Marilyn Caselli always took a long time to write back and then never addressed my specific questions ... to further aggravate the situation I notice my August 2008 Con Ed bill is almost 60% higher (per Kilowatt hour) than my August 2007 bill. In August 2007 Con Ed charged me 18 cents a Kilowatt hour ... now in August 2008 they are charging me 28 cents a Kilowatt hour.

The agency that oversees Con Edison (theoretically) is the New York State Public Service Commission ... their phone number is [protected] ... I've spoken to them numerous times and in my opinion they are more concerned with Con Ed collecting unpaid balances than they are resolving complaints ... but at least they will pick up the phone and make a show of attempting to resolve the issue.

In my opinion the bottom line here with Con Edison is that they really will never resolve complaints satisfactorily until the NY State Attorney General sues the NY State Public Service Commission and by proxy Con Edison (as apparently the NY State Attorney General is not allowed to go after Con Ed) ... a very sobering conclusion ...

One of the folks from their executive offices called me today and listened to my complaints but at the end of it said I could hire a 3rd party Energy Efficient company to come out to my house and make reccommendations ... she told me Con Ed did not have people certified to check my house for any electric problems ... these folks really are out to lunch ... take all our money then tell us to go hire a 3rd party company to find out why they are taking all our money. Why is this company even allowed to do anything?

My daughter has a charge for Consolidated Edison on her Credit report - we live in California and she has never had a con ed account of any kind - who are these people and how do you contact them?

My Con Ed bill has gone through the roof (which is why I Googled Con Edison Rip Off and found this site). It is approximately $150 per month. It is an apartment... the cost just does not add up.

Horrible!

This is what happens when you are not given a choice. Take it or leave it.

I might complain but in the end I feel like "Why bother?"

In recent months my bill has more than doubled over what I paid last year for the same time period -- $240 per month for a small apartment! Ironically, in the past year, I've reduced my power consumption. Not to mention the electric infrastructure in my very old (19th century) apartment can't support the load it would take to consume that much power.

Con Ed holds all the power. My options are to pay the monthly bill (no questions asked) or give up electricity.

My last 3 bills with coned has trippled from past bills of $50, $60, $70 to now 209. My apt just as most here have stated is extremely tiny. Everytime I speak to coned reps about this problem they say " well the meter was read and this is the result" or " usage in the summer is more than other months." I understand that reasoning but no where should it be triple the amount or even double.My apt keeps pretty cool so i use a fan sometimes. I've probably used my AC on 10 0ccassions all summer long and never have they gone overnight etc. I also have fluorescent bulbs, I am not home often during the day. I use one lamp which comes on about 7 at night and i'm in bed by 9/10pm. I am paying a bill for a home or small business. Its outrageous. The interesting thing is the state commission may not assist appropriately. I found a federal website and while searching for answers. www.ferc.gov.com
I will check out their reasoning. I am not satisfied with this final bill. It smells of corruption and monopoly and price inflation. I would love others to contact me so that we may seek out legal action.
I strongly believe that these meters are tampered with and are therefore, faulty. They need to be replaced. We are being robbed and new policies need to be implemented. It can only be done with legal action. Please contact me.

Over the last year I have noticed my Con Edison bill getting progessivly larger. A most recent phenomenon is the outragous delivery charges! This last bill I used just under 18.97 over actual electricity. The rest of the 81.50 bill are delivery charges, surcharges & taxes!

I have written to Con Edison on numerous occasions. They cannot sufficiently expalin the charges either only that they see them as fair. Last month I spoke to a customer service agent. They young lady was apologetic, but still unable to explain how I am paying delivery charges & fees account for almost 70% of the bill!

Con Edison knows that we basicly have no choice & have no recourse in this area for electrical services.
The average person just sends them a check every month without even looking at their bill. If more people complained we might get someone to look at this "abuse of power".

Corporate GREED Con Ed sends out arbitrary bills and if you pay it fine, if you complain they say it's "usage" My bill went up 150% without valid explanation 12 22 08

I have the same problem. Each month I spend about two days, if so munch at home because I have a property in Florida. My thermostat is lowered to 40 degrees and only one light (turned on from 7-11.30 p.m.) yet my utility bill was over $500.00 in December. Con Edison said the meter is correct but I cannot understand why the charges is so high.

I report this matter repeatidly to the New York Services Commission but nothing happens but Con Edison contact me and say the meter is working correctly.

I live in Fontana, calif. and my bills have trippled in the past 5 years. I'm discussed with EDISON. They rule your life..., My summer bills, (which last for 8 months) a year are usually 350.00 per month. I used to be on the "level pay plan" which I canceled after a couple of years. The year I signed up had been a very high useage year. And wouldn't you know they figure it based on your previous year usage, so I was paying around $200.00 per month(even in winter) so now I'm really eating it. I was off work for 8 months in 08, just went back to work in aug. and I'm trying to get caught up. I had 2 insufficient funds payment in 12 months and I got a letter today telling me I have to make a "DEPOSIT" of $820.00 to keep my account my lights on. I FREAKED !. I've just started to get back on my feet will tax refund and working again. She wanted me to pay $245.00 bi weekly. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I've lived in this house for 12 years, you know me and where to find me. What next? Here's an idea put a lean on my house. Thats what the Trash Co. would do. After I quit crying she told me she would speak with her supervisor and see what they could do. 2 minutes later she said that they could make the deposit payments over a longer period of time. Yea, I saved! NOT... Thanks alot you B_______! Starting tomorrow I looking for a business that sells and installs Solar Panels, so I can go to work for them and get myself and other people to start installing them so we can give Con EDISON THE "FINGER" AND DUMP THEM FOREVER AND EVER...THE #%&($@*^. Thank you for listening. You can contact me at lmele5177@aol.com.

I have also tried to complain to Con Edison regarding this same issue. When I moved to my current apt in Feb 2007 I noticed a huge increase in my bill, at first I thought it was just the area and the fact that my new place was far larger then where I previously lived. Upon further inspection of my bill I noticed that half of my bill was made up of these outrages fees.

On average my bill now comes up to about $220 a month (crazy I know) and half of it are these unexplained fees. It has now become so absurd that the fees come out to more then the total charge my actual usage. When I speak to a rep of course they are apologetic and say they understand, then they go into this song a dance routine that I am sure they are very well trained on how they fees are determined. After all the vague explanation I am told that there is nothing I can do. I am extremely frustrated and determined to find a solution to this Crime that is being committed against all New Yorkers.

This month my gas portion of my Con Edison bill was $1.66 but with all the extra charges I'm expected to pay $20.16. The electric portion of my bill was$41.40 but with the extra charges I was billed $95.21. That's over 100 percent mark up. This is highway robbery. If anyone has any suggestions on what we can do please let us know. Calling or writing Con Ed is useless.

I have the same problem my con ed bill normally is from $80-$100. 1st i was billed for $200 for two months claiming that we own them more money for the year. After two months later they billed me for $700 and the next month a total of $989 bill. I don't know what to do because con ed is not helping me out to solve this issue and I can't pay this much money. They are bringing up meter reading from 2007 and 2008 and I have always payed my bills on time and never missed a payment. I live in a three bedroom house and nothing has changed over 3 months that they are sending me such high bills and I have been living at this house for 8years this is the first time I was billed so high. If anyone can help me by telling me what I should do now because con ed is not helping me out and I don't want to pay for something I did not use.

ENOUGH! LET'S FIGHT BACK. WE CAN'T ALL BE WRONG, LYING AND IMAGINING THAT OUR BILLS ARE INFLATED! Please Take Time To Reply to E-mail Below.

Con Edison is definitely engaged in price gauging customers - especially low-income customers. PEOPLE, We MUST NOT ALLOW THIS TO CONTINUE. It is time to organize as a group and demand a congressional investigation as the mayor, Paterson, Schumer and the Public Utility Commission are all in cahoots with the billing scam. We can not all be wrong. We were not all wrong about the credit card and mortgage companies, and we're not all wrong about this. Con Edison is doing this because they know as individuals we are powerless. So, we, the people, let's come together and make our voices known and put an end to this abuse. This is blatant stealing on behalf of Con Edison and it's executives. Let us not continue to get mad, but let's get organize and fight these greedy corporate crooks. We can not afford to pay for these executives' third homes and children's Ivy League education. This is another case of deregulation at work - no one watching the chefs cook the books. How did we become a country so devious, dishonest, and greedy that we can't even trust a 'utility' company. What next?

Let's come together, meet, pool our resources of experience, media, contacts, skills and knowledge and pursue a class action suit against Con Edison. Individually, this is not going to get better - only worse.

If you are experiencing the same problem with unexplained high bills (our meters have been tweaked, or it's just random pricing), please take a moment to send a personal response to: conedbillingscam@yahoo.com

For 4 years Con Edison has charged my family and I at a commercial rate for our 2 and 3 bedroom apartments. I submitted a complaint to PSC and Con Edison wrote me a letter stating that they sent me a letter in 2006 asking if I was a commercial or residential customer and I did not respond. I applied for services and I let them know that I am living at the address. Commerical customers and residential customers are processed differently. I did not know that I was charged a non residential rate, but their representative informed me when I can to find out why the bill was so high. The Attorney General should have a look out group for this monopoly. They are defrauding customers because there is no competition.

I have a mother/daughter house & get 2 Con Ed (appropriately named cause they are con artists) bills every month. A recent review of the rates indicated that despite the fact that I am billed for the exact same time period on both bills, and they are both for the exact same address, the rates are different. I spoke to some bimbo at Con Ed who confirmed that it was a mistake, & a supervisor would call. That was ONE YR AGO, no phone call. Finally, got a phone call from a supervisor, who explained that because 1 apt. consumes more, then it is charged at a higher rate. She said, "If you buy 3 oranges at .75, then 6 will cost you 1.50". Thanks for the math lesson, bimbo #2, but we weren't talking oranges. Wrote a letter, with copies of bills enclosed, explaining that I already pay more for 1 bill because I consume more, but charging a higher rate is double dipping. If I buy 1 gallon of gas or 10, the price per gallon is the same. You wouldn't believe that the response I got was, "when you buy 'premium' gas, you pay a higher per gallon price". WHEN DID I ASK FOR PREMIUM ELECTRICITY? Isn't it all the same? I wrote them again, & enclosed the bills again, this time the lower bill, which had less consumption, was at a higher rate!&()$#^^*)$# Did they respond? No. But, they keep 'zapping' me, I guess that's their 'premium service'. It's time for the public service commission & elected officials to get involved.

My father died a year ago. We kept the electric on in the house for basics - clocks, fridge, etc. But we spent a total of 20 days in the house in 7 months. Yet we are paying more now to Con Ed than when he was alive? WTF?! They say it is going into the level payment plan, but obviously it isn't. Con Ed... should be Con Artists.

Con Edison charges me $ 300.00 monthly in a 2 bedroom apt.My hussband and I are both disabled, have no TV,
go to the nypl to use uor laptop and still these high charges. NOW THREATENED BY THE MARSHALL, I had to try to make an agreement.They demanded $1700.00 down and $ 1100.00 monthly plus the monthly bills.I told them Our income was just 1500 monthly.They added on my absentee landlord 's (who stole my deed), bill.

I now "owe " them 9, 000. and have to find a way to pay 840. each month plus 900. down plus the monthly bills.THE marshall MCCoy will be coming 7/12.Why doesnt anyone in government stop the madness ?

I feel that I am also overcharged through Con edison. They have charged me since Jan 2011. I use to pay 74 dollars every month of last year and this year I am paying 121 and now they sent a bill of 211...It is not fair and I have complained and still they are trying to convince me that I have been using alot of electricity when in reality I am hardly home. They also say that I owe money. How the hell I owe money when I have been paying my bill on time. I do not have anyone to turn or to speak of their abuses towards my financial pocket.

Con Edison have been over charging, My summer bills June to the end of August bill are rounded close to $500 each month. While other people's bill barely pass $300 a month. I remember trying to close to heat for one month around march and the bill was $70 dollars less than It was on February with the heat on most of the time. This could be some kind of unknown mistake.

there is no such thing as a premium rate.. look on the top of your bill it clearly states what rate you are being charged and why. it will say residential. you dont get billed a higher rate if you use more.? what world are you living in there?

compare the rate that you were charged for residential and small commercial. its very similar sometimes the same. you were the idiot that didnt read the top of your bill that explains the rate that you were charged for 4 years? are you kidding me?

GGoodwin: I was simply reiterating what I was TOLD by Con Ed as an explanation for the differing rates. The home is residential, but the rates are different. First it was higher for the apt that 'consumed' more; then the apt that consumed less was charged a higher rate. Are you confused yet? If you pull into a gas station & ask for 10 gallons, do you expect to pay more than someone who only needs one gallon? WHAT WORLD ARE YOU LIVING IN?

I just moved into a relatively small studio apartment (I'll estimate at 500 sq. feet), and went to check my first bill. I've been running my small 5000 BTU a/c quite a bit the past two weeks as I work from home and temperatures have routinely been in the 90s. Based on some estimates I'd done myself and others' comments online (as well as my own experience sharing numerous apartments in New York), I expected my bill to be around $120-$150. I don't have a lot of appliances and keep lights off for the most time, relying on natural light and a single lamp.
So, I call today and what do they tell me? I owe $700. Yes. This is obviously a mistake and they schedule for a meter-reading to be done the next day, but the woman's attitude was, "we don't know if it's a mistake, " after I briefly described my energy usage.
Hopefully this is resolved relatively painfully. If not, thankfully I have relatives in law.

So, let's get together and protest this abuse by Con Edison, they think that people in NYC are rich and not that many are. So why not join the protest in wall street with banners against the abuse of rates in Con Edison.

My delivery charges are over 100% of my usage charges (which are false, as I have used my AC at far lower settings than last year, and the ConED usage graph has me using more these past two months). My parents in AZ pay about twice what I do to centrally-cool their 2500 sq foot home. And I live in a 350 sq. ft. walkup and use a tiny window AC.

I received a phone call from Beacon Education promising to lower credit card interest rate. The person had my name and the last 4 of my SS#. I did not give him any information. I told him he seems to have a lot of information, he then hung up. I called the number back and got a different person.

WHY CAN'T SOMEONE STOP THIS CRIMINALS!?!?!? I have been fighting with them for over a year. I am paying almost $1, 000 a month. We are a normal family of four, and we don't exactly live in a mansion. It is just a regular home, and we take the steps to lower our electric usage. There is no reason for this! Every time I call to complain, they tell me I must have something that is using a lot of electric. My words to the trained animal on the phone: "I know you are told to say a host of this when we complain, but if you had a brain cell in your head, you must be thinking that this is not just too much money, but crazy. For the amount of money I am paying for energy, there should be fireworks shooting out of the house." I have been determined to figure this out for over a year. FINALLY my husband decided to listen to me and look at what was going on with the bills, and he has now joined the mission. I am going to figure out their scam and I am going to SUE them. And then I am going to SUE them again.

They took 7895 dollars from my checking account .When I call after waiting half hour to speak to someone they said that my bill was so high they estimated the cost and took everything from my checking account. That's what I get for having direct payment plan.don't know what to do?

NOTHING is ever going to stop these people. It is now 2014, and I see these things are STILL going on 6 years later. We are at the mercy of corrupt, greedy ### who are paying off the government not to do anything and there is NOTHING we can do. The whole system sucks. We just have to keep paying for their yachts, helicopters, , opera nights etc., while we struggle to make ends meet. THAT'S JUST THE WAY IT IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE.

I have been receiving extremely high bills for almost 3 years now .

I myself am going through the same situation with Con Ed and their false monthly bills. I live in a two bedroom apartment that I share with my teenage son. Both my son and I are never home due to my work schedule and his school schedule. My con ed bills have range from $500-$800 a month and most recently recieved a bill for $1200.00. I am constantly calling and complaining or giving a new meter reading(which I've learned that it only makes matters worse, because you receive a higher bill). In order to be able pay the monthly bill I have to constantly request for a payment agreement which they make you pay your monthly bill in total along with an agreement amount for your past bills that you know are not correct. This is getting crazy and anymore I speak to about it states I should seek legal assistance. Anyone has any suggestions on how we can fight against Con Ed and their fradulent monthly bills...What can we do?

Hi Mrs. Gorden:

I suggest that we file a class action suit against Con Edison and that we collectively contact the Mayor or Governor of NYC. I was thumbing through my bills and on 12/13 the bill was fully satisfied and no previous debt was due. However on the 1/14 the bill was 346.00. I live in NYCHA in a one bedroom apartment and I have not lived there since May 4, 2012 to the present date. I am unsure how I am consuming energy when I do not live in the apartment because the apartment is in deplorable conditions. This is ridiculous and the Public Service Commission does absolutely nothing on behalf of clients complaints. If you show them proof they begin to batter you and degrade you.

I am fed up with this nonsense and will find a way to bring action against Con Edison. They are robbing customers and no one is listening to our complaints.

ConEd billing system has problems. Instead of investigating the issues and making sure customers are not affected, they just send those 'bad' bills to customers, and usually most of the customers just pay those bills, because ConEd is a MONOPOLY. We, customers, have no choice.
And the NY State Public Service Commission that supposed to oversee them, does not care, as long as they get their part of taxes and fees.
In my case ConEd would miss sending me several bills and then send one with harassing disconnect notice. I have solar panels and often produce more than consume, so I do not expect bills every month. When I called their rep, they would not believe me that I did not get bunch of their bills (implying that I am lying to them). At the same time I've been paying my bills on my last address for 10 last years always in full.
And this happened several times (no bills, followed by summarized bill with disconnect threats).
In any other company, when they would see how much I've paid them over the years, they would treat me with proper respect. With ConEd we have no choice but to deal with their ignorant customer service and buggy billing system.