ROCHESTER, N.Y. – It’s not simply residential clients getting walloped with big shock payments from RG&E, some enterprise clients are getting hit too. News10NBC has been reporting on a brand new state investigation into RG&E’s billing and customer support points following a months-long News10NBC investigation into the issues.
Donald Swartz owns Veneto Wooden Fireplace Pizza and Pasta on East Avenue in downtown Rochester. For the previous few years he says, coping with RG&E has been a little bit of a nightmare, “we’re fortunate if we get a invoice each two months, now we have to name and ask and mainly beg,” he tells News10NBC, “and consider, it’s not 10 minutes on the cellphone with RG&E, it’s in all probability a median of 90 minutes on maintain simply to get an operator, then to get via to the precise division or somebody that would attempt to assist.”
RG&E received’t permit Swartz to call-in his meter reads as a result of it’s a enterprise account and he says typically when one is scheduled, RG&E doesn’t present up. Due to his persistence, Swartz has had some precise meter reads because the pandemic, that’s why when his most up-to-date invoice arrived this week he was shocked, “my invoice this month was $20,829.25, I needed to rise up off the ground and breathe slightly bit first,” he remembers.
The conventional invoice for the constructing the place Veneto’s is situated is about $3,500 per 30 days. So, although this specific billing cycle seems to cowl two months, it’s practically 3 occasions increased, “clearly, one thing is horribly mistaken with this invoice,” Swartz says.
Earlier this week, the President of RG&E advised News10NBC Investigative Reporter Jennifer Lewke that it not too long ago converted its billing system and between figuring out some glitches and being short-staffed, the utility is in a little bit of a customer support disaster, “that’s why I’m asking clients for endurance, however I perceive that they’re going to carry us to excessive requirements, and till we meet their requirements, they’re going to complain and it’s truthful,” says Trish Nilsen.
In an announcement relating to Swartz’s difficulty instantly, a spokesman for RG&E mentioned Friday, “In response to our information, a number of meter readings had been scheduled and efficiently performed for this business buyer prior to now yr. There have been a couple of situations the place readings weren’t potential because of the constructing being inaccessible. In these situations, as is customary follow, estimates of previous utilization had been utilized. We’ll proceed to attach with this buyer to handle their considerations.”
The utility says customer-submitted meter reads aren’t an possibility for business clients with a excessive quantity of vitality utilization.
