Man discovers he had been paying for neighbor's electricity bill for almost 20 years
A man from California got the shock of his life when he discovered that he had been shouldering the electicity expenses of someone else for almost 20 years.
In a report by CBS affiliate KOLD-TV, Ken Wilson recounted how he started to get suspicious of his electicity bill when he noticed that he was being charged higher than usual in recent months.
"I’ve been trying to conserve electricity and lower my costs because it was getting really expensive," Wilson said.
After buying a device to tell him how many watts his appliances give off, he shared that he "couldn't believe it" when he saw how much energy was being used on a daily basis.
"I thought there was a leak or someone was stealing my electricity or the meter was faulty because something wasn’t right," Wilson said.
Because of this, he decided to reach out to Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) to have his meter checked. Upon investigation, however, a worker from the company informed him that his apartment, unit 90, was linked to the wrong meter and that he had been paying the utility bill for unit 91 all this time.
Since Wilson had been living in the apartment complex since 2006, he believed that this has been the case for 18 years.
"I feel powerless right now because I can’t control my own meter. I just hope this story is going to help others. I can’t be the only one," he lamented.
In a statement issued to the news outlet, PG&E apologized for the error and assured that they are now working to fix it, explaining that "the meter number for the customer’s apartment was being billed to another apartment since potentially 2009."
"We sincerely apologize for the oversight and regret any inconvenience caused by the duration of this issue," they stated.
PG&E informed Wilson that his electric bill should be rectified on his next billing cycle.