Employee error could be to blame for a $12,864.51 energy bill a Lufkin man received this past week, according to a TXU Energy spokeswoman.
Leeland Temple, who lives in a 14- by 60-foot trailer house on Post Oak Road, said he was in disbelief when he opened up the bill, which stated his electricity would be cut off if the amount wasn’t paid by May 3.
“They’re crazy. They have lost their minds,” he said Friday. “They’re even crazier if they think I’m going to pay that.”
After phoning customer service with his attorney, Temple said the company told him he would have to pay $50 for it to conduct an investigation.
Temple said he contacted a lawyer after he first called the company on Thursday and was told the same thing.
“When someone mistreats me, I get after them,” said the 68-year-old.
A spokeswoman for TXU Energy who responded to an inquiry by The Lufkin Daily News apologized for the response Temple received from customer relations and admitted the company had made a billing error.
“That was a mistake on our end,” said Lacy Walker. “We made a mistake in the billing. We dropped the ball in this one.”
Walker said Temple’s electricity will not be cut off on May 3 as the bill indicated.
She said the company did not expect him to pay the bill.
“There were no intentions of us ever thinking a customer would pay that,” said. Lacy Walker. “It’s probably a human error, not a computer glitch,” she added.
Walker said the company is investigating what caused the incorrect bill. She said the company is not ruling out the possibility that other bills it sent this month may be wrong too.
For Temple, this was not the first time he has received an incorrect bill. Last month his electricity bill was $5.02.
“It should be no more than $100 (each month),” he said.
Temple has payment records which show his bills have fluctuated from as low as $5 to as high as $400 at times, dating back 30 months, he said.
“I’ve been arguing with (TXU Energy) for four or five months about the bills,” he said.
Temple’s attorney, David Guillory of Nacogdoches, whose firm recently filed a class action suit against TXU Electric Delivery for its installation of electronic meters that “inflated and inaccurately” calculated energy usage, said Temple’s bill is the highest he has ever seen for a non-commercial energy user.
“It is truly phenomenal,” he said. “It is physically impossible for (Temple’s residence) to use $12,000 worth of electricity in a single billing period.”
Walker encouraged customers who think they may have an incorrect bill to call TXU Energy customer service, which has a toll-free number printed on each bill.
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