While paying electricity bills may not be your favorite activity during the month, it’s a necessary evil. After all, we all enjoy being able to turn on the air conditioning on a hot afternoon or even turn on the lights when the sun goes down. But that electricity costs money and so to keep the lights on you have to pay your bill. Of course, keeping up the deal on your end should mean the company is keeping up their end of the deal, but somehow that’s not always the case.

Mysterious Late Fees

Scraping up money for a high electricity bill can be a challenge. Fortunately, most electricity companies have some flexibility so that you can arrange the payment to suit your paychecks. Generally speaking, as long as you get your bill paid on time or let the company know you’ll be paying a day or two later, you won’t have any interruption in your service.

That should have been true for one mother who had paid her bill. She explained in her online review on the website called PissedConsumer.com, that the payment was a few days late, but she paid it in full and wasn’t concerned as she was all caught up – or so she thought. When you arrived home after a night away, her power was turned off. The company had turned off her power for failing to pay a $3 late charge on her bill. The $3 late charge wasn’t even on her bill – she had no way of knowing it even existed without signing in online.

When she explained this to the manager on the phone, the manager simply cut her off, scolded her, and then forced her to pay the reconnection fee.

Disconnection with No Warning

While the mother above knew there was potential trouble brewing when she paid the bill late, other customers are in the dark – literally – about their due dates. The same electrical company did not send any messages about bills being due or cut-off dates before turning off the lights on another customer.

Normally, another mother waits to see notices in her email and mailbox about her power bill. Once the notices come in, she pays the bill promptly and repeats the cycle the next month. But something changed this month. She never received any notices about a payment being due. She held the money in her account waiting for a notification – even a late notification – but there was no word about her power bill. No word, that is, until the power was turned off completely. When the customer called, she learned that she had never paid her bill – that bill she was waiting patiently for that simply never came. The worse part about her story is that she had the money for the bill all along. But now that amount isn’t enough - she has to pay a reconnection fee, too.