An Orillia man is furious with Enbridge Gas for billing customers retroactively after months of underestimating customers' usage.
John Serediuk has lived in the north end of Orillia for nearly three years, has never had an issue with meter readings before, and has always paid his bill on time.
In June 2021, Enbridge Gas issued him a credit for $167.11. The company explained the error to its customers, and everyone involved with the matter moved forward.
Then, in late August or early September, Serediuk realized he hadn’t received a bill since the error occurred. He was told Enbridge Gas was behind on issuing bills but would get one to him shortly.
“When they did send me the bill, it was dated August to December,” Serediuk explained. “Nobody had been out to the house to take a proper meter reading, but I had a bill for $29.90.”
Serediuk called the company again and questioned if the total was correct. He was told it was. Then, the bill for December to January showed up and was $33.13. Serediuk again questioned the total that seemed low for the cold months and was again reassured the total was correct. March to April cost him $42, and he kept paying the bill, trusting Enbridge Gas knew what it was doing.
“All of the sudden, I get an email telling me they were unable to gain access to the meter,” he said. “That meter has been on the same side of the street, on the same side of the building for the 20 years that the previous owner was here and for the three years I’ve been here.”
Enbridge Gas then told Serediuk his last 10 invoices were a mistake and he owed an estimated $1,400.43. He was told by an employee on the phone a mistake had been made and the company was at fault and was still working through the kinks of taking over from Union Gas. An Enbridge Gas supervisor was not so forgiving and told Serediuk he had to pay up.
“Yes, I used the gas, but it’s the company’s responsibility to come out and take the meter reading on a monthly basis,” Serediuk said. “If they had done their job, we would not be in this situation.”
He says some of his friends have expressed frustration after going through similar difficulties when they were billed for $500 to $750 for previous months.
“I’m a retired engineer and we are still drawing from our retirement fund,” Serediuk said. “Now this $1,400 is putting me in a very precarious position because I now have to draw out an extra $140 on a monthly plan on their mistake.”
He got the bill down to $700 by arguing with Enbridge Gas there should be some forgiveness for its mistake. However, he is still feeling disappointed with the situation.
“Their excuse is that now it’s your responsibility to take down the accurate numbers from the meter if you want to make sure you aren’t being duped,” he said. “It’s a frustrating situation.”
Serediuk says he isn’t alone, and Enbridge Gas has left other people scrambling in a time of record-high inflation.
“I wanted to bring it to Enbridge’s attention that they are doing this to a lot of people on their mistake,” he said. “There are people who are not financially doing well in Orillia and are on a tight budget. When you start getting bills for $1,400, you start to hit the panic button.”
Enbridge spokesperson Andrea Stass says the company strives to read each meter every two months and, in the alternate months, a customer’s gas use is billed based on an estimate derived from the account’s history.
“We have experienced some localized challenges with staffing of meter-reading positions, which has resulted in multiple months of estimated meter reads, and we sincerely apologize for this inconvenience,” she said in a statement to OrilliaMatters. “Customers can submit their own meter reads. However, that is not an expectation.”
Stass indicated the company has been in communication with Serediuk and confirmed it has provided a goodwill credit and an arrangement to pay the difference between the amount paid and the amount owing for the actual use, over time.
