Extremely high PG&E bills connected to 3 million aging meters | 10 On Your Side 

Pg&e is a rip off.

Time for a class action lawsuit. These bills have gone up 200 to 400 percent since the Covid nonsense started.

I had a huge PG&E bill in January. They told me to pay the bill and they could take up to one year to investigate and correct the bill “if necessary.” I reported them to the utility commission, and the matter was resolved within a month. They replaced the meter. This is corporate fascism.

THEIR faulty meters ISNT the customer's problem. Customers should sue.

They keep raising prices.

Why does an ELECTRIC meter need a BATTERY??

PG&E has a monopoly on electricity services. They can screw up in the worst way possible and the company would still exist. It probably receives government subsidies.

Every pg&e customer has an extremely overcharged bill

For-profit investors should not own and operate public utilities.

Now they’ll have to charge us more to replace the broken meters

PG&E sends me email notices telling me how great my usage rates are (as in low), but at the same time my bill is doubling for no reason. Very confusing.

Last sunmer my dads bills and alot of the folks in their neighborhood in Nor Cal had electric bills of $900-$1400 a month!! THIS IS ROBBERY!

How is PGE still allowed to do business?

Same thing happened to me with edison, over $800 bill. Normally around $100.

literally you guys- we need to go through our PG&E monthly invoices and analyze *_EVERY. SINGLE. PART. OF. IT_* Seriously like a forensic investigator. The amount of *fu(kery* that they get away with because we don't even have the time or energy to do that but we just have to. Absolutely fight back. If we the people push back and say no, they are forced to make changes!

Newsom is in the pockets of PG&E….

Only cuz they got caught

I can apologize for not paying too. What’s the point of this? Refund them their $$

It sounds like a pge problem. If their bill is wrong, it should be free. If it stops communication, they can stop the bill until they send someone out.

I would rather my Legislature push for a law that would allow regional Utilities to actually move forward with taking over the lines from PG&E like South San Joaquin Irrigation District has been trying for over 20 years. They win the court cases, but PUC keeps siding with PG&E who claims they have far more 'invested' in our infrastructure than SSJID is willing to pay. Mind you, our PG&E power goes out for at least 1 hour EVERY WEEK and was the sole impetus of us installing Solar with Batteries because we can't be without power. I can drive up and down the roads where PG&E power enters my neighborhood and see the transformers that haven't been replaced in decades since all of the paint is gone and now they have the insulating oil dribbling out.

They got caught that’s the only reason they issued a refund with an apologized. If this incident never get to the media they would most likely continue over charging even put the home owner default mass of late fee, lawyer free plus interest then put a default judgment and forecloses their property.

The PUC is a secret subsidiary of PG&E?

WE NEED TO STAND UP DEMAND REFUND….. TELL NEWSOM GET LOST

I need a refund!

Why are bills being estimated in the first place? Arent these meters smart sending the info to PG&E? I dont get it!

How does anyone know what the actual usage was if the battery was dead? Are they saying the meter still measures usage but just doesn't communicate it - due to a dead battery? I find that hard to swallow. If the batteries only affect the meters' ability to communicate usage, why would they replace the entire meter and not just the battery? Especially to the tune of 3 MILLION meters? And the battery life is only 3 years for all these smart meters? WTH? I guess we know where that's going: More Increases to cover the costs! The old meters lasted for multiple decades without anything being done to them. Now we have a better idea why they forced the smart meters on us with built in future maintenance requirements, i.e. battery replacement every 3 years. Genius! Hey, it's a business right? In business to *make money, but we forget. *Translation: Take OUR money and put it in THEIR pockets, and likely the pockets of whomever they can buy off, i.e. PUC, FTC? I have autopay and rarely know how much it is, much less look at a bill. You can bet I'm gonna dive into it now and go over everything for the last 6 mos., minimum. Thank You ABC!

It happened to us too. After spending over an hour on hold and insisting something wasn’t right, the pg&e rep finally sent a technician. The battery was bad and the technician said our bill would be adjusted. I haven’t noticed any adjustment. So frustrating!

Smart meters strikes again 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️

Same thing happened to me last November. Meter was not working and had to be replaced. When is PG&E going to be brought under some kind of control or completely put out of business and replaced with a company who knows what they are doing. This nonsense needs to stops. PUC needs to be revamped as well.

Just think how well Digital Banking will work.

And when they put in the new meters, they say the unit at the end of the street reads the meter for our house. They use to do block readings & divide the usage between the houses. I do not think they take actual reading on the meter in front of our house. I am discussed because we have not increased our usage, in fact we cut back on cooking, we watch TV in the dark. We are not decorating Christmas trees with lights, and we have solar energy usage for out door lights, they are all solar. Plus when they came by and said it was a defaulty meter, & replaced it, there was no difference in our usage. Our bills now range from 125.00 to 355.00 which can't be correct unless they have GREATLY SATURATED THE LINES WITH ENERGY WE ARE NOT USING, OR THEY ARE STILL DOING BLOCK READINGS AND DIVIDING IT BETWEEN THE HOUSES UNFAIRLY. OUR BILLS PRIOR TO THE METER BEING REPLACED WAS 89.00 TO 100.00 IF WE RAN OUR NEW ENERGY EFFICENT AIR CONDITIONER.

F em All

I just had my smart meter replaced. Evidently the old meter was causing my furnace (heating) a Trane unit not that old to not work. 5 years without heat all winter. No technician could fix it.

My bill is like 3 times what it is to be

I screw up, I pay. They screw up, I pay...

What he meant to say was “we had to pay for the Paradise lawsuits somehow”

I’m hardly ever home. Sometimes up to a month at a time. Usually at least two weeks minimum. I unplug almost everything before I leave. How is my bill exuberantly high??!!

They’re oh so “sorry”

Now our bills will go up to pay for the meters. Really nice company!

I live Southern California in Los Angeles county with Edisonhas happened to us over here. They told us the same thing it was like $1000 and they didn’t refund us anything. This is something wrong. I had a bill for 535 another one for $306 another one for 245 they told us the same thing that there’s something wrong with the meter and that it wasn’t registering properly. I believe that we shouldn’t get our money back. I think they are ripping us off advantage of people.

This is a crime… thanks to NEWSOM…. HE GOT TO GO.

Nothing but lies

PG&E has to buy expensive energy from clean - green sources. We have to pay more for this scam .

Same thing happened to me…..my bill was over $1,000 after PGE installed new meter.

PG&E Bill is hurting me badly, I am in San Francisco and there is a "clean energy generation fee". My usage is about $200.00 dollars per month which is already high for 1 person in a 1 bedroom apartment. With that said, The City of San Francisco charges a fee "generation fee" and so that adds another $185.00+ dollars to my bill EACH MONTH. So, my bill has been *AT LEAST* $385.00 dollars per month. This amount is extremely high and I don't see how people can afford this, I cant even afford this. There needs to be a limit on how much they are taking from us, 400 dollars per month for a 1 bedroom is a SCAM and PG&E is forcing people to choose between electricity or other items which are completely necessary. PG&E is my highest expense besides rent. The cost of living is killing everyone's dream of having at least the basic financial resource they need to get by. Also, how do we find out if our meter is working correctly? Is there a list of the 3 million meters? They should be sued.

No one is protecting us consumers. Even though we pay big money for protection

THe irony of a battery in an electric meter where it depends on the BATTERY to work correctly!

Thank you for posting!

Got a text hey can I come over. Turns out it was PGE wanted to change the dial. First I called the company to find out if Netflix n Chill guy? was legit then they say the battery has to be changed it's been wrong since Jan. He changed the dial panel. No credit no refund. ????

Look into how much the citizen ( company) gives in campaign contributions. That is why companies (citizens) get away with anything

I spoke to a previous person that worked for them for years. He said they were corrupt and have been overcharging customers for years.

Investor owned utilities are gouging their customers all across the country.

shouldnt they start replacing the batteries before they run out????

Thank you ABC10 for investigating this.

BS!!! They're trying to gaslight the public, 'cause meters are not the issue, its management at PG&E. "Blame it on the rain . . ." smh

Such a heartfelt apology...they sure are swell folks

Gavin picked the board members of the CPUC. That's why our rates are so high.

PG&E is not the only utility using those meters. Is SoCal Edison using the same brand of meter? San Diego Gas & Electric? That is millions of meters just in California. Those smart meters have built in cell phones. That's how they are able to "call home".

I was charged double! So I called and the nerve of the people there! One person pretended not to hear me and I had to call again. And the next person told me they only had two plans…that’s the fixed rate tier didn’t exist. After a frustrating call, I did my own research and E-1 IS ON THE WEBSITE. Don’t they record those calls? Oooh you guys need to get that audio!!!

Can we estimate how much we want to pay PG&E? ;)

How does any one know if meter is working right. Plus the smart meters can be programed unlike old style ones. Estimates should be against the law.

Fr¡c|< PG & E! I knew someone (not a friend, rather an acquaintance) that perished in the San Bruno Pipeline Explosion in 2010! We weren’t super close, but it makes me angry that someone I knew passed away because of negligence and greed!

Un-Effing believable!!!!! No wonder!! We have circuit breakers shut off, using oil lamps at night and we're still paying $600! 🤬🤬🤬

CEO compensation at $1M/month....no apologies??

The same thing happened to me but i don't have a smart meter. I live in my motorhome and only run lights and a small fridge. Durring the storm and snow i had run my portable heater. Everything else is propane nor electric. I purchase my propane separately. My bill was $816.64 electric only. The way they bill me is so confusing I have ne er had such a problem figuring it out my bill. I seriously believe I'm being punished for opting out of my smart meter. I have never had a bill over $180 in my motorhome which is high for a 31x10 sq ft space. I also have reciently been on the medical discount program where I'm given double the kilowatt hours for the same price. I am 71, disabled and on a fixed income. This has to be a mistake.

The lady that run PG&E gets 55 million dollars each year. No o ne is worth that.

My bill more than tripled in the last few years, despite all my efforts to reduce usage. My power was shut off and it was cheaper to buy a generator and some solar panels. I don't know how long it will take to pay off my bill, but I will stay off grid.

I guess I should go back to paper billing instead of paper less 😐

The same issue happened to me, for more than 10 years, that month has never be the sky high, especially now we both retired, when we travel we turn off all usages, however, PG&E charged 400 times more than previous 10 plus years. How could PG&E just steal money from their customers, that’s not fair, need to stop PG&E keeps doing this to anyone else. After talked to PG&E, they did some adjustments, but still overcharged me couple hundreds, need to stop PG&E steal money and destroy our trust on them.

I got a 4,500$ bill while having solar with 2 tesla batteries I called them and they pretty much told me to deal with it.

Yup, it happened with my gas meter as well a few years back; the bill went for $60/mo to $300. I called them, and they did eventually fix the meter.

But your bills will go up to pay for the meters

Thank you! My bill went from $139 to $367. Nobody listened.

The price also need to be the same 24 hours a day no peak hour bs

Newsom's buddies. Remember Paradise, CA

Good reporting

Replacing the problematic mirrors will be paid by the customers

CA State Legislature are the ones that help cause these problems.

Using outdated/defective technology to overcharge is taught in Masonic Temples. It is known as the Doctrine of Balaam. So while this one person did receive a credit there are thousands of customers who will not.

They have done this to me several times

me too they billed me currently for my current bill but then add it on a bill from a year ago i already paid now I'm struggling to feed my foster kids is this legal

We are sorry your bill is high, NOT! Ha, ha!😅😅

Same issue

They are crooks. I have done everything they asked for years. All lights are led. Electric this and that. And my bill just goes up and up. Never had my bill gone down in the slightest.

The California Public Utilities Commission is a part of the problem.

Why cant they take a business loan like all other businesses. Why are they so special? They dont even have competition and yet they act like they cant survive without delegating the financial burden unto communities

That's good News, i was shocked to find a giant bill at my new inlaw.

They are full of BS! Charging their customers for stuff they should have fixed a while ago and for free. Making their customers pay for all of their legal problems and fines from all of the fires they have caused that could have been prevented years ago. We need to be able to have options as a homeowner and not be forced into having PG&E just because of where we live! PG&E needs to be regulated and have customers put on fixed monthly rate

that voice mail was quality customer service, real human touch.

Let’s all sue PG&E again

I do not trust digital meters.I believe that they should have to look at the meter and take a reading

So much for stupid technology/ A.I.

My bills used to be over $300 every month for a tiny 2 bedroom apartment. Pretty sure I was getting ripped off.

This is happening all across the country

Nationalize utilities

And as soon as they replace those batteries were gonna say lithium ion fires at every place, they put a new one

LA’s DWP did the same thing years ago. Huge overbillings.

OKAY! * What law firms are going to get together on this billion dollar lawsuit and force this insanity to end?? * Who knows someone? * Who is out there to get this started?

The PUC doesn't answer to legislaters they answer to the governor

it is shocking.