Firing of meter readers may signal a scandal

Your Sept. 6 front-page headline “MLGW fires 7 for false meter reading” was a welcomed sight for my sore eyes. I’ve long suspected that my Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division bills were much less than accurate and erring on the high side. I own two properties and the bills for each property are highly suspect, especially the electrical portion. For the past year, I’ve been comparing the month-for-month differences in the bills. My intention was to have my facts together before I began the dreaded attempt to get justice by wading through the maze of folks at MLGW. Hopefully, with the publication of your article, my “day in court” with MLGW won’t be pooh-poohed when I present my facts.

Here’s just one example from one property’s electricity bills:

From Sept. 5, 2013, 621 kWh used at a cost of $62.43, versus 1,449 kWh used at a cost of $137.06 from Sept. 5, 2014. That’s more than double last year’s bill for the same month, same house and same conditions. What’s up with that? The greatest consumer of electricity in the house is the same, a 110-volt, 8,500-BTU window air conditioner that runs 24/7 during the warm-weather months. Same AC unit for both years, same house, same conditions, but radically different billed usage.

Thanks to MLGW’s listing of historical utilities data, anyone can easily compare previous energy costs against current energy costs to check for any glaring discrepancies. Each MLGW customer would do well to compare their last year’s billings against this year’s billings. There might be some eye-opening discrepancies. If so, get in line at MLGW with your supporting data and demand a fair and timely adjustment to your account(s).

MLGW’s “firing of 7 for false meter readings” just may be the tip of a very huge bogus-utility-billing iceberg.