Utilities Commission – 1-888-333-WUTC (9882)
We’ve had a deluge of responses since the first installment of our Avista Reality Check aired Thursday night. We’ve received 106 emails and roughly 30 phone calls. This is in about 23 hours. That’s in addition to the nearly 150 we’d received before Thursday’s story. I’ve never seen a response like that before. And the responses fit into three predominant groups:
1) The first group of responses, over 90% of them, say they’ve had higher bills in the last few months than they’ve ever had before. There are two groups of these responses:
- A) People that are angry at Avista and say their bills are just plain wrong. They can’t explain it. They’ve just never used this much electricity before and have never been charged anywhere near the amount they are now. This makes up the vast majority of the responses.
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B) These are responses from people saying they had a major billing issue, but then called Avista and Avista admitted they made a mistake. These mistakes range from billing errors and incorrect estimations to messed up meters and getting the wrong bills.
2) The second group of people says they’ve received normal or even lower Avista bills. This is a fair number of people representing 7 or 8 percent of the total number of comments we’ve received.
3) The third group of people are people critical of me as a reporter and critical of KXLY for doing this story. They question our research and storytelling. This group represents the remainder of the total number–around 2 or 3 percent.
And these people ask some good questions:
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Q) Do we know the people we profile didn’t just leave a door open or something?
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A) No, we don’t. Hundreds of people certainly could have.
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Q) Are you trying to destroy Avista?
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A) No, we’re not.
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Q) Aren’t you just an inexperienced reporter looking for a good story?
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A) I disagree with the first part; but yes, I am looking for a good story.
We welcome tons more comments!
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Our December bill was twice what it was December 2007. It was estimated and we assumed Avista was cooking the books to show a good year, since so many of our friends complained about their bill also. We thought it would straighten up in January but instead January 2009 was double January 2008.
Thanks for looking into this McKay. One comment, I left this one the 5:00 chat yesterday but was too late…5-days ago my mother received her Avista bill for February. She is a retired elderly lady living on her own and on a fixed income. She is anal about her heat and electricity use in terms of minimal use. Her bill reflected a 300% increase in “electricity” over the same period last year. Her gas usage was the same. She did look at her past statements and in December had an “estimated” bill. Her February bill was marked as a “actual” read. She called Avista to complain and basically heard the same information as was in your story (Avista). However, quite by suprise, two days ago an Avista meter reader appeared at her house (she saw him walking up to the house) she went out and asked him what he was doing. He told her he was there to “re-read” her meter. He told her that it had been missread and that this had been a problem lately because they (Avista) had several new meter readers and they had made mistakes, usually, because with the recent weather there is often condensation in the meters which make them difficult to read. That’s all I can relate to you for now–we are waiting to see how much of an adjustment will be made to her billing.
Avista said that “net profit is restricted to be no higher than 10.2%.” This is a meaningless sound bite meant to blunt criticism because most people don’t understand basic accounting.
Net profit is calculated AFTER income and expenses, so revenue may have to be unusually high to cover 1) bloated staff, 2) excessive executive compensation, or 3) unwise infrastructure investments.
Bottom line — if the company is being poorly managed, the ratepayers still have to pay for it.
I’m with the people whose bill doubled for electricity. When I called Avista, I was told that I’d better get used to high bills as they had many more rate hikes coming up. She also said that the months was SOOOOO cold. I told her that we have only wood heat, so how could the cold affect our electricity. She then blamed the blower that we don’t have on our stove. When I asked what people on a fixed income should do, I was rudly told that maybe we should consider changing our living situation. I asked what she meant by that and was told that we should either move in with family or have them move in with us. When I explained that we already have our grandson living with us she said, “See, that’s why your bill went up!” I told her that he’s been living with us for three years and she said, “Well, I don’t know what to tell you. Our bill is right and you have to pay it.” What happened to Avista being people friendly? Are they only money greedy now? When I called to make payment arrangements, (we ARE on a fixed income) the person I talked to was also rude and would only allow me to pay $50 less than the total bill! Years ago when we had to make arrangements or had any concerns the representatives were friendly and helpful. Now they all seem to be reading from the same script–the one written by the Avista representative you spoke to!!!!
i live in the country 24 miles from spokane and the last three winters avista has estameated on my meter and they have said that they are always right plus lied to me on the phone more i go out and read my meter and the insist that they are right i have argued with them and have not seen a refund all the have ever done is turn my power off and lie to the commistion and they do what they want do you know that the ceo makes 600,000 a year that is why there is increases so that the people like the one that talked to you gets money and low income families suffer but did you know that there is a law in the state that says that they have to work with low income and it says that they can only charge 7% of he income and 1/12th of the bill plus they have to sell electric to low income at a discounted rate and make the difference up some where else from the more whealty people RCW 80.28.068
Rates — Low-income customers.
Upon request by an electrical or gas company, the commission may approve rates, charges, services, and/or physical facilities at a discount for low-income senior customers and low-income customers. Expenses and lost revenues as a result of these discounts shall be included in the company’s cost of service and recovered in rates to other customers.
RCW 80.28.010
Duties as to rates, services, and facilities — Limitations on termination of utility service for residential heating.
(1) All charges made, demanded or received by any gas company, electrical company or water company for gas, electricity or water, or for any service rendered or to be rendered in connection therewith, shall be just, fair, reasonable and sufficient. Reasonable charges necessary to cover the cost of administering the collection of voluntary donations for the purposes of supporting the development and implementation of evergreen community management plans and ordinances under RCW 80.28.300 shall be deemed as prudent and necessary for the operation of a utility.
(2) Every gas company, electrical company and water company shall furnish and supply such service, instrumentalities and facilities as shall be safe, adequate and efficient, and in all respects just and reasonable.
(3) All rules and regulations issued by any gas company, electrical company or water company, affecting or pertaining to the sale or distribution of its product, shall be just and reasonable.
(4) Utility service for residential space heating shall not be terminated between November 15 through March 15 if the customer:
(a) Notifies the utility of the inability to pay the bill, including a security deposit. This notice should be provided within five business days of receiving a payment overdue notice unless there are extenuating circumstances. If the customer fails to notify the utility within five business days and service is terminated, the customer can, by paying reconnection charges, if any, and fulfilling the requirements of this section, receive the protections of this chapter;
(b) Provides self-certification of household income for the prior twelve months to a grantee of the department of community, trade, and economic development which administers federally funded energy assistance programs. The grantee shall determine that the household income does not exceed the maximum allowed for eligibility under the state’s plan for low-income energy assistance under 42 U.S.C. 8624 and shall provide a dollar figure that is seven percent of household income. The grantee may verify information provided in the self-certification;
(c) Has applied for home heating assistance from applicable government and private sector organizations and certifies that any assistance received will be applied to the current bill and future utility bills;
(d) Has applied for low-income weatherization assistance to the utility or other appropriate agency if such assistance is available for the dwelling;
(e) Agrees to a payment plan and agrees to maintain the payment plan. The plan will be designed both to pay the past due bill by the following October 15 and to pay for continued utility service. If the past due bill is not paid by the following October 15, the customer shall not be eligible for protections under this chapter until the past due bill is paid. The plan shall not require monthly payments in excess of seven percent of the customer’s monthly income plus one-twelfth of any arrearage accrued from the date application is made and thereafter during November 15 through March 15. A customer may agree to pay a higher percentage during this period, but shall not be in default unless payment during this period is less than seven percent of monthly income plus one-twelfth of any arrearage accrued from the date application is made and thereafter. If assistance payments are received by the customer subsequent to implementation of the plan, the customer shall contact the utility to reformulate the plan; and
(f) Agrees to pay the moneys owed even if he or she moves.
(5) The utility shall:
(a) Include in any notice that an account is delinquent and that service may be subject to termination, a description of the customer’s duties in this section;
(b) Assist the customer in fulfilling the requirements under this section;
(c) Be authorized to transfer an account to a new residence when a customer who has established a plan under this section moves from one residence to another within the same utility service area;
fromwhat you see here avista does not follow the law and theydo what the feel like they have told me that each andevery time i have talked to them and they have told me they do what they want withthemoney tht goes in there like they hadtold mychurch that the money they sent in was togo to my deposit but avista put only 232 to the deposit and not the whole 399.15 . so avista like to lie and fault the customers.
Marks reply illustrates a good point. There are rational REASONS that a persons usage could spike. Isn’t it possible that even Avista isn’t sure why? The fact that a second reader is there shows that employees are concerned too. If they were the bad guys, as most of your story suggests, why does it seem like they care? A poster on the other blog mentioned that there were employees talking to the protesters. Why? What did they say? Isn’t that unusual that a company would take the time to go out and try to explain anything to an upset crowd? I worked at a place that once instructed us not even to look a the fair trade protesters outside our building. So why does Avista bother? Why do they bother to educate people on proper use of power when those same people are going to claim they are being patronized. Please. This is just giving a platform to irrationality.
McKAy if you are not pulled from this story, then let some rational thought prevail and get some real answers for us but clean up your work.
Check your coverage and don’t be sloppy. Your coverage was worded badly and painted inaccuracies in many places. Right down to showing info that conflicted with what you were saying. The implication that the college guys had a $530 bill in one month was wrong, as shown when the camera panned the bill and showed a previous balance owing, for TOTAL of $525. The previous balance was $17o something. I have Tivo and there now exists a PAUSE button. That was a big enough spike that you didn’t need to skew facts further to make the same impression. All you did was lose credibility.
You also offered nothing from citizens telling you that the complaints are isolated. Your story was not objective and offered nothing from several people, including myself, that called specifically to share that their bills went DOWN. Not up. The suggestion YOU passed on from “e-mails” that ‘in a recession’ this company shouldn’t make profits is kind of absurd. Loss is loss and equals JOBS. I don’t want to see any large employer in Spokane have to cut jobs. I want to see them training and hiring. Which is what Avista is doing. As the Avista rep said, they do invest in infrastructure, incuding I am CERTAIN training of our local people. Where are the stats from this and why not balance the reporting with something relevant to recessions. If you’re going to mention it at all, make it fair.
Finally, this is just a suggestion to reasonable people that understand there is a reason behind unexplainable jumps in usage numbers; has any one checked to make sure their outside jacks have covers that lock?
I once caught a flip-this-house outfit jacking into my house while I was at work. I’d been paying for the power on their construction and roofing project for nearly three months before a neighbor spotted the cord & filled me in. I blamed my teenagers for the spike and later took them out to dinner to apologize. I was told to file a criminal complaint for theft but opted to yell at the crew until they coughed up the cash instead.
There has to be a reasonable explanation for these usage hikes- and I really wish KXLY would get to the bottom of that instead of giving irrational people a platform to vent their economic frustrations.
McKay, The problem with your story tonight is that the states you showed with rates higher than ours is because they don’t have hydro power, We do… “Coal” or “natural gas” is much higher.. So our rates should be lower, Their using our water not theirs.. Avista should be paying us.. What I would like to know is how much is Avista paying for water usage??
As a viewer I appreciate the story that you and KXLY did. It was not as informational as I would have liked, but Avista did say what I thought they would about the meters never being wrong and we, the home, owners are at fault because we use to much electricity.
That I could argue with because on my last bill it showed that I used less electricity this year then this time last year and the tempature was the same as last year and my bill was still double what it was in January. It’s dissappointing because as a single income family it’s a strugle to pay such a large bill for a little house that uses minimal electricity even with two kids in the house.
witch in my case would be about 120 a month but my last three bills have been 700 dec jan was785 and i have not got my current bill yet but avist is the biggest liars there are and they don’t care about kids or families with kids because they told me they have shut people with kids power off and i have tried oget on comfot level billing and they blum refuse to let me be on that i am on limited in come we live on only 1031 a month and with all the bills i have i have my money bugded for each bill and with that i have told avista i can only afford to pay no morethan 150 a month but they say they have to have itall orthey will turn you off
Over and over, Avista says that they are not the problem, the consumer is. did no one but me see the article in “The Associated Press” talking about AVISTA’s mistake, and how one couple got AND HAD TO PAY someone ELSE’s power bill for MONTHS, and when they complained that something was wrong, Avista gave them the same line that we’ve all been getting. Avista wouldn’t check anything, or look into it until the couple called and told them they had a GAS LEAK? And then Avista denied the gas leak complaint and claimed they had looked into it based on earlier complaints of a wrong bill? Avista’s ridiculous. They charge too much, based on the cost of living for our area. Not based on a national average. We’re not NYC or anywhere else. We’re SPOKANE. Thank heaven I don’t have to go through Avista anymore. I couldn’t handle a power bill that’s just as much as my rent or mortgage. Do they not realise that when you figure cost of living, you should make three times your rent or mortgage at the least, (that is usually figured into an application to even rent), and that if 1/3 of my income is rent, and another 1/3 is my power bill, where the freak is my gas/insurance/car payment/groceries/daycare money going to come from? These outrageous bills alone are going to put Spokane on the map for a place NOT to live.
Link to Associated Press story: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hf4biXVXa0S1cp3ZiInWtYdzb0YQD96OT7L00
Thanks for the repot McKay. I thought I heard you say that 100,000 or so Avista meters were estimated due to the record snowfall. If that is true, you could expect at least a small percentage would be inaccurate. Thus the hundreds of households complaining about bills. However, all of this could have been prevented. Why don’t you do a story on Itron (Liberty Lake, Itron.com) as they have technology that eliminates the need to estimate meters no matter how much it snows. They make meters that transmitt the reads directly to the utility. These smart meters also allow the homeowner to monitor their energy usage in real-time (do a search on Google PowerMeter) eliminating those surprise bills every winter. While the technology has significant upfront cost for the utility, studys show that if people can easily monitor their energy use, they will conserve as much as 15% without much effort. It would be great to see a positive story about a local company that is making a product sold globally that could benefit us right here in Spokane.
After watching the show it looks even more like it was a rate estimation issue. “If” that’s the case people should see a very low bill when the actual meters are read for the Feb or Mar bills. The tricky part will be the fact that they charge different rates at different tiers because if they did overestimate the “kWh usage” on the Dec/Jan bills those overestimated kWh’s would most likely be at higher tier rates.
I suggest that if this ever happens again that people go to their meter and get the reading. Then call Avista and ask then what figure (the running number on your meter) they used to estimate your bill. If their figure doesn’t compare to yours then tell them what the correct reading currently is and have them correct your bill based on the actual reading vs. the “estimated” one they had used. A similar thing happened to me with Inland right after moving into my house. They billed me for an estimate based on what the previous homeowner had used at that time of the yr. It was twice what we had actually used so I called and told them my meter’s correct reading and they credited my bill. Fortunately, they only use one rate.
On a bill that flashed on the TV, I noticed Avista’s rate tiers went from a low of .06543 to a high of .09323 per kWh. I believe that even the low end of that tier is about 20-25% higher than many other pwr companies around Spokane and the highest tier looks to be about 70-80% higher. The overall avg for someone’s bill who falls into the 3rd-4th tier rates (during winter usage) appears to be approximately 50% higher than many other local pwr co’s would charge…
McKay- Overall, good job on your story. Your comparison to other cities needs a little more detail though because the cost to the energy company of producing the pwr needs to be taken into account. Comparing a city that gets its pwr primarily from hydroelectric to one that is powered by coal plants is like apples to oranges because it’s much cheaper to produce hydro vs. coal. Coal also has the added costs associated with environmental compliances, etc. Therefore, to get an accurate comparison, you need to compare how much the pwr co’s are charging per kWh “above” what it costs them to make the kWh. A few people (I said “a few”)probably looked at their bill and forgot to take into account a previous unpaid balance but I’m sure you already took that into account so it should be a non-factor anyway.
My husband has come to Spokane to go to work for Cyrus O’Leary’s for the Holiday season for the last three years.
We closed the house down on 10/28/06 and retruned 01/20/07. Our hot water tank which is propane was on “Vacation” setting, our phone and Dish networks were put on “Vacation”, the heat turned down from 70degrees to 60, all Kitchen appliances unplugged, the blinds pulled down on all windows and the doors to all rooms closed. Our propane fireplace thermostat was set to 50 degrees in case the power went out and the generator had to kick in to keep the refrigerator and freezer running, both 4year old enery efficient versions. Our power usage during that 1st 3 month period averaged 47.78 kw/day. The second period from 10/28/07 to 02/23/08 we averaged 56.6 kw/day. From 10/25/08 to 01/15/09 with the heat set down to 57 degrees and all else the same as above we got a January 09 bill for 3307 kw or 100.2 kw per day for 33 days which is impossible with no one there to use the electricity.
Why does Avista raise rates so much more and more often than The Washington Water Power did? What changed?
Regarding putting the “blame” for high electric bills on the the consumer based on how much electricity they use; what about the requested rate increase Avista petitioned stating that they were making less revenue because consumers were using less electricity?
What does it take to start another source of electricity for people within the city limits? If Avista had some local competition they might modify their rates and customer service.
This is about the fifth or sixth report I have seen and replied to about Avista and their criminal actions but nothing is changing, nothing is being done. All these reports are doing is giving us a place to vent. Where is the action? Who is going to step up and challenge Avista. Maybe its time to involve the government…. something?! There is nothing that pisses me off more is a business that tries to rip people off. Avista needs to held accountable!
I also had a 40% increase in my utility bill over last januarys. Same number of billing days, warmer temps etc. My biggest complain is that energy prices on the open market have plummeted by nearly 70% in natural gas and electricity. You would think therefore we would all be getting great rate decreases, but no Avista has actually asked for another rate increase. Do you know how much Avista employees are paid compaired to similiar work in our area?? They are paid much higher than the local average and why not they just ask for another rate increase. I think the problem here lies with the Utilities Commision. Who are they? Where do they come from?? Sounds like Wall Street excess to me. Not to mention with rates skyrocketing 3 times per year, would you come to this area to start a large business?? You have no way to even begin to estimate future costs. Just ask Alcoa, was one of their primary reasons for pulling out of the area. Avista and their unstoppable thirst for profits are killing our states economy, plain and simple.
McKay, you have taken on what is probably the most essential causative element in our country’s current crisis. Whether it is the credit/banking industry, the energy sellers like Enron, drug companies or utility monopolies: the rape of everyday Americans goes on. All of the “level headed” advice you have received here about how it is all “explainable” simply begs the final explanation. Take for example recent history in which California residents were duped into paying untold millions for energy in a contrived shortage. After all of the protests and the oh so reasonable explanations, it turned out they had simply been duped. And there is no government entity or court that will ever make the culprits pay that money back to the citizens who slaved to pay their bills. Whether it is by estimated bills, convoluted rate schedules, or the demands of stockholders, we are being abused as well. We don’t need our utility company spending our hard earned household energy dollars to name a stadium after themselves, to advertise to us about what a great outfit they are or to enrich a not so local investment class. We don’t need them to donate our money to good causes. We need an efficiently run, completely accountable organization whose sole purpose is simply to provide for the energy needs of our citizens at the absolute best price possible.
Providing the basic necessities of life must not be placed in the hands of simple profiteers and ethical incompetents.
You have received some very good analysis of how Avista manipulates the figures and channels the dollars. It is a goliath, intertwined with government and special interests to perpetuate their own goals. Avista is a not so micro microcosm of what is ruining the economy and running the only resource America has – its citizens – into the ground.
KXLY says they are not trying to taint or create a story against Avista. What has happened to the positive emails on this blog. Hmmm. They have disappeared. As a media outlet you have a responsnsiblity to report the news not create it. Deliver an objective account of what is happening.
I would like to give a challenge to those of you who insist that KXLY is tainting Avista and that the fault is with the ones who is complaining.
I am a real customer of Avista. I used to be a customer of Inland Power. I have stated before here on this forum that if Inland was my power company, I would be spending almost 50% less than what I spend with Avista. I would like to challenge you to go to Inland Powers website. It is at http://www.inlandpower.com Click on the energy matters tab at the top—choose residential rates. On the residential rates page you will see single phase, three phase and kwh charge. Single phase and three phase is simply the facilities use charge that Inland charges each customer. What phase you are charged for depends on what kind of meter you have, whether it is a single phase meter or three phase meter. Since you wouldn’t know, to be fair use the three phase charge. Now, find the kwh usage on your Avista bill and multiply it by Inland’s flat rate of .0521 cents. Add your kwh charge to the amount for the three phase. The end result is how much Inland would charge you if you were their customer. Do you notice a difference in the amount of your bill??
Another blogger here also pointed out a comment that Avista made that I am sure a lot of folks forgot about. Avista did say that one of the reasons they were raising rates was not because customers were using more but because customers were using less and so they were losing money and wanted to keep their profit margin. So, they raised rates on us. This makes me angry. A customer can’t win if Avista is just going to raise rates each time you try to use less. Where is the reward in saving money and conserving if Avista is going to raise rates because they don’t want to lose their big profits?? My hubby and I put a wood stove in our home last month. We cut our usage in half as a result. Our kwh usage in January was 7480 kwh. Our kwh usage in February was 3700 kwh. Same average temps. Do you know what kind of a reward I got for that? Avista charged me more for each kwh I used than what they did the month before! I call foul. Inland Power is able to charge less. I want transparency from Avista. Why do they need so much more than Inland Power does?? Why does their energy cost so much more than Inland Power?? Natural gas prices have gone down, electricity prices have gone down—why is Avista charging so much when energy prices are down not up? And why do they insist on giving rate increases 3 or 4 times a year??? I have counted them and yes, that is how many they are asking for each year. I can count on 1 finger how many times Inland raised rates while I was their customer.
So, when you stick up for Avista, consider all of the questions I put above that Avista is not giving me or any other customers any real answers for!