Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

O&R Horrible Experience

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
Hi guys:

I have tesla solar panels and power wall 2.0 installed for almost a year. I realized about 4 months ago that I wasn't receiving any bills from my power company orange and rockland. I reached out to them.

They said there was a mistake on my account that I should've received a bill even if I produce more electricity than I use. I then in July, received a backlog of 6 months of bills. I go over the bills and they have almost averaged about 200-300 dollars per month- some months at 400 to 500 dollars. I contact Orange and Rockland. They said the meter was working correctly. they even sent a tech over.

Then I insist that the bills must be a mistake. For example, in month of April, because of my power wall I can see that I used very little electricity and generated more than I used. I got charged 200 dollars regardless. I spoke to their supervisor at O&R and they said they needed to "suss the data" and figure why I was billed that high. My power wall/solar setup should have me off set my electricity needs by 80%-85%.

It takes 2 more months of calls then towards of end of August, the same supervisor contacts me and say they had mis billed me and they would credit back my account and charge me again the correct amount. They even send me the corrected spreadsheet of my energy usage. The month of April- clearly is labeled as showing I generated more elecritcity than I used.

I wait almost 6 weeks after the supervisor call in end of August- I receive two new bills for July and August both about 400-500 dollars. I am sure these numbers are again incorrect. The supervisor is ducking my calls. They haven't rebilled me or credited me the money they auto deducted from my account. I don't know what to do at this point.

Do I pursue a lawyer and get this settled in court? I am getting over billed by my power company. They won't fix the problem. Do I pursue this with better business bureau? What repercussions do I have? I feel this nightmare has been plaguing me for almost now for 4 months.
 
Should be very easy to take them to Small Claims Court, unless there is something that says you cant sue them in small claims.
I haven't been to small claims court. What do I do? Do I hire a lawyer or can I represent myself? At this point, orange and rockland is the only utility company servicing my area in north jersey.
 
I haven't been to small claims court. What do I do? Do I hire a lawyer or can I represent myself? At this point, orange and rockland is the only utility company servicing my area in north jersey.

In CA you represent yourself. Just show evidence to the judge and the judge will decide whats what. Probably best to go through regulatory bodies first as suggested above.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: dhrivnak
You need to contact your utility regulating body. Something like Public Utilities Commission and register a complaint. If that doesn't work, send a letter to your State Attorney General.

How do I find the public utilities commission? will this actually result in action? I feel this will only piss off utility company and nothing will get accomplished. thanks!
 
never mind- I f
I have a smart meter too, but it does display the usage. It displays DEL for the amount of energy was delivered to me, and REC for the amount of energy that they received from me.
it displays realtime what is being used. but it doesn't have the production or also by month by month. that data is sent to the utility company. I was able to get the numbers when I spoke to supervisor. there is no contestation of the facts that I overproduced some months and I have been misbilled since my solar has been installed. what I am contesting is nothing is being done. I have been billed thousands of dollars and my account won't be credited it back or rebilled correctly.
 
never mind- I f

it displays realtime what is being used. but it doesn't have the production or also by month by month. that data is sent to the utility company. I was able to get the numbers when I spoke to supervisor. there is no contestation of the facts that I overproduced some months and I have been misbilled since my solar has been installed. what I am contesting is nothing is being done. I have been billed thousands of dollars and my account won't be credited it back or rebilled correctly.

Every meter I've ever seen, even the smartmeters, do show usage, they flash every so often with with several sets of values and one of those should be the total home usage. If your meter truly doesn't have these values, which again would be really odd, I'm not sure how you'll be able to make a case.

I think to make a case you'd have to read that meter physically on site, and write down the numbers (taking a picture maybe) at the start of the day (before solar starts), and at the end of the day after solar production and they subtracting the various values at start & finish to determine to/from grid usage values - and then the same for the beginning/end of month readings.

Based on my experience these utilities don't actually trust the "smart" part of these meter, and hard physical readings from the device on location is the only thing that will make a difference in terms of making a case.

Maybe take a picture of your meter, maybe multiple pictures if it flashes every so often, and we can help you read it.
 
never mind- I f

it displays realtime what is being used. but it doesn't have the production or also by month by month. that data is sent to the utility company. I was able to get the numbers when I spoke to supervisor. there is no contestation of the facts that I overproduced some months and I have been misbilled since my solar has been installed. what I am contesting is nothing is being done. I have been billed thousands of dollars and my account won't be credited it back or rebilled correctly.

Or, so here is my meter. It shows DEL and REC. My bill also shows DEL and REC. The bill should match the meter. And I pay for the difference between DEL and REC.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_4184.png
    IMG_4184.png
    2.2 MB · Views: 135
  • IMG_4185.png
    IMG_4185.png
    2.2 MB · Views: 47
  • Capture.PNG
    Capture.PNG
    5.9 KB · Views: 36
  • Like
Reactions: JayClark