Snohomish PUD to spend millions fixing billing system after outcry from customers

EVERETT, Wash. -- After months of complaints over skyrocketing power bills, the Snohomish Public Utility District said Tuesday it is listening and making changes.

The power company plans to ditch their new estimated billing system after scores of customers complained.

The PUD now plans to read each and every meter in their system in person once a month, just like they use to do before the switch last fall.

“I kept waiting for someone to call me back about my credit,” said PUD customer Cristine Gordon.

She said she has been dealing with sticker shock over her power bills for months. Gordon said her bill has doubled since the utility began a new system that billed customers once every two months; one based on real energy use and the other month estimated.

Gordon said the highest bill so far pushed past $500.

Her story isn’t the only problem with the new billing system. For months customers have been complaining. On Tuesday, the Snohomish County PUD Commission did an about face, saying they are listening and making changes.

“We underestimated how significant an issue it would be for those customers that it’s not working well for,” said Jim West, the assistant general manager of the PUD.

The commission is considering spending $13 million to $18 million over the next three years to hire staff and equipment to generate bills the old way. That means a meter reader will physically read every meter in the system every month.

“This is absolutely a direct response to customer feedback,” West said.

On the PUD’s Facebook page, the utility announced the planned changes and admitted the estimated bills created hardships for some.

“In some cases estimates were quite frankly considerably off compared to what the actual one month energy would have been,” said West.

But for customers like Gordon, the changes won’t come soon enough. She said her family has to start making big changes now to stay afloat.

“It makes it so much harder and the fact my husband already works nights and is having to possibly get a second job just to pay our electric bill, that’s stupid,” she said.

The PUD commission still has yet to vote on the proposed changes but could at the end of its next meeting later in April.