Largo woman gets $10,000 refund after Duke Energy billing error

Janice Doll received a refund of just under $10,000 from Duke Energy in October after the utility confirmed she had been billed for the wrong address for nearly five years. The Largo homeowner spent 57 months paying high electric charges for a 1,500-square-foot house while her account was linked to a luxury home on Treasure Island.

Doll said her monthly bills often reached hundreds of dollars despite her modest home size. Duke Energy representatives initially told her the meter worked properly and blamed the high usage on appliances inside the house. Believing the diagnosis, the retiree spent an estimated $12,000 to $15,000 replacing functioning equipment. The list included a new air conditioning unit, pool pump, washer, dryer, microwave, and garage refrigerator.

Doll also hired an electrician who inspected the property between six and eight times over three years. The professional did not find any electrical defects. "We even called Duke (Energy) for an energy audit, and they came out and said everything looks great," Doll said. "Well, obviously it didn't because then we got a $600 bill the next month."

The dispute intensified in August when Doll received a $970 utility statement. She was out of town for 28 of the month's 31 days. "I, honestly, was just so distraught," Doll said. "If we couldn’t figure this out, there’s no way we can afford a $1,000-a-month electric bill for a home (when) it shouldn’t be that."

A Duke Energy technician visited the residence in mid-September and discovered the serial number on Doll's paper statement did not match the equipment installed outside. The technician identified the error by looking at a Google image of the property associated with the billing account. "He said, ‘Somehow, your meter has been mixed up with someone else's,',' Doll explained. "He goes, ‘I am looking at the Google picture of the house that you've been being billed for. It appears as if it's between 4,000 and 5,000 square foot down on Treasure Island.’"

Doll stated that workers replaced her meter on January 26, 2022. The meter for the Treasure Island home was replaced on January 27, 2022. Executives told Doll that the account numbers were transposed during that one-day window.

On October 1, Duke Energy sent Doll an email acknowledging an overbilling balance of $10,939.29. The company stated that they recently discovered she had been billed for usage on a meter that did not serve her location. The email noted that corrections had been made to ensure the correct meter was now registering her consumption.

Duke Energy representatives apologized for the administrative error. The company explained that its correction process involves assessing energy usage for both customers during the impacted timeframe. The customer who overpaid for actual energy usage then receives a bill credit. "We apologize for any inconvenience this error may have caused," the utility said.

Doll said the refund covered the financial strain of the last five years. "All the frustration and the anger and the money, just all of it," she said. "And that nobody would help me in those 57 months that we have been saying there was a problem. And they wouldn't address it."

Doll recommends that residents verify their electric statements against the physical meter attached to their home. She advised homeowners noticing unexplained increases to confirm that serial digits match across all billing documents.