When a neighbour of mine popped over recently to ask if I too were being charged insane monthly hydro amounts, I looked back on my bills for the summer (I live in Portland, Ontario) to learn they’ve been consistently $500 and over for many, many months. How did I miss these ridiculous charges? My lame excuse is: because the monthly hydro bills are directly withdrawn from my bank account. So I logged into said account and looked a little closer to see that for September’s bill of over $900 had just been directly placed in Hydro One’s coffers. “WTF?” doesn’t really cover the reaction that followed.
And here’s the thing – I’ve been having issues with my furnace and have had it completely switched off for over 4 weeks now. Were I running a grow-op with massive amounts of hydroponic equipment nurturing illegal flora in my basement, I’d keep my mouth shut. But since my Hydro bill should have actually been dramatically less for last month – well, it’s driven me to blog about this nonsense in the hopes eventual readers might be able to share their stories or shed some light on just what the heck is going on. And forget the $900 for a second. I’ve easily been paying over 50% more every month than should be normal for a 30 day utility charge for over a frickin’ year now.
Hydro One: I’m not building a spaceship, powering a nuclear reactor or harbouring the Trailer Park Boys’ next big growing scheme on my property. I’m going to call you next week and try to get to the bottom of this. And by “get to the bottom of this” I actually mean “get a massive credit/refund”. I will keep everyone updated as to what transpires. If you’ve found this post via a Google search and are in the same boat – please leave your own story in the comments below. In the meantime, I’ll be panhandling or selling my body in anticipation of next month’s financial haemorrhage.
You are not alone. Hydro One put in a “smart meter” and couldn’t believe the reading so they replaced it and then came again for another reading.
I live in the country so they only do an “estimated billing” and usually come once a year.
I have no furnace (wood stove for heat), no dishwasher, no washer, no dryer
and my house is new construction, R50 in the ceiling, R 30 in the walls etc. etc.
The bill arrives and it’s $4,500.00!!!!!
Just what is going on here? Hydro One won’t do anything or even listen and now they are imposing a deposit charge on my bill of $1,650.00 even though I (reluctantly) agreed to pay my monthly bills and spread the $4,500.00 charge over 18 months. And get this, the interest they charge is 19.5% !!!
So frustrated we contacted Conservatives, Liberals and NDP. The only one to step up was the NDP rep whom has brought it into the legislature and asked permission to release my name, story and copies of invoices to the media. Go for it!
We are all getting hosed by McGuinty and his cohorts at Hydro One. There needs to be a groundswell mass uprising of the residents of Ontario. Count me in on putting these gangsters back in line.
Hi Bob – You’re exactly the sort of person I’d hoped to connect with via this post. Can I ask how you found it?
Hi Dave;
Just googled HYDRO ONE OVERCHARGE
Please keep me posted on how you make out. Our experience is that at Hydro One there is no customer care. I would love to go off the grid.. if only there was cost efficient system or a company that wanted to do a showcase or some arrangement. I would be the spokesperson and do it for nothing!!
I’m trying to get my own rotary meter.No luck so far but, if anyone knows where I can get one, let me know. Bet you $100.00 that the reading will be 40-50% less.
Bob
I googled “hydro one overcharge” as well and got here. My bill isn’t nearly as atrocious ($170.24), but I did the math as per the breakdown on the hydro one website and they overcharged by about $25. That’s using the number of kWh on my bill and the numbers from their website. They can’t even write a program to do arithmetic properly.
Hope you guys get things figured out.
The electricity company put smart meters in at our house this summer too (we are in Oshawa) but they don’t actually come into effect until next spring so they just work as a regular meter for now. When the next bill came it was 75% more than usual. I let it slide as it was an estimated bill and waited for the next bill to arrive expecting it to be significantly lower; that one too was 50% more than I had been paying. So I called the company and mentioned that since the smart meter went in my bills were incredibly high….I was told that it’s because we had such a hot summer and it is just coincidence that the smart meters were installed and it made it look like there was an issue with them. The woman said they’d been receiving many calls like mine and that my bill would return to normal the following month as I had called in September. The thing that got me was that I had been in the hospital for about a week and so nobody was home how could the bill really be that amount?? I just received my latest bill and it is only now back to where it should be.
Overcharged–NOT Overjoyed.
Thank you for posts, means not alone on this!
Here has it, it was previously festive holiday mnths and I may have taken to the twinkling desire, and put up a few lights. Friendly/communal gesture, non?
Very few lights, not like Griswold’s family christmas. Cheery-eyed, I opened my Hydro bill for December–it is more than double the previous mnth!!
I don’t see this being possible, but feel Scrooged. Thx.
Hello, I was googleing, and your page happened to show up, so i hope you dont mind that I share with you my frustrations as well over this bloody hydro gouging!!!!! my last hydro bill prior to the smart meter rates was 166.66 , that is for 2 people for 29 days, the bill following with the new increases was 235.64 my Mouth dropped!!!!!! and what scares me is that I don’t use a clothes dryer….. i hang my laundry outside in the spring and summer and i hang iton a line in my basement and on a rack….. and when i did use my dishwasher it was only 3 times a week max…
Now as a result of the increases of debt reduction charge and delivery charge and the new kw increases, and the HST tax!!!! I am not using my dishwasher through the week, I am so upset about these rates, I like to cook supper, i mean really cook where you uses your stove top burners and your oven, i dont buy or consume any freezer to microwave fast foods, so in order for me to cook a meal through the week, I have to start cooking at 3:30 in the aft so i am not using my oven in the high peak hourse of 5 pm to 9 pm!!!! …. it is a the most unfair system i have heard of , if the govt had of set this up back when my 3 kids were small and coming home from school at the high rates…. ( tv supper baths occasional load of laundry ) i really dont know that we would have been able to keep our home!!!! i feel for the familys toda with little children
You think you have been taken advantage of by Hydro One. Check out this for a 61 day period Hydro One Smart Meter says I used 278kw and the bill was $2,265.13 when I compared it to previous winter useage over a 4 year period I never used more than 139kw for the same period. When I contacted Hydro One I was plainly told either pay it or be cut-off. Just where do they think a senior retiree is going to get that kind of money when they live on a very very small pension and have not other income.
Hydro One is just out to steal and they can do it legally too! Thanks Canadian Government for allowing Hydro One to increase their rates all the time and what is with this Debt Charge and Deliver Charge (the delivery charge can be more than the actual useage of hydro and now they have a new so called charged that they can add to everything else) To pay this out of sight bill I am going to have to go with out food, water, my insulin and other meds for a very very long long time. How can they get away with this? We pensioners have nowhere to go as our Canadian Government and Ontario Government sure the HELL won’t help us! Enough is Enough! Hydro One you are Thieves and nothing more!
My father is a pensioner, and we live in the country, so we need electricity to flush toilets, pump water from the well, sump pump in basement. So everything is run by electricity.
My father being a pensioner, can’t afford electricity at all, so far we have had to cut down on food, turn off our hot water heater, and we have been freezing all winter, and my dad got ill, my mother just passed away and he doesn’t have the help of her pension anymore.
The ontario government should be kicked out, for have this brainstorm of putting these smart meters in.
When it was Ontario Hydro they used to give people that lived in the country a credit. But as soon as hydro one took over we didn’t get the credit anymore.
The government should be aware of what they are causing, living is bad enough with oil prices, electric prices. I really don’t know how you can enjoy living these days, when your money is all taken by the government.
I bought a cabin last May, 2010. I’m from Manitoba and am relatively new to Hydro One. My cabin is 800 square feet with an outhouse, a pump, fridge, stove, 2 baseboard heaters (used rarely), and lights. The cabin was used for about 10 weekend over the last summer. My neighbours have AC, and their place is twice the size of mine. They average 130$ quarterly for their bills. They are also there for the entire summer. When we leave each weekend, the breaker is shut completely off.
First 2 bills were roughly 250$ (July and Nov). My January bill was $80. I was charged $750 in April, 2011 on my fourth bill! The cabin has been shut down, breaker off all winter! They “assured me that it was correct.” It’s nearly more than what I pay in the city running a house all day long, 12 months of the year. Customer service was rude to me. I’ve never been treated this way by anybody. I’d like to know who could help me.
I work in health care and deal with people face to face everyday. I would never in my life treat somebody this way. Lack of listening skills, help, explanation… and subtly accussing me of being a liar.
Any suggestions?
I live in Alberta , wages going up 10% of prices . think about it , why are the politicians not even talking about this . because it’s not there problem. if the prices tripole they just give themselves a big fat raise. to be onest with you , the politicians don’t even half to give a f–k what you think . the money that they get from you don’t even really matter any more .they sit down ones a term and decide what they want. then they borrow that money in the name of Canada ( not there name) and now were done.
I’v been told the only remanint of are right to say no is a patition . and with the Internet that is very doable. I believe , that most people would be ready to sighn a petition that stops the federal government from taking or giving away any money or any thing that belongs to canadians . the provinces will run the country till we get some short term help. there will be pleny of Leed time maby get help from china, Iran ,and France. they don’t like each other well enuff to lie for each other so they would police themselves .it won’t take much to fix this country . there is only about 50 million people in this country how many hundreds of millions of dollars worth of oil did we sell last year. and then lumber ,minerals,gas , electricity. once we are getting the money the citizens will not half to work. so many people don’t understand that when some politition gives gm 100″000000000 he prob only took 100000, but cleaned. all the expense
is cause they were stealing . and we will be selling the stuff to the highest bider , not the place that gives you the biggest cut. a free country is cheap to run compared to one that’s mugging the people that live there.every thing is simple .the legal system is a lot simpler .because it’s only wrong if your doing something that has a victim. and in a free country the 99 good people don’t half to worry much about the one bad person because he knows the 99 are going to do something about him. in a free country if I catch a guy beating a old lady up with a baseball bat to steel her purse ,I have the obligation to make dam shur he never does that again because people have more rights than animals. speeking of which in a free country you don’t get money taken from you to pay for clifferd olsens lunch . every one I know could see how anyone should be expected to spend there hard erned money to feed him.the man rapes and murders about 12 kids and the government pulls food out of my mouth to feed him . that’s why these Arab contrys think we have no morals. only the ones that are here understand
we have no say at all.
Thank you all for your insights. If you’ve found this post via Google, please share your own experiences.
I have a solution: boycott them. Stop using hydro anyway you can. I did. Solar panels are down to a buck a watt. Time to build your own pv array in your backyard, (assuming you can afford a house here). Cook on tealite candles or BBQ with charcoal – they are at cost parity with electricity now at $0.20 per kwh. Boycott. Even if they cost more I would do it anyways to boycott them. Boycott is the only solution to this government created problem. They refuse to fix it so boycott. I use 25% of what I used to use and my bill only went down by half. People may laugh regarding candle cooking but everytime I do it it feels good knowing that I am actually doing something to boycott them while everyone else does nothing but cry on the Internet. I look forward to getting my hydro bill now as it keeps getting smaller and smaller making off grid easier and easier. Cooking accounted for 30% of my bill. Now I rarely cook with electricity. Make sandwiches, salads = zero electricity required. Going back to the dark ages was easy just turn everything off. Cfl and led and candles are what I use now thanks to the biggest fraud in history. Before I used 800kwh a month. Now I am down to 200kwh and falling. Time to make those cottages off grid eh? Lol. Boycott Ontario hydro and watch them collapse, sunshine list problem solved.
My verdict is in on the “smart meter” time of use pricing scheme in Ontario: It’s a complete scam.
I analyzed 12 months worth of billing. Over the 12 months I eventually was able to transfer 80% of my usage to off peak. This should have meant savings right? That’s what they told us right? Wrong. Zero savings. No change in overall average cost per kilowatt hour. It’s a total scam.
On each bill I divided the amount of the bill by the actual kwh used. This is the overall average cost per kwh. This should be a weighted average depending on what “brand” of TOU priced electricity you use. Use more of the expensive stuff it goes up. Use more of the cheaper stuff it goes down.
Over 12 months of billing my average cost per kwh was a never changing $0.20 despite cutting my usage by 75% and transferring 80% to off peak. This means zero savings for deferring usage to off peak. To me this seems very false and misleading and disgusting. They are screwing millions of people.
Don’t take my word for it. Analyze your bills. Make sure you have a barf bag handy.
FLICK OFF. ORG there’s never been a better time.
Boycott these clowns. Turn everything off. Cutting usage is the only way to save.
I just concluded a 10 month study of my bills from Ontario hydro on the new smart meter time of use pricing.
The results are in: no matter how much usage I transferred to off peak the overall cost per kilowatt hour remained the same. They adjust the delivery fee to offset any potential savings.
There are no savings by switching to time of use below 700 kwh per month. Don’t believe me? Check your bills. Overall kwh average cost is calculated by billed amount divided by total kwh used. Make sure you have a vomit bag handy.
FLICK OFF.ORG
Boycott.
I just found this breathe of fresh air! I thought I was the only one completely disgusted with Hydro One! When the kids go down tonight I am going to write my own story from hell! I want completely off the grid….I need solar, geothermal I don’t care – something! We, the people; need to make a stand and stop these jerks!
I just found this breathe of fresh air! I thought I was the only one completely disgusted with Hydro One! When the kids go down tonight I am going to write my own story from hell! I want completely off the grid….I need solar, geothermal I don’t care – something! We, the people; need to make a stand and stop these jerks!
I googled to see alternatives other than hydro one and this was the second on the list!
Just alittle update regarding TOU. I switched 80% of my usage to off peak and compared the bill to the previous 12 months. No savings for switching to off peak. I calculated the cost of a kwh by dividing the billed amount by the actual kwh’s used. I averaged $0.20 per kwh on every bill for the last 12 months no matter what I did or when I did it.
Ontario hydro and the liberal gov spent a billion dollars on this garbage and told everyone they could save by switching to off peak. Another billion down the toilet. No savings for switching to off peak. Completely pathetic. http://Www.flickoff.org for more details. BTW it looks like we are still paying the debt retirement to help pay for their indebted retirement program. I’m not. Boycott.
I am only 27 and only have delt with hydro one for the pass 4 years. My wife and I both make ok money. We aren’t rich but we also dont need social assistance. Middle of the road type deal we bought a house out in the counrty burn wood and don’t have central air. We both work full time, so you know the story we spend more time at work then we do at home. Prior to june 2011 we would get an Actual bill every 3 months and get the estimates in between. And like everyone else their estimates are so far off that every 3 months when we would get an actual bill it would be more then it should be because we would be making up for the pass 2 months when they under estimated. For the pass 6 months all I have gotten is estimated bills. I called hydro 1 and they gave me their super awesome story about how they are switching over to smart meters so they stopped sending people to read the meters. So I said fine when am getting switched over because I have 6 months of estimates which I know are under estimated. He told me it should be all done by the end of this year. So this means I could potentially have 18 months worth of estimated bills to make up for come next january. Of course the hydro 1 rep didnt see an issue with this because he said if it turns out that I owe alot of money to make up for all their poor estimates that I could spread it over a couple months of payments..And then he said it problably wont be that bad because they will problably over estiamte us durring the summer months so it will help even it out…. What the fuck is this? That is like driving up to a gas pump with a small car getting 20 litres of gas and the gas attendant saying, sorry our meter isn’t working just give me a 100$ dollars that should cover it. NO you provide a service, a very specific service. If I am a customer CHARGE me for my CONSUMPTION of a PRODUCT. My bank account does not live in the world of make believe. I don’t just go around giving people money to pay for fictional bills. The Tax payers held up their end of the bargain we paid what was asked for with the Debt Retirement crap. Hold up your end STOP TAKING MONEY THAT ISN’T YOURS TO TAKE. How about this the Ontario Clean Energy Benefit of 10 percent, maybe you should total that on my bill before applying the HST to my bill instead of after. But why would you do that? If you did it that way you would lose a couple dollars from me. Me and everyone else in ontario….. thats a fuck load of money. How about the fucking delivery charges? There isn’t anyone coming to my door and giving me electricity in a girls scouts cookie box or in milk bottles. The hydro lines have been up for years. Why am I paying a average of 90 dollars per bill for delivery fees? The delivery fees are more then the electricity consumption fees. And when my little town that I live in looses hydro for 3 or 4 days at a time, why doesn’t my bill reflect that? Its like the electricity is some how getting to my house and the mice are using it under the stairs or something, even tho a transport drove into a hydro pole 20 kms south of me on the highway. But I guess for a company that makes up fictional bills, feats of magic aren’t that far out of reach. And then the mistery regulatory fee, read the definition of that on their website. Its almost like another provincial tax at a variable rate. To help cover the cost of running their business. I thought they would have covered that cost in the delivery fee. Its a scam everything on that bill is a scam. I once bought a set of tower speakers out of the back of some guys van. Thought it was a great deal. I later found out I got SCAMMED. I was young and dumb and thought to myself theres a life lesson. You got scammed today and they fucked you over for alot of money. Didnt think I would ever get fucked over as bad ever again. Then I met Hydro one and they have been fucking me ever since. Least they could do is take me out to dinner once in awhile.
Nate
Queens university apparently did a study in 2011 and found the cost of solar to be at par with utility derived power. I did my own study and found it to be half the cost of “the utility” if you can install it yourself. Panels are down to a $1.50 per watt. Start small. Build a 1000 watt array and use it for your home office. Use the Internet to teach yourself how to do it. Use a 12v battery system just like your car uses. Use crown brand floor sweeper batteries (2 x 6v connected in series = 12v). For a 1000w panel system you should built. 12v battery bank with at least 680 ah of storage capacity. After you built one off grid system and master it build another bigger one. Now you have redundancy. I built a small one to start and now I never have blackouts. When I read blogs by disgruntled laid off hydro workers threatening everyone with blackouts I am just disgusted. I am not hostage to their little game. I cook everything on charcoal or tealight candles now as that form of energy is actually cheaper. I use all LED lighting now as well (thank you ikea) which is completely off grid. Sometimes when the power goes out I don’t even notice. I reduced my usage from 800 kwh a month to just 100 kwh total monthly usage. A 1000 watt solar panel array will cover all my needs soon and I will no longer be held hostage with their ever increasing array of charges and fraudulent accounting and business practices. http://Www.flickoff.org <- the idiots spent $500,000 on a website a 10 year old could have designed.
I recently relocated to Ottawa from Vancouver. Although the cost of housing in Vancouver is extremely pricey, it appreciates substantially in value as well. While I was happy to afford a larger home here in Ottawa, I am finding my bills are astronomical. The Hydro bill appears to have me being charged for double the amount of energy I believe I in fact consume. That’s not even including the “delivery fee”, regulatory charges, debt retirement charge and HST on top of it all !!! This is all such a gouge. Hydro simply tells me that I should compare to the previous owner but I am the first one since it was used only as a model home for years. They also suggested I go to the library and learn how to conserve energy ??? I use a toaster oven to cook for myself and my son. We use a High Efficiency washer with cold water etc. Some customer service !!!
I wont repeat my story as it so similar to many of you folks. I would like to know how to deal with this injustice.
They are saying i have 5000 kwh increase year over year, cant possibly be true. Who can help me dealwith this
This is the blog I was looking for as we had the same issue at our cottage in Sudbury and I was hoping to find evidence of widespread abuse. A colleague took his $1000 overage up w Hydro One and it became a protracted battle over many months. At one point they said they had a photo of his meter reading at his cottage. When he requested a copy they could not locate it -a fabrication. He pursued this with many phone calls and letters always ending up with a new person in a new facility. Getting the run around was an understatement. He documented his historical readings and charges and proved he could not have conmsumed the volumes they said. Eventually his complaint was escalated to a Hydro Consumer Complaint Tribunal. He got a call from a Hydro employee who said she was reperesenting his case to the Tribunal and wanted to know what he prepared to settle for. Nothing less than $1000 was his reply which he subsequently received. He said he was a pitbull on this one and he is a very resaonable man. Sounds like you need real perserverance. I am now going to take up the issue on our 18 month old bill as I now have proof that there are many in this situation. If I don’t saitsfaction I am going to try several new angles always inlcuding copies of this blog. 1) write the President demanding a response 2) Write my MPP on the issue and provide this blog and comments as proof there is a real widespread issue. 3) Write the conusmer or goverment ombudsman with this complaint. I refuse to let them win or to allow my issue to drag on for months and have them win the war of attrition. Hope this helps others. Be prepared for a long batttle if John’s case is an example.
i paid almost $5000 in the past year and because i was 10 minutes late in paying they slapped me with an $820 security deposit
since ive been paying hydro i have paid them over $150,000 and every year they hose me again and again
i told them to come and disconnect me and that will force me to find a better way
I am experiencing the same overcharges at my cottage, where I spend only the summer and the occasional weekend. I have contacted hydro one several times to no avail. I am interested in any more experiences people are having and how they have resolved the problem
We all have the same story,we are getting screwed. Maybe now is the time to do something about it instead of just complaining. Start banding together instead of watching each other fall one by one.
We are all in the same boat . Since this smart meter and we all see just how smart he is. My bills doubled and Hydro Dumb said on the web where you can check you bills and tou and that from Dec 2012 to Dec 2013 I used 17620 kwh and my total electricity cost was $ 1487.05.
my bills from that same period that I paid and sent to Hydro Dumb was $ 3163.73 . Also my neighbor got a bill from Hydro for $ 2000.00 for his summer cottage in January and he’s in Florida. They told him from Hydro Dumb that maybe someone broke in and had electric on .
Someone has to stand up and be accountable but who . The government are cowards ,Ontario premier going to let Hydro Dumb raise rates by 42 % over five years.
No one wants to help I mean no one
We are in the same boat. The so called smart meter, left us without a hydro bill for several months. I continued to pay 200 dollars per month so that I wouldn’t receive a whopper of a bill. Not only did I receive a whopper of a bill, but they somehow absorbed my payments and I still owed them another 800 dollars. I received one lump bill for 5 months with no justifiable monthly charges. When I contacted a rep, they could shed no light on this situation. I demanded individual records for each of the 5 months to which the rep verbally agreed, then sent me a summary of the 5 months. Just this month, I received a 467.21 dollar bill. We switched to a gas furnace, gas water heater and gas dryer all in the past several months, and my hydro bills keep climbing. I am beyond frustrated with these untouchable scam artists. I heard through the grapevine, that some politicians are taking up action and launching investigations. Count me in. With the recent impending tax increase, outrageous hydro bills and delivery charges, we might as well move back to the city.