A west Houston homeowner just received a refund of more than $14,000 after discovering the meter number on his electric bill never matched the meter actually attached to his house. Peter Yang says he finally has all his money back after months of calls, complaints and checking meter readings, capping a dispute that he believes may have cost him for 15 to 20 years.
According to KHOU, Yang fought the mismatched electric meter for months before the refund came through. The trouble started when he noticed the meter number listed on his bill didn't match the number stamped on the actual meter outside his home, as reported by click2houston.com.
Yang put the scope of the problem bluntly. “I paid somebody else's bill for almost 15 to 20 years,” he said, describing what he believes happened once he spotted the discrepancy.
A Complaint to State Regulators Breaks the Logjam
Yang says he eventually filed a complaint with the Public Utility Commission of Texas, the state agency known as the PUC, and that CenterPoint swapped out the meter soon after, the same report notes. Even after the replacement, getting a clear answer on money owed proved slow going.
“They said I am the guy who overpaid. I got a credit. But they haven't been able to tell me how much,” Yang said at the time, frustrated that CenterPoint had acknowledged the overpayment without naming a figure. CenterPoint told the outlet it moved quickly once it became aware of the situation, saying, “As soon as we learned about this issue, we immediately took action to resolve it.”
The Refund Finally Lands
That uncertainty has since been resolved. Per KHOU, Yang received a refund of more than $14,000, bringing an end to months of calls, complaints and meter-reading checks on his part.
Yang isn't the only Texan to run into a crossed-wires billing mix-up. In North Texas, a switched meter caused a customer named Chris Babb to be billed for a neighbor's electricity and vice versa, according to nbcdfw.com. After reviewing Babb's bills back to 2019, TXU issued him a refund check for just over $2,100. In that case, Oncor said the crossed meter traced back to the apartment complex providing incorrect meter information. Oncor said the usage data for Babb's meter went back four years and that he was reimbursed for as much as could be verified.
The Texas Public Utility Commission's complaint categories include what it calls submetering, allocation or master-metering issues, which the agency describes as covering electric service, billing, allocation and disconnection problems for residents of apartments, condominiums, mobile-home parks and other multi-unit complexes, according to the commission's own complaint portal. Consumers who suspect their meter number doesn't match their actual equipment can file a complaint directly with the state regulator.
