MIAMI VALLEY — AES Ohio customers say they have not received a bill in several months and are worried they could end up owing thousands of dollars.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 6:00, some customers say they are keeping hard copies to show how frequently they’re getting “zero balance” sheets as proof.
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They say they want the receipts so that when this finally gets fixed, they’re paying the correct amount.
Every month, Marsha Leonard sends a check from her home in Beavercreek to AES Ohio to keep her electricity on, but something’s been off lately.
“I looked back at my checkbook and figured out, oops, I haven’t made a couple payments to AES. What’s going on?” Leonard said.
Leonard said she hasn’t made a payment since mid-March.
“So I went online to the account and it showed I had no balance,” Leonard said.
Leonard’s not alone. A woman from Xenia who wanted to remain anonymous said she hasn’t gotten a bill since August.
She showed News Center 7’s John Bedell a letter and email from AES Ohio.
It said the company has updated its billing system, and while it transitions, “a very small number of customers have experienced delays in receiving bills.”
It goes on to say AES is working to fix the problem and that it won’t charge late fees due to these billing issues.
But both women said they’ve been having a hard time getting answers from AES Ohio.
“So that’s why I reached out to you to say, ‘Hey, maybe you can put a little bit of meat to it because they don’t seem to be interested in billing me,’” Leonard said.
News Center 7’s John Bedell asked Leonard what she wanted to know from the electricity company.
“What’s going on? What’s the problem, and is it going to happen again, and am I going to have an accurate reading when I do get a bill?” Leonard said.
An AES spokesperson said the timeline for when this will be fixed is different for all customers.
They’ve been reaching out to customers through letters and emails.
The message included on AES’s website said, in part, that when billing resumes, the next bill will include current and any unpaid previous usage.
And that, “to avoid a large balance when billing resumes, we recommend making payments based on your average monthly usage through the MyAES online portal.”
AES also tells customers on that webpage that any overpayments will be credited to their next bill.
For more information, click here.
News Center 7 will continue to follow this story.
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