To the editor:
Early December I received my City of Kelowna utility bill and I was surprised to discover that my usage rate was computer estimated 23 per cent higher than the actual meter reading I submitted to ecare.corix.com/Kelowna.
Several other owners in my condominium building took the time to get access to our electrical room to read their meters and reported it by telephone or via the Corix website and all of us received high bills based on computer estimates instead of the actual meter readings.
Before anyone suggests the meter readings were submitted too late, there were not.
To those of you who say things will work out when the FortisBC lockout is over and our meters are finally read, you are wrong. In my case my higher usage rate pushed me into the next energy block rate which is 47 per cent higher than the rate I should have been charged.
When my meter is finally read, will I receive a credit based on this higher rate? I don’t think so.
The only thing that will work out is that you have been screwed and the FortisBC executives may get some nice Christmas bonuses.
There is something very wrong when a corporation saves money by locking out their meter reading employees and then earns even more money by sending out bills based on high computer estimates. They have no incentive to bargain with their employees.
It is time to put a stop to this unfair practice of sending computer estimates and demand from the City of Kelowna that they get FortisBC to have their management employees and/or executives to get actual meter readings.
I will be adjusting my bill to the actual amount based on my meter.
Alfred Kaufmann,
Kelowna
