DTE Energy review: faulty meter overcharges 27

I have a similar DTE story. About 5 years ago I recieved a letter from DTE stating that they found a glitch in the system and realized that we had been billed incorrectly by them for the past 2 years and we now owed them 2500.00. During this time my husband was laid- off from work and I was the only one working. so you can imagine how upsetting this was. They sent a new bill requesting payment, and soon after a shut-off notice. I called the attorney generals office to see what my rights were, I was informed by them that we had to pay. I called DTE for answers, first I spoke with the customer service department who was unable to offer me a solution. My calls were then re-routed to the low-income department, where I explained the situtation and my concerns once again. During the conversation my rep said to me that this was not a big deal and they were more important things to worry about. A budget plan was arranged, keep in mind that we had a huge balance so the plan was for $325 per month. Although this was too much for us I had to accept it to keep our utilities on. Since then the bill has increased to $425 per month.

We have been on our house for 14 years and from the beginning I would question the amount of the utility bills, they have always seemed high. The reps at DTE would just tell me that they were correct and we must use and exorbitant amount power. They would send techs out to check the meter which, according to them was fine. I never understood how this could be possible when our house is only 1100 sq. ft.and it doesn't even have a basement. The bills have continued to read high. This Summer I recieved a gas bill for almost $300, all of our appliances are electric. The winter electric bills are also high, $150 to $225 per month all. With all of this DTE claims that with lights and gas combined, we now owe them a WHOPPING $9000.00. This past summer I paid my bill on the due date and was removed from the budget. According to the reps you can't pay on the due date, and for me to be put back on the budget I would need to pay as much as 1000.00. Since I was fed up I took this as an opportunity to file a complaint, I needed someone to look at the situation and explain to me how this was possible. AT the time we were paying $365 per month, EVERY MONTH. Every month the bill continued to grow. DTE came out and replaced the meter. The tech told me there was nothing wrong with the th old one. I then contact DTE's custumer complaint department and am told by them that what we were paying every month didn't touch the amount we supposedly use every month, this is a valid bill. My battle has earned me a $425 per month budget bill. And to add insult to injury the FULL amount owing, per DTE, showing up on my credit report as late. Even with the increase budget bill the amount owing has not budged. I know for sure that something is wrong. If anyone has any advice please post it.

File a complaint with the The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) If enough people file their complaints against DTE Energy and DTE Energy has to pay enough fines they will start treating their customers the right way: To Submit Natural Gas Utility Inquiry or Complaint http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/mpsc/gas/gascomplaint.html and to Submit Electric Utility Inquiry or Complaint http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/mpsc/electric/eleccomplaint.html

I can not find my electric bill history, it only shows my gas bill.

I encountered this same problem with SEMCO energy- and you are right- this IS in violation of MPSC rules. I immediately filed a complaint with the MPSC and the matter was resolved immediately. Arguing with the utility company itself will get you nowhere. After my complaint was processed, the gas company ultimately had to remove the other person's charges- per the MPSC. I received notice of this resolution from the MPSC within 2 weeks. IT CAN BE RESOLVED! Sounds like they're doing this because they have gotten away with it more times than not... class action?

WOW! My wife and I are glad to see we are not the only ones with a HUGE PROBLEM with DTE ENERGY.. Where do I start.
OK, we are parents of 6 kids between the two of us. All have moved out except our youngest two who are still in high school and middle school. But 4 of our children have moved out on their own or to college.
I was permanently disabled in a car accident when another driver ran a red light 3 yrs ago. So we got a settlement and we used some of the money to remodel the entire house and upgrade all appliances even a new hot water heater and new central ac/ furnace... Everything has been changed. New triple pane windows to blowing insulation in the ceiling.. My bill is higher now with new appliances and less people then it was with old app- and 4 more people...
Last Christmas 2011 Dec my wife went all out on her Christmas Lights and I was surprised the bill was only about 296.00 for electric and the gas was really low because we had a warm winter. Well Jan the bill went back down because there was no more Xmas lights being used. When I got my bill in May 2012 for Feb I about fell over, my bill was 799.00 for one month. What's going on?
I paid for an electrician to come and run some tests... He said If I turned every light on in my house all the tvs all the appliances and left everything on all month that my bill still would not be 799.00 for 30 days...
OK so what the F&^% is going on here. I couldn't get anywhere with DTE except to go on a monthly payment plan of 375.00 a month.. I have paid it on time every month as I was supposed to do. I called after paying that amount for nearly 6 months and she told me that I had paid all of the overages down and was only 2 bucks remaining and I asked if I should pay it and she said no let the two dollars add on next months bill.. Well, guess what? I continued to pay 375.00 per month because she said if I continued to do that I would get a credit at the end of the yr. Dec of 2012 we didn't even do Xmas lights this year and my bill was a little lower from last DEC about 80 dollars. Well I just got my Jan bill and it was a shut off notice and I haven't missed a payment all yr.They said I owe an additional 1, 299.00

I don't know what to do or who to call. They want me to go onto a new plan of 480.00 a month.. I am not the sharpest tool in the shed but how can this be? I called and went over my bills with them I talked to a manager named Misty. She told me my average 12 month use is 335.00 per month and she cant figure why my bill is so high. OK, so if the 12 month average is 335.00 per month and I paid 375.00 every single month then didn't I pay to much? I am ready to call problem solvers. Just because I have money doesn't mean I have to give it all to DTE.. Any help is greatly appreciated.. I think DTE is over charging people... I don't know maybe they have to make up for the warm winter we had last yr..I am fed up.. We need competition in Michigan to get lower rates against DTE

I lived in a condo before I moved to this new one.. normally when our DTE bill would show up it ranged from 70 to 120 on non ac running months.. when we ran ac it ranged from 120 to 200..

I moved into a new condo and made sure everything was up to par with energy saving equipment. I shut off every light, TV, and whatever else would use energy. Our first month in new condo our bill was 400 not even using any ac. I called DTE and asked someone to come out because there is no way a smaller condo with no ac running would range that high. They said they couldn't get a accurate reading so it was a estimated bill. I refused to pay and they informed me they would be shutting off my power that I had to pay.

So I paid and every Month since my bill has been from 160 to 300.. which is insane it jumped up so much doing same stuff as prior condo with no new bill policy increases.
6 months later I had a email saying I owed 1200 plus current bill for some payment plan.. I never signed up for any plan so I called and they told me I did it that they would never sign us up.. I never did and so I had to pay that which meant every month my bill was really 260 to 400 STILL!

I paid off everything cancelled bill and again after paying all and having a bonus credit of 317 they said I still owed 287 and that credit was used but wouldn't tell me how. So at work I was ### about it.. come to find out everyone was put on that plan and never signed up and had no idea they would owe more..

At this point I have no idea what to do I am almost paying as much in utilities as my rent

I've had a similar situation as others on here with my combined electric/gas bill from DTE. Mind you that I am a truck driver who is often gone every other day so that means no power usage other than what is kept working such as the furnace, fridge, and so on. I also keep the heat on around 70 to sometimes 72. I hear the furnace kick on once an hour or so for about 10 minutes. My November 2013 bill was $113.17 for both electric and heat. My December billing has just come thru and jumped 424% to a whopping $402.94. This is a 2 bedroom 2 bath modular with insulation all over and under the place. This comes after a digital meter reading was added to my property and the comments on my bill show the meter was replaced once on Nov. 26th and another on Nov. 27th. I seriously don't think talking to DTE is going to amount to anything seeing how everyone else has fared. But I am going to anyway come Monday to see how this usage can triple like that. I have owned a 2100 sq ft house and had DTE as my service, and never had a bill over $250 for gas alone. $341 of that $402 is gas by itself btw.

I have a the same similar situation. I paid off my bill it was at zero balance. Then later the same month they said my bill was 293.00 electric alone. They said they added 5 extra days on the bill. I do not trust them cause this is not the only issue i had with them. We need a third party for regulation or another electric power company to see wihat they are doing wrong.

The people in Michigan and surrounding areas are paying close to the same extreme cost for DTE or other named utility providers energy services. DTE has a monopoly over the detroit metro area energy supply acquisition. There is nobody that is competing with DTE in Garden City and my Bills in the winter average 350 and in the summer average $250. I cannot afford such a huge chunk from my SSD and hope that by filing this complaint action can be taken to some way some how either bring in competing business to force DTE to lower rates or make DTE reduce their energy supply costs. DTE rubs it in my face that I am among the 1% that have had the most usage of gas and electric and was subsequently being charged the most.

Just like many above mine is very similar. I also had to call MPSC and ask for help, they had a representative from DTE call me. I went over my bill with her and told her in April I had just gotten my bill paid off for the second time with the help of the emergency relief program for low income family's. I never had to use emergency help before until I moved in this house 3 years ago.
After noticing that I had to ask for help again with a shut off notice, I started going over the gas bill and noticed that some of the months were missing the amount of gas usage. I called DTE and asked that they go over the bill with me, they said that everything was ok and that they just had estimated my payment amount with previous gas usage. I'm frustrated at this point because I know I had just had the bill paid off right before it started getting warm outside.
I called MPSC and asked for help. DTE representative called me and she came to an agreement that it did look like DTE had over charged me. DTE credited me 500 to my account but the bill still did not look like it had been changed any. What they did is simply put it on the bill but did not actually deduct it from the amount, I still owe more than what I believe it should be. I called the rep back and told her that the bill still did not look like it should be. Rep told me that all is good and nothing else could be done, so I said I will file the next step to get help with the problem of my bill. Few hours later she calls back and says; "Oh ! I'm sorry it does look like we do owe you more credit on the bill."
The point of mine is that DTE knows that low income family's can get help with their bills when getting shut off notices, DTE over charges low income family's so they must continue getting help. To me it is not that they are just robbing me but robbing the state as well. State of Michigan really needs to check into this because I'm sure if it's being done to me it's being done to others. I'm not the brightest person when it comes to math but I know when my pockets should not be empty.!

I am about to go though the same thing right now over a new meter, had the new meter about 3 month now and every month since then my bill has gone up over $100. the bill I just got is $511.97 which is %50 higher then last month and %200 higher then last year. Now nothing or no one has changed in the household, so explain to me how my average bill was around $180 to $220 for 3 years straight and since they put the new meter in it just continues to get higher every month. wish there was a way to put in your own meter next to DTE's and see how much they are ripping me off.

I have a wammy!
One of my tenants rented a house from me and signed a lease that they were responsible for the utilities. I gave them 2 week before I disconnected my service with DTE so they had time to transfer the utility. Well my service was disconnected and I assumed the tenant had the utility transferred. I call a couple months after to verify this, and fond out the transfer was not made. I live in NY and to my understanding with the tenant they had electric. I requested that the electric company go by and install the meter for the tenant. Upon going there they realize that the electric was illegally hooked up. This was obviously done by the tenant yet DTE had not charged me over $2500 and there isn't anything I can do about it...I refused to pay it but bot it shows up on my credit repot as a non-payment. They are such incompetent workers and instead of thanking me for resolving the issue they turn around ad charge me for it... TOTAL BS!

we all need to stick together there is strength in numbers I have a video of there smart meter messing up that i have sent to several people so dte cant swipe it lol so feel free to call me [protected] I have 2 organizations backing me up and I will not quit until they admit they are wrong my story simple i moved into a hud house 3 months ago i had a house the same size i save all my bills i even have records for the past 5 years well first month 128.00 normal second month 135 normal third month they wants 1600 dollars and by there own stupid admission put me on a payment program and think they are going to put this on my perfect credit if they do they are liable for a defamation of character suit so you folks need to call me we need to band together and make them bend over like they have made others bend over no one and i mean NO ONE TAKES FOOD OUT OF MY KIDS MOUTH especially dte...

OMG this is the EXACT thing that happened to me.
They initially refused to turn the gas and electricity into my name at a mobile home I was about to rent. My landlord sent over multiple copies of the previous tenants bill. At the time I was the only one in the home and worked 3 jobs. One day they send someone out to change out the meter, but before he does he recalculates the bill and drops a $500.00 bill on me and is was to be paid in 3 days. each month the bill would be about 200+ even with none of the appliances really being used as no one was there. I spoke to my landlord who explained that because my home was built in 2016 there was no way possible my bill should be that high. She said her home was built in the 90's and she runs her air conditioning all day long and her bill is never over 100 for electricity. She said this was the case for almost all tenants and it was definitely a mistake. I called back and DTE refused to help me, shut my gas and electricity off in October the colder part of the month. I believe they dropped the previous tenants bill on me, as when I called I had one woman explain that the KMH had dropped from 16000 to 3000 in less than three weeks which is proof that the meter was misreading but since the meter had been swapped out already they refused to look into. The swapped the meter out right after dropping that bill on me. I'm still working hard to get it done. Now I kinda feel as if DTE is retaliating against me as I can't even log into my DTE account to see the bill or changes to account. I can't make online payments. And each time I call in the representative is extremely rude. If there was no need to use DTE I promise I wouldn't it's not like having cable or switching phone carriers.

I purchased my home in Redford July, 10th 2015. I enrolled in the Budget Wise Billing plan. My payments were $205 a month. After they did the re-evaluation, my payments went up to $265, still reasonable I thought. I have a 1400 sq. ft. bungalow, I run 3 window air units in the Summer and I hate cold so my heat is always around 72. My windows are from 1952, so I know that has an impact. At the end of 2016, beginning of 2017 they sent me a letter stating my monthly payments would be around $367. I called to inquire about why they would be so high and they said because I used more than I was paying, so it's averaged out and the end of the year and the payments are adjusted based on what I currently use, and what my previous balance. The DTE representative recommended I enroll in the "income based repayment plan" I bring home maybe $1600 a month, I receive food assistance. I enroll and my payment is $422! I do not understand how that's income based, my DTE is $100 shy of my mortgage! In the middle of July I receive a notice my DTE is in collections, they claim I missed my June payment. I have bank statements showing payments in the amount of $422 for April, May, June and July. I ask what can I do to do get off this plan and get lower payments. They stated because I received a shut-off notice, I would need to pay my remaining balance of $2, 800! I NEVER MISSED A PAYMENT OR RECEIVED A SHUTOFF NOTICE, EVER ...I'm currently waiting for an "investigator at DTE" to call me back with more details, cause I clearly don't understand. They also took it upon themselves to enroll me in email billing, I have not saw a bill since 2016. I called three different times trying to get a bill in my mailbox, still waiting

To whon my concern I been make my complaints about kay and cheriday they two manager who was charged for customers assistant for DTE energy for they past two weeks I been calling then regarding my bill was over charged for $700.00 every mouth to $3462.68 this is very very unfair for DTE to do that for I very small bussines, My name is Fassery Diabate my address is 21308 w mcnichols Rd Detroit MI 48219 my Account number [protected] 3 my phone number is [protected] thanks

I am a widow on a fixed income of $958.00 a month, I am unable to afford to get my furnace fixed, I had DTE cut my Gas service off in my basement. They had came out a put a device on my gas meter that I was being charged $10.00 a month for. Now that the service was off I was able to pay my two hundred and something gas bill off, I called DTE to restore the gas service so that I can get my furnace fixed and I was told that my service was cut at the street and I had to pay a three hundred dollar deposit. My gas service was not behind or in the shut off position. I asked them to cut it off in my basement they came to my home and cut it from the street for no reason. Now I have to use room heaters because I don't have enough money to pay a deposit. Then in February of last year I asked DTE to send my bills to my daughters address due to my bills were open when I get them, and that's not right. It took 5 months for them to send a bill and I was on the shut off protection plan, and I was paying my bill monthly because I knew the amount that I was supposed to pay, when I got my bill it went from nine hundred dollars to 15 hundred dollars, how when I was paying my bill?. I am so tired of DTE. That I am getting a propane heater put in to help cut this electric bill. It's real bad the way that DTE is doing people, I am thinking about getting a motor home for the winter months to live in to really cut the cost of the electric bills. DTE, DON"T CARE ABOUT US THEY WANT TO CHARGE US WHAT THEY WANT TO AND IF WE DON'T PAY OUR SERVICE IS CUT OFF. I'm going to the media with my story and put them on the news. Because DTE is wrong they Kick people when they are down. I want to get off of the grid. Audrey Austin

Basically having the same issues with DTE. I moved from a 2-story 1600 sq ft condo where my highest bill was $130 (thermostat at 73 in the winter). I now live in a 1100 sq ft apt (thermostat at 64) and my bill for January 2018 was $320. I work from 1p-11p every day and I’m the only occupant. I called DTE and they told me it was because there was 5 extra days in the billing cycle. My December bill was $190 and I was away on vacation for a week. How can 5 days make a bill go from $190 to $320? Both bills are too high for a family of 1 gone 10hrs out of the day in a much smaller apartment. HELP PLEASE!

We are a family of 7 living in a cute 1, 400 square foot house that we had bought just over a year ago. We always had a dream of starting a homestead that we could hopefully open up to our community to learn on and maybe even take in a couple children who needed a place to live. We believed in this dream so much that we started to foster children and adopted 2 girls in 2018. Everything was going amazing! New house that we started to renovate and fix up.

Then something as simple as an electric bill changed it all. The first few bills we thought were a fluck so we decided to start updating appliances. New hot water heater, new kitchen appliances. The bill just kept going up. So we had over 20 electricians come threw. All said that it was a mess but it was functional and couldn’t pin point any problem to see why it would be that high.

See here is a small brake down of our house. It’s only 1, 400 square feet give or take. We have all brand new appliances and I mean they are ALL new! Fridge, dishwasher, microwave, hot water heater, washer and dryer! Anything that might have been a problem we didn’t want to chance it so we we replaced it. We do NOT have Ac. We do NOT have heat. We heat with a none electric wood burner in the living room. There are two TVs and they are off 90% of the time and unplugged. We don’t have any gaming systems for the kids. The only thing plugged in is our appliances and 4 phone chargers that get unplugged durning the day. Simple right. We love a simple life. Electric bill still came in around $400-$500 a month! We drained our resources even more and put in all new windows and a roof. It needed to be done anyway. Still more high electric bills. We have almost exhausted all our options now. we even go as far as higher a company and have solar panels put in. Guess who is now not having them turned on. We are waiting on approval from DTE

Around August of 2018 after much complaining and heartache DTE sends out someone to look at everything. He changes the meter and goes on his way. Our bills finally start to come down. Way down! We are so thrilled and happy! November 2018 I even get a letter saying someone is coming to read the meter. Great. I have to show them where it is because it’s not on the house but on a may pole by the barn. This happens for three more months. Everyone who comes to read it I have to show them where it is. Bills are still low and reasonable.

Then in March we get hit with a $2, 600. 00 bill. We call to see how this is possible. They tell us that the bills all the way to last August are just estimates and are wrong so they are back charging us $400 a month all the way to last August. We have to pay this on top of our current bills coming in that are now back up to $500 a month. At this point our life is a nightmare. This company owns us. We can’t spend a single dime or do anything because of fear of not having money to pay them.

For the past month I have been turning off all the electric completely and living like that for 11 hours a day. Even when the electric is on we are keeping the hot water heater off and turning it on ever other day to make sure the kids are bathed. This is how I have been living my life! On top of getting threats every other day to have our power shut off. They have even gone as far as accusing us of growing illegal substances.

Two weeks ago we had someone else from DTE come to check the meter again because of all the complaining we have been doing. He says right to my face and to another witness here admitting there was a problem with the meter. That it wasn’t installed correctly and wasn’t programmed right. The first meter that they had replaced wasn’t programmed right either according to the first DTE worker. I almost cried in relief! It wasn’t our fault! We we quickly called up DTE and wanted to work this out!

Last week we get a call back from them that there is nothing they are willing to do. We are still responsible for the $2, 600 back charges, and to add insult to injury they are fining us additional cost for the late fees on the back charged and to fix the broken meter. Our bill jumped from $2, 600 to $3, 700 in less then a month. They are now threatening to shut us off if it’s not paid by the 26th of this month. All our dreams are crashing because of this company. We have spent all our resources to fix this problem over the past year and now we have nothing left but our tears. We can’t afford keep doing this on top of keeping up with our normal bills, which we are falling behind on because of this. We are going to loose everything because of an electric company!

Everything we have worked so hard for.

We went threw the proper channels and files a formal complaint. After waiting 10 days I get an email, not a call, that our claim was denied. Our bills have been $500 since 2015! We haven’t lived here since 2015. Your can’t base things off of that. Their are so many variables that would change a bill.

The old owners use to grow pot in three of their buildings, plus restored and worked on old tractors which took a lot of power. I believe their bills would have been $500 because they grew pot plus resorted tractors. That’s accurate. But since we have lived here we have disconnected all their growing equipment (which included over 20 grow and drying lights) we have also turned off power to two of the building completely up until one months ago. So with two building off and no more pot equipment it’s just not adding up. Plus throw in all our new appliances to get rid of the owners old 1960 appliances. Again it’s not adding up or making sense that they got billed $500 with all their old stuff and over 20+ grow lights PLUS what ever other equipment they needed to use to grown their stuff. Why would we still be charged that rate! Plus we have had this new meter for 4 weeks not and the usage hasn’t even touched what you claim it dose. Their is no way our bill is $500. More like $260 which is still high because we have been trying to test what the new meter would read by running the house like normal or even pushing it by over running things in the house to find a spike . But I guess I am back to turning the power off today 😕 also don’t forget that the worker in March when he changes the meter admitted their was something wrong with the meter. This almost shows me that our bills all the way back to the ends of 2017 are wrong all together, not just the past 6-7 months.

Signed a very very scared and sick mom and wife who is afraid she is going to loose everything because of this.

Dte sucks. They are charging me almost 500 this month when my bill has been around 220-260. June 7th I got an email stating they couldnt get a read on it and someone come out last week and fixed it. So this is 100% estimated. They told me they are going off of last years July bill which was that high because we were running a pool and air conditioner 24/7. We obviously knew we couldnt afford that right now so we havent been running any of it. Our bill had been pretty consistent in the 200s for months now. They wont do anything about it and send me tips and tell me my cooling system is causing the high bill when I dont have a freaking cooling system. They like ripping people off. They clearly knew my meter was jacked up and nothing was done about it for weeks. Now I'm paying almost 2 months worth of electric and being forced to pay it or get disconnected. Way to screw people over dte. If I could go with anyone else I would.