PARMA, Ohio — A man who manages his small family business in Parma reached out to News 5 Investigators after getting a big electric bill.
David Fesz says their average bill at SVF Sales went from a few hundred dollars to a couple thousand dollars in October.
He says he thinks the problem stems from a meter that wasn't working right.
Fesz says he is trying to keep the lights on at the business that’s been in his family for decades.
"It's internet, it's everything we do, we get orders, it's how we contact our freight companies,” said Fesz.
Fesz says when four electric bills came in from the Illuminating Company on the same day, including one for more than $2,200, he thought something was a little weird.
"I know that the bills are typically in the two to three hundred dollar range,” said Fesz.
He started digging into past bills and says there were two estimated readings last year and six in a row this year.
"The long of the short of it is we're about 20,000-kilowatt hours above where we normally would be due to estimated readings,” said Fesz.
At the company warehouse, Fesz comes in every day, and he turns on the lights and turns them off when closing up shop.
He says nothing has changed in 20 years other than replacing them with LEDs.
"No new equipment, no new machinery, nothing. It's all the same,” said Fesz.
He went to the source, a digital meter, and snapped some photos.
"The digital part was screwed up where it was flashing almost everything it could so you could not read the meter,” said Fesz.
He says they called the Illuminating Company to let them know about a discrepancy, and days later, he says the meter was replaced.
As far as the big bill, Fesz says he was told it went before an internal review committee.
"That committee came back and said quote 'there's nothing we can do it is what it is.' Basically, 'pay us,'” said Fesz.
Fesz contacted News 5 Investigators.
"You feel useless, and I reached out and you're here and hopefully you can help us out,” said Fesz.
FirstEnergy says it recently installed a new electric meter at the business and tests all electric meters before they’re installed to make sure they’re accurate.
Meter readers make every attempt to get actual readings each month and when they can’t, they estimate usage based on previous bills. Any difference is automatically adjusted at the next reading.
Fesz says he did ante up $400 to avoid ceasing normal operations.
"This is a big chunk, this is several months of payment that we budget and where's that money coming from? My kid's mouth?” Fesz said.
A FirstEnergy spokesperson said a customer support representative would be in touch with the business to discuss a bill adjustment.
FirstEnergy says customers aren’t being overcharged, rather, simply receiving a larger bill to make up for usage they were not billed for during months with lower estimated readings.
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