Woe with hydro
I do not yet have a smart meter, but that may be better than dealing with current BC Hydro representatives.
I returned from five months away to an April BC Hydro bill for my shop for over $1,000. As the shop had been shut down and all breakers off except minimal heat, this was exorbitant. The February reading had resulted in a bill of just over $100; a realistic amount. Upon reading the meter, the fault was obviously a meter reading error, easy to correct. Or so I thought.
Just try to contact BC Hydro. There is no way to contact a person on any of their listed phone numbers, and their e-mails do onto even get the courtesy of an acknowledgement of receipt, never mind a reply.
To contact BC Hydro, we the consumers, have to contact our MLA and have him contact the company on our behalf. This I find to be an interesting and curious use of our political representative.
Finally contacted by a BC Hydro representative, I was informed that the usage was correct, and that I was misreading the meter. The lady also went through the usual list of why the usage was realistic and dismissed all contrary information given her. She was not interested in solving the problem, only interested in BC Hydro being right.
Our system is terribly out of control when our government-owned Crown corporation hides from its customers and will only respond to political pressure on everyday matters. This is further complicated when the company disseminates incorrect information. I shudder to think of what will transpire when our refusals of the smart meters is ignored.
Jeff Hale
Parksville
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