Good day,


I have had disastrous run ins with RGE. From High energy bills they can’t explain to outright sending people to my home and trespassing on my property to make unauthorized changes.


Recently I had to send a letter of trespass to Grid One who contracts with RGE. They called the night before the Smart Meter install to let us know, per the voicemail, they would be visiting our area in “the next few days” to install smart meters and if we weren’t home they would let us reschedule at our convenience. That’s not what happened. They showed up the followeing morning while I was working very early. While I was working, from home, I heard my doorbell go off and before I could even get to the door I walked outside to find one of Grid Ones employees in my back yard. They had pushed past my gate and fence blocking the area and past the no trespassing sign clearly displayed directly in their face. I asked the gentleman to please leave my property I didn’t agree to any of this and he is trespassing. He shrugged and said “I’m almost done” clearly I had no choice. He had pulled my meter off and replaced it already. I said please finish and remove yourself from the property after.


I contacted the city including our neighborhood service center, the police, and the presiding Lieutenant over the area of our neighborhood service center. I was told by multiple people that are supposed to represent our area that the will not pursue RGE and admonish them. I spent 2k of my own money drafting a letter of trespass with a lawyer to Grid One and RGE and after speaking with them they agreed it was handled incorrectly. The technician was let go and they are retraining their employees.


I had to spend hours of my time and my own money standing up for my own rights as a homeowner and the city sat idle (This wasn’t the first time)


I am extremely disappointed with how Mayor Malik Evans and his flunkies in city council refuse to stand up for Rochester citizens and protect their rights as homeowners.


When are our elected officials going to start addressing the concerns of property owners in Rochester? WE are the city. WE put them where they are. THEY are there because WE allow it.


Take back your city Rochester. Your elected officials need to be reminded who they work for.

Where do I even begin to talk about how stressful it’s been dealing with RG&E… When we first moved back to Rochester we briefly rented an apartment in the city. We were there for two months and somehow spent $1000 on utilities. This makes absolutely no sense, because the two months were September and October and the house did not have an HVAC system at the time. in fact, it didn’t even have a stove. The only electricity we were using was a refrigerator, the lights, and an occasional fan. There were no gas appliances. It seems that they were doing estimates, but when we moved out, the bill was so convoluted that there was no way for us to get any money back. I moved on because I was excited to move into our newly purchased home. We didn’t have any issues with the utility bills for the first year, but after we electrified our home and turned off gas service all of our bills got messed up. They didn’t bill us for about four months, Then of course, sent us a huge bill and immediately threatened to turn our power off. They told us we should have just paid a random amount of money while waiting for our bill to show up. We called repeatedly so ask them to bill us and no one suggested this until we got that threatening letter. After that, our bills have been unpredictable and hard to trust. Customer service takes forever to answer the phone and they are incredibly rude. Luckily, my partner and I live below our means so when can afford a huge surprise bill, but many people can’t. But my biggest complaint is that RG&E is making no effort outside of what is mandated to move away from fossil fuels. National Grid is offering huge incentives for households that switch to geothermal or a heat pump. RG&E only offers what is required of them, and would certainly stop doing that if they were allowed to. We need a public utility to support our local economy and move us towards a renewable future. There is no reason our region should be paying so much more for energy than the rest of the country.

My spouse and I live in a home that’s been turned into 2 apartments. Since being there the past 2 1/2 years, our RG&E bill has ranged from $90 to $650 depending on the month. The cost for HALF a house’s power. It’s resorted to us being hyper-vigilant about how we live and overcompensating in order to lower our bill, despite the fact that we have nothing extravagant going on in our home that could begin to warrant such erratic and high bills. Shouldn’t we deserve to use our lights, stay warm with our heat, use our oven without constantly looking over our shoulder, afraid that we’ll have to compromise the way we use basic necessities in order to afford the bills next month? I’m sure some would call me unreasonable, but they would be ignoring the fact that RG&E has been taking advantage of people who have no choice but to be subject to their parasitic tactics. For many in the Rochester community, their survival is controlled by a company who have no problem bleeding their customers dry. I have no doubt that a change would be welcome by all.

I moved from one apartment to the other in November. I called them and requested a start service at my new place and stop at the old. They continue to bill me for my old building even though i have called since to tell them I’m no longer there. They’re now threatening to shut off service. I don’t live there anymore and i can’t get a straight answer of what to do from anyone that works there. This business is the absolute worst.

I moved in to my condo at the beginning of the year. It has a smart meter, and in the last two months, my energy bill has skyrocketed. For keeping a 1500 sq ft condo at 66 degrees when out, and 68 degrees when at home, and using no out-of-the-ordinary appliances, I was billed at 2600 kWh for the month of February, the shortest month of the year. This resulted in a $500+ bill. I have been asking them to remove my smart meter since January 23rd, but they have not scheduled, canceled, and not shown up to any appointments for removing the smart meter. With no transparency, they appear to be giving me the run around, hoping that I just give up and roll over to give them money.

I been with RGE for many years. I never been behind or not made my monthly payment. For the last few months i been having issues where they charge me 3x of their mistake to pay double bills. They were not sending any one out to do meter readings. So i just will pay what they was sending me thinking its there job to make sure theres accurate readings. I brought my home and out of nowhere i owe 900$ bc they was estimating me low. Then recently same issue only thing is i started submitting my readings and even so one of there employees put in my gas reading n not my electric thinking everything good when my bill came In to once again they made a mistake n estimated me to low bc they didnt put in the meter readings i gave them. So now im being charged there mistake n next month bringing me up to 644$. I dont agree that we should be responsible for a mistake on their behalf. They have workers that should be

Consistently reading the meters we shouldn’t have any estimates being thats been being the issue. Also if the mistake was on there behalf we should get honor what we payed n not have to be rebilled for there issue. Rge just been stealing our money any way they can and i wish i didnt have to use them as my home electric and gas company. There horrible!

your society is just abject terror to us.


Maintaining the land… was supposed to be your e-z step, not more redlining with OUR bloodlines here?


That’s always the easiest step of any celestial garden of queer folk-lore


why do you just love making more price go more up-pities for the lands we grow?

I had been living in my apartment with my boyfriend for 8 months at this time. We have never been behind in paying our RG&E bill. We set up automated payments to ensure that we do pay it consecutively. One Monday at 5pm I had just got home from work and posted on our door was a note from RG&E stating that they had turned off our power due to not paying our bill after reminding us to do so. Mind you, there had been no reminders or emails/calls about us missing our payments. After calling atleast 10x and leaving messages we finally get someone on the other line looking over our account and come to find out we DID pay our bill RG&E just didn’t want to process it on there end. They didn’t seem apologetic about it at all and no one came to turn everything back on until 10pm. I didn’t know how long the food in our fridge had been sitting without power so of course naturally I had to get rid of things also causing frustration after just going grocery shopping. As well as needing to find a place to stay prior to the power being put back on.

I lived in an apt on the budget billing plan for a little over a year. After move out they sent me a bill for $1600. When I inquired they stated they severely undercharged for the year + that I resided at the apt. I went away to college and when I came home 2 years later I received a bill from a debt collector stating I needed to pay $1600. I was terrified to have bad credit so young so I paid the debt collector. Years later I went to RGE to start service at a new apt and they told me I owed them $1600. I told them I did not, and explained who/what/how I paid. They insisted I did not, and that I needed to give them $800 to start service. I can only surmise my information was part of the 2012 RGE data breach, to which they assumed zero responsibility.

I own a local business downtown. RGE did not send us a bill from November 2023 to June of 2024. When we finally received the bill for 7 months of service we were only given 30 days to pay it back. When we could not immediately afford the several thousand dollar bill, they threatened shut off. They are making it impossible to sustain a small business.

RG&E billed me for a made up number estimate on gas charges. After living in a two bedroom apartment for 4 years, with no access to the meters due to landlord issues, RG&E hit me up with $600+ for gas utilities. They claim this was to make up for years of estimated charges due to inaccessible meters. Which, again, I was not able to provide to them due to an irresponsible absent landlord.


Along with that, they said a technician was able to access the meter and make this “actual” reading. However, they still billed me for inability to access the meter.


While disputing this with them they sent my final bill + their “estimate” to collections. I was unable to settle this and now have a bill in collections because they’re looking to make a cash grab through deceptive and misleading billing practices.

Been living in Rochester for over 4 years, never had an issue with RG&E before this year. I moved to a new apartment & kept waiting for them to email me a bill, but since there was a credit from my old place that covered the first few months I honestly thought they just weren’t billing me yet and would send me my bill once the credit was all used up. Four months in, they just mailed me a letter threatening they would shut my power off if J didn’t send them approx. 300 dollars…my monthly bill was around 50. I double checked my inbox and our mail and we never recieved a single bill from them before this letter. They have my address and email on file, and I have the setting on for eBills. Thankfully I’m in a position that I could pay that off, but it was still a stretch for us and frankly highly unethical they wouldn’t send my bill, just wait to send the threatening letter two weeks before the shutoff date. I told them right then and there as I paid their ridiculous fees that this situation is exactly why I support the switch to a public utility.

They were not reading meter in backyard claiming they can not access meter called and they finally read meter sent me a 1700 bill

I had a smart meter for our electric service installed but due to past billing issues with RG&E’s gas service I refused the gas smart meter. I’ve lived in my house for a little over a year and have already experienced multiple billing issues with the gas meter. There are times I send in a reading and I don’t receive a bill, and when I call I’m told it’s because the reading was “too low.” When I ask for clarification, they tell me they didn’t accept my gas reading because it’s lower than the previous month’s reading. What does this mean? That they won’ calculate a bill unless the usage is at or above the previous month’s??


When I moved out of my apartment in July 2023, I received a bill for almost $1,000 for the place despite my account being up to date. When I called I was told I was being billed to “make up for years of estimates,” which makes zero sense to me. I sent in readings, and usually nobody was home when the meter reader came (because we work days). I was also paying for the new tenants’ service despite requesting a shut off and transfer. I opened a case with the PSC and they ruled in RG&E’s favor. I have no idea how their billing practices are acceptable.

Make it sense 5,9996.62 current past due 5,694.41 302.21 due on 10/10/24 They have a bill for 320.55 service @ 22 Renwood St. 4,364.84 5 Taylor Street fast forward total balance 5,996.62 and they sold my information to a credit collector RGE needs to go .

RGE was "approved for a %16 percent increase in 2023 over a 3 year period. In less than 6 months- Our Fee per “watts” has increased %39.2

Electric Delivery Fee RGE – Nov 14,023 – per kwh .05308

Electric Delivery Fee June 24, 2024 (six months) kwh .07388

It’s not easy translating decimals in terms of fractions…

a 0.0280 increase would appear small.

You can use a percentage calculator – but to understand easier 5 going up to 7 is like 10 going up to 14 – %40 increase.

Despite my mother having recent insulation improvements by Halco, her electricity for AC and additional heating has sky rocketed, blowing her budget by over over 250 this Summer.

An incredible unexpected burden.

Sept. 12, 2024


REPORT TO METRO JUSTICE ABOUT RG&E INEPTITUDES


Re: RG&E Upgrade


When I returned from an August vacation there were several calls from RG&E about the upgrade. I also had a letter from RG&E asking me to call about this, which I did. I was told someone would be getting back to me and that I did not need to do anything else.


Today a similar letter came, I made the call and the person answering took down the information and said there was nothing else to be done, that someone would be calling me. When I told her that’s the same thing I had heard two weeks ago she transferred me to another RG&E telephone number, telling me that the number I called (866-734-3821) was no longer handling this matter. She also told me that the gas meter had been changed but that there was a screw loose somewhere and that I should give that information to the next person I talked with. After waiting a while the next agent asked for all the same information, said the monthly opt-out fee had already been put into effect and she would have to see if she could change it back. She also said I’d have to call another number about the loose screw. I told her I was not prepared to do that – if someone had reported a loose screw it was their responsibility to fix it – not for me to inform them of that again. The agent was away for a while and when she returned said that it all had been taken care of and that I would be hearing from someone within two weeks. When I told her that is what I had been told earlier today and also two weeks ago she simply repeated what she had said.


Gail Mott

288 Melrose St.

Rochester, NY 14619

Posted but burried on reddit as well: Looking for both advice and maybe legal advice as well if anyone knows someone. Maybe some of you are also looking into this as well.


Try this. They sent me a bill for over 4k this month. I called about it. They said it was an issue and would ifx it and call me back. They never did. So, I called constellation. Theybsaid rge canceled my last 8 bills (7 already paid) and then just pretty much said the 4 meter reads their techs did were all lies so they had to adjust it in the office to fit their narrative. They said this in different words, but they pretty much said it. Took us 3 hours and 4-5 “disconnections” today alone to speak with whoever the hell “Mr. Wright” is. Apparently he’s the big cheese in the Binghamton call center? Don’t know how we can’t just make an appointment at the local offices to speak with someone in person.


Anyways, this man cut me off at every turn of the corner and wouldn’t answer my questions, would gonoff in a tangent about some other non issue on our bill. When I would repeat the question he would say he’s not going over it again and diligently tried to get us to start a payment plan. This is all after a month of calling to figure this out. Every time we called the bills were further altered and more convoluted. Like sending a bill from them and constellation then considering it late, compiling the bill as a forwarded balance and sending it as a new bill. Truth is, they claim we have owed constellation hundreds of dollars every month. Constellation, on the other hand says that, other than the most recent/ disputed bill, we haven’t ever owed them more than like 104 a month. They were shocked because on the new bills that rge corrected (after 4 actual in person reads that I was there for) represented that in the last 6 months we somehow used the exact same amount of energy every other month. How that is possible is an anomaly to me. Like to the exact kwh.


Remember, all of these bills were canceled and reissued the same day I spoke to them on the phone about this for the first time.


I have almost every phone call recorded with conflicting information. I have almost every paper bill. I have video footage of their agents in my yard taking the meter readings that they now say we’re never taken. This is amongst other evidence and proof. Not tonwear a tin foil hat or anything…


I wish you all the best.

I moved into an apartment in October of 2022. It is a duplex, of which I had the top half. I paid RG&E reliably even though some of the numbers certainly seemed off – bill hikes even though we no longer were using an in-window AC unit, seemingly random KW hour bumps, etc. All was the usual level of frustration and inconsistency fitting with their reputation until late 2023, when I was slapped with an over $1,500 bill.


They had not checked the meter since summer of 2021, over a year before I moved in and insisted that I was liable for the previous tennent’s fees. It is important to note that the meter is not accessible to us, as it is in the basement and therefore in our downstairs neighbors’ rented space. It took numerous hours on the phone, multiple refusals of their default setting “Sorry, there’s nothing I can do, you’re just going to have to pay”, and finally getting a manager to admit that it was not fair for me to pay for someone else’s year of electricity overages for them to only make me pay a part of the total. I was still peeved, but content that I wasn’t footing all of the bill on an entry-level 20yr old’s income. Less than a month later I was hit with another huge bill, not coincidentally, stating it was from right when I moved in and they had missed it for over a year?… yeah, sure.


I know how scary debt can be, so I will always pay what I owe before budgeting for groceries and fun. My wardrobe is mostly hand-me-downs and work provided polos, we don’t go out more than monthly, and the only thing we regularly splurge on is higher-end dog food, but that’s $80 over the course of a few weeks. I have never missed a payment for RG&E, nor any other major bills like insurance, rent, T-Mobile, or my car, so I just don’t understand how this can happen. Their monopoly over Rochester and surrounding areas needs to be broken. If I can impart any advice to those looking to move here, make sure your home is supplied by Fairport Electric – the area is on the rise and rent may be climbing so I wish you luck, but it’s certainly worth it to be RG&E free.

The billing issues with RGE began last fall when I moved to a new address. I was/am happy to be in a place where I can now read the meter myself as opposed to the building where I lived previously.


My father worked for RGE for over 30 years before he retired in 1994. He started as a meter reader and then spent the remainder of his career in customer service at the main office on East Avenue. I share this information when I contact RGE about billing errors, because I want it to be clearly understood that I KNOW how a.) to read a meter and how b.) customers are supposed to be treated. I learned both things from my father as well as his former RGE co-workers.


Now it seems as though there is little to no accountability when it comes to generating accurate bills or to correcting costly billing errors. After months and months and months of repeated complaints to RGE (in-person, via email, and telephone), I was finally issued a $400+ credit to my account that I cannot yet say covers the full extent of overpayments due to billing errors since September of last year.


I am certain the only reason I received the credit is because I read the meter myself every month, and when I do, I take a photo of both gas and electric meters as well as a screenshot of the reading that I actually submit online to RGE, both before and after I hit “Enter.” Doing so has created consistent irrefutable documentation of my actual monthly energy usage that comes in handy like it did recently when RGE over-billed me, yet again, by 1020 kWh.


I suspect the fact that I also cc’d Congressman Morelle’s office in on the last email to RGE helped, that and the fact that I made a point of mentioning my conversation with a member of the Congressman’s staff concerning the ongoing issues with billing during my most recent telephone conversation with an RGE customer service representative.


Yesterday RGE installed “smart meters” at the house that are supposed to give me “more control over [my] monthly bills.” Somehow, I know that, despite the new meters, RGE will still manage to over-bill me and others. With that in mind, I have no intention of changing my monthly practice of reading the meters myself, capturing images, and calculating actual usage to keep RGE in check.

I moved out of a residence a little over a year ago. I was going through a lot at that point with my employer at the time going through bankruptcy and adjusting to living at a new place. As time went on I forgot altogether about RG&E because they NEVER sent me a final bill or tried to contact me at any point. Imagine the anger when I received a bill from a collection agency a few days ago. NYS PSC needs to strip Avangrid / RG&E of their franchise in Rochester and give it to National Grid.

I moved out of a residence a little over a year ago. I was going through a lot at that point with my employer at the time going through bankruptcy and adjusting to living at a new place. As time went on I forgot altogether about RG&E because they NEVER sent me a final bill or tried to contact me at any point. Imagine the anger when I received a bill from a collection agency a few days ago. NYS PSC needs to strip Avangrid / RG&E of their franchise in Rochester and give it to National Grid.

I am a public school teacher and I had always chosen budget billing to keep my utility costs consistent and predictable during the summer months when I don’t have income. But in the past year, billing has been completely inconsistent. And even though I have autopay set up and money keeps being taken from my account, when I check online I get messages about being at risk for losing budget billing for missed payments (even though I’m not being charged my budget billing amount, or on consistent days of the mont). I constantly worry that I’m going to miss payments or get hit with a huge bill out of nowhere. RG&E outsourcing their business office and billing has been a disaster and people with no other options are stuck with unreliable service and being taken advantage of in a way that shows RG&E is no longer invested in serving the people of Rochester.

Extremely inconsistent billing. Often receive bills twice in one month and then nothing for two months. I have turned on auto pay multiple times to help make sure I don’t miss these spiritic bills. Then autopay is randomly shut off for no reason and now I have missed payments. I have bills that show multiple months of usage on one bill. I have called and messaged about tree limbs on lines and lines that have been pulled off my house and no response at all.

They have stolen more than 25 thousand dollars from me and I want it back.

In December 2023, RGE read my gas meter. It is now April 12, 2024. I took a picture of my meter and went to call in the numbers. The woman that I spoke with told me that that must not be right. She said they had me at using 85 and now I’m at 1100(More than a years worth of heat)

I told her that I had been reading my meter for the majority of the last 25 years and that I knew that I was reading it accurately, but that that was completely impossible. I have one gas furnace, and one hot water heater and no other gas appliances, I keep my heat at 68 or below at all times I always have.

Having that picture of my meter I thought was going to protect me and now I see that I am actually hurting myself by simply giving them an accurate picture. I Have no idea where to turn at this point By her calculations I will owe thousands of dollars and I could not pay this if I wanted to.

Like many of you I am scared and confused how they are able to get away with this.

I’m trying to be proactive. I don’t know what else to do.

We never had any problems with RG&E until about Three months ago. We began receiving Bills back to back. For an example we received a bill that due April 18th today we received a another bill that due for April 22th. Last month we spoke to a customer service rep who told us it was a billing error and that it would be fix. We are seniors and live on fix incomes we can’t afford to pay for double bills which are extremely higher than previous bills. I would like to add for years I read my meter and never had a problem until they installed the smart meters.

Feb. Gas Bill is to HIGH!!!

I always use my phone to photograph my meter readings before I submit them. I don’t track their values month to month. I just submit them. On average my winter gas usage is around 170 therms 200 max. When I go the last build it stated I used 1200 therms, which is almost equivalent of what I used for all of last year. Reviewing the photographs I see that the January reading was 9795 while the February reading was 0995. We only use gas for heating the home , on demand hot water, and stove top cooking. Is it possible that there was a mechanical failure at rollover and the middle two digits never zeroed out? We had done nothing different during that time period to cause the usage of that much gas.

Unfortunately I now have a new, personal challenging RG&E meter read-billing error story about being overcharged for multiple apartments in January 2024, and still not resolved in April 2024.

The typical monthly bill in one apartment in our owner-occupied house where I am one of the landlords and hold the account, was overcharged 8+ times, $350 instead of $35-$45. Another apartment was overcharged 4+ times, and another apartment, was not billed because of meter reading discrepancies. All these errors because the field staff person reading the meter read many or all of our meters incorrectly, ugh! I always read the meters and send them every month, but the RGE staff person overrides my readings for billing!

Would you share my story, RG&E quick to bill and slow or hesitant to refund? You know, that is my error, RG&E would likely have quickly sent a shut off notice!

Thank you for supporting the effort to find a study for a public utility!

Sincerely -Ed

I moved out of an apartment in June of 2022. I paid all of my bills, and everything was normal. I confirmed with my landlord that everything was as it should be as far as all the utilities. In September of 2023, I got a letter from a collections agency for an unpaid utility at that old address for the month of August 2022, after I had moved out. I had no letters calls emails or anything from RGE or the landlord prior to that, so it was quite a surprise. I tried talking to RGE or the collections agency for a long time, but it was just too insufferable and I eventually just paid the collections. So I got an unpaid utility on my credit and I had to pay an extra months gas and electric for a time where I didn’t even live there, and it was effectively impossible to contact anybody about the error.