SOUTH THOMASTON (NEWS CENTER Maine) – If you had sticker shock after looking at your latest power bill, you aren’t alone.
The NEWS CENTER Now team heard from several people concerned about CMP bills coming in at double, sometimes triple the price.
Vickie Johnson of South Thomaston has been a CMP customer for 38 years. She’s on the company’s SimplePay program, a consistent budgeting program that charges customers the same amount each month based on their average usage.
Johnson was thrown for a loop when she received two bills within a week of each other in January – one for $212, her normal bill, and one for $424.
Johnson says she is meticulous about paying her bills every month. “I just go through the pile, write the checks, and send ‘em out,” she said.
She posted to Midcoast Message Board, a popular Facebook forum for her community. She discovered several other people were experiencing similar problems.
It turns out Johnson never received her December bill until the beginning of January – that first $212 bill. The second bill, for $424, reflected both that December balance and her January bill.
A CMP spokesperson says the billing mix-up the result of a new customer care system launched this fall. It caused a hiccup in many customers’ billing cycles – and for the 500 customers on that SimplePay plan, bills were intentionally delayed for a few weeks to make sure they were accurate.
Customers did not receive warning that their bills would be delayed – which explains the confusion when many received two bills in a short period of time.
Various customers online speculated multiple reasons why bills were spiking.
Some customers thought CMP had raised rates. Spokesperson Gail Rice says prices have not changed.
Others thought CMP was sneakily charging extra to pay for damages and overtime during the October windstorm, which left hundreds of thousands in the dark. Rice says this is not true. “We have not begun to recover costs related to the October wind and rain storm,” she explained.
Rice says electric bills tend to be higher in winter months, particularly after a cold snap. “This is especially true for those who heat with electricity, but even customers who don’t use electricity for heat will often experience higher usage and consequently, higher bills,” she explained. “This may be because people use more lights for longer periods due to fewer daylight hours; more time is spent indoors; and there is more frequent cycling of heat and hot water systems, which need electricity to run.”
If you are a CMP customer with questions, you can find answers on CMP’s website here. You can also call 1.800.750.4000 and speak to a representative. Spokesperson Gail Rices says call volumes have been heavy “as everyone adjusts to the new system, but we are answering customers’ questions (about 6,000 conversations per day, which is typical for January).”