Moncton man still waiting for a refund 6 months after meter mix-up discovered

After paying the wrong power bill for more than four years and six months after discovering the unusual error, a Moncton man is still waiting for his refund.

"It shouldn't take six months to figure out," Darren James said. 

"It's very frustrating ... we're still putting money away for the power bill. But at the same time, we don't know if it's enough, if it's too much."

James moved into a newly built duplex in August 2020, with his neighbours moving in shortly afterwards. Neither realized that when their power meters were installed, they were tied to the wrong address. 

WATCH | This man has waited 6 months for a refund on his N.B. Power bill: 

After 4 years paying the wrong power bill, it’s been 6 months and counting for a refund

7 hours ago

Duration 2:21

A Moncton man has been waiting for a refund for six months after discovering he had paid his neighbour’s power bill for the past four years.

James quickly found that his power bills were higher than he expected and they kept rising, no matter what he did to try and cut consumption. 

"It seemed a reasonable amount, but then at the end of the year it increased by a significant amount. So we're like, OK, we'll scale back on what we're using, keep the heat a little lower, maybe use baseboards less, use the heat pump a bit more and try and keep it so that we're comfortable and it's affordable," he said.

"Then we get our end of the year bill. We're below again, we owe more. It continued on like that for four years."

Meanwhile his neighbours — who were receiving James's bill — saw their bill continue to fall while not changing their power consumption habits. 

The mistake was found in January when a technician arrived to install new smart meters. But now, nearly seven months later, New Brunswick Power has yet to correct the billing mistake or even change the meters to ensure they are properly tied to the two units.

"No one's reached out to us from N.B. Power to say once we get this sorted out, you can get your smart meters," he said.

"They haven't set anything up to correct the problem."

N.B. Power maintains that meter issues are rare, but with 280,000 meters changed in the last few years as part of the province-wide smart meter rollout, mistakes do happen. 

The utility told CBC News that when an issue is discovered they work with the customer to correct it and provide an appropriate remedy. 

"If a meter mix-up is detected we strive to correct it within a 30-day billing cycle," said spokesperson Elizabeth Fraser.

"Depending on the length of time and complexity of the situation, the correction may take longer. If a mistake does happen, we work with the customer to make it right and aim to keep them informed."

James says he's been frustrated by the lack of proactive communication since the mistake was discovered. He says each time he's called in the last three months, customer service representatives told him that these types of mistakes take time to fix. 

"They know where the two meters are," James said.

"If they couldn't locate one of them, that would be understandable; if there was a problem with the billing system, but the bills came on time for five years."

In many cases, when meters are mixed up, customers receive credits on their account. But James says he wants to be paid the difference. 

"We don't really want a credit from N.B. Power because we've paid that money. I want my money back," he said.

"I might not necessarily stay in this area. I might leave the province, then I've got a credit from N.B. Power. If I had my money back, I could use that for whatever I wanted to use it for."