JACKSON - Consumers who spot an error on their electricity bill want more than a Barry Manilow tune when they dial customer service.
The state's two major electricity providers, Entergy and Mississippi Power, have customer service numbers printed on their bills. And both companies have alternatives for correcting errors for times when a phone call isn't enough to solve the problem.
With summer heat and air conditioners now on full blast, this is a good time to inventory appliances at home and determine how much electricity they require to operate.
Customers will not recognize a billing error if they don't know about how much electricity they use. The wattage rating for appliances is printed on the serial plates.
Entergy serves about 416,000 Mississippi customers as well as consumers in Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas. The customer service number printed on every bill can link customers to an Entergy agent 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"When a representative gets a billing complaint, he pulls up computer records of the customer's energy usage for the same month the previous year to compare and see if there is a huge discrepancy," said Entergy regional customer service manager Charles Bryan. The representative also looks at preceding monthly bills to see if there is a sudden, unexplainable spike that may indicate an error.
If you believe your June 2004 bill contains an error, the representative should look at your June 2003 bill to see what normal summer usage is for you. The representative should not try to convince you that because your December bill was also high, everything is fine.
New arrivals to Mississippi have no previous year for comparison. And sometimes complaints cannot be resolved over the phone. In that case, the Entergy representative can transfer records about your complaint to an Entergy agent who investigates. A customer should expect a call from that agent within a week.
"The agent checks the meter for malfunctions and to see if it was read properly," Bryan said. "There is no charge even if the customer was wrong about the billing error."
Bryan said there are sometimes two hidden energy hogs within a home that can bloat a bill. A faulty heating element in a water heater sucks up electricity. Make sure the heater is serviced regularly.
"And sometimes a malfunction makes the heating strips on a heat pump kick on when the AC clicks on," Bryan said. "The AC is trying to cool the home while heat strips warm it. The customer never realizes how hard the air conditioner is working, using up tons of energy, to keep rooms cool."
Mississippi Power also has 24/7 customer service representatives for its 193,000 customers who call the toll-free number printed on the bills. If a complaint cannot be resolved by phone, Mississippi Power will send a worker to reread a meter. The customer is charged $15 if the meter was correctly read.
"Maintain your cooling system because air conditioning usually accounts for more than 50 percent of a summertime bill," said Mississippi Power spokesman Kurt Brautigam.
If a customer believes the electric company is not responsive-or the meter reader is the problem - contact the Mississippi Public Service Commission at 1-800-356-6430.
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