BBQ business back billed nearly $14,000 over smart meter issue

TOWN OF ONTARIO, N.Y. — A barbecue restaurant in the town of Ontario reached out to us on Friday after getting an RG&E bill for nearly $14,000.

After several failed attempts to pay the bill, they were sent a cutoff notice. Now the business owner is frustrated and just wants a corrected utility bill.

“They back billed us from February of last year to October of charges they say we should have incurred if the meter wasn’t broken,” said Robert ‘Bob’ Heintzelman, Owner and Operator of Heintzelman’s BBQ Pit in the town of Ontario.

Heintzelman said billing issues started once RG&E installed a smart meter at his business.

After nearly 7 months of having a zero balance on his statement, Heintzelman said he received a disconnect notice from RG&E in May.

“You go online to pay your account online; you can’t do it there because the balance says zero. You talk to a customer service rep, and they can’t give you information. They said, I’m not privy to that, let me transfer you to this department,” said Heintzelman. “You talk to the next department after a 30-minute wait, and then they say they can’t help you. And you ask for a supervisor, and you get disconnected.”

During the 7 months of going without a bill or statement, the business put aside money each month based on their average bill, knowing they would eventually get a bill from RG&E.

Heintzelman said, “But the money she put aside was our normal usage, and they came in at twice the usage, now we have a $14,780 bill.”

Heintzelman said he doesn’t understand how that’s legal and claims the back billing included rate increases and late fees.

“That would be like me saying I’m going to back charge my customers because the cost of brisket went up this week, and you came in three months ago and bought a brisket sandwich,” said Heintzelman. “I don’t see how that’s legal or how that’s even possible for them to do that.”

Heintzelman claims RG&E’s disconnect team showed up two days before the bill was due to cut off service, but they paid $4,600 to keep things on.

Billing issues continued, so Heintzelman reached out to 13WHAM this week.

“It’s kind of ironic how, after we talked and discussed and you took the information and, I guess, submitted it to RG&E, that all of a sudden we get a call from one of their representatives that says, Oh yes, we see that there’s been payment issues over the last couple years, and your account’s been messed up four times,” said Heintzelman. “And this is what we’d like to do, we’d like to dismiss the service charges, dismiss the late fees, and we’re going to decrease your bill by 25%. Why did it take this for them to do their job? That’s a question.”

RG&E released a statement to13WHAM on Friday that said: RG&E has contacted the customer and determined the smart meter is working properly and has resolved the past amount due by arranging a flexible payment plan to allow the customer to make payments on the amounts owed. We urge customers to contact our call center with any questions or concerns regarding smart meters and past due balances.

13WHAM reached back out to Bob Heintzelman, who said the issue was not resolved from his point of view.

Heintzelman said RG&E credited his account, and his new balance is about $6,600, but it doesn’t give details on how the company figured out the charges.

“Give me the number of the energy and gas that I used, and I will pay my bill. But don’t give me some fictitious number of late charges of energy you say I possibly used, or gas that I might have used,” said Heintzelman.

Heintzelman said he filed a complaint with New York State’s Department of Public Service.

That agency said it cannot comment on issues of private customers and “it takes very seriously complaints made by consumers.”