LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Many Summit Utilities customers have been dealing with higher-than-normal utility bills and now Arkansas' new Attorney General, Tim Griffin, is investigating.
"We're addressing it with our customers and our customers can rest assured that we have fixed our problem," Brian Bowen with Summit Utilities said.
Bowen said about 167,000 customers in Arkansas and Oklahoma were sent estimated bills instead of their regular bills for January.
"It's common practice amongst utilities to sometimes, and in limited instances, send an estimated bill [to] say somebody's meter is not functioning properly," Bowen said. "We will use an estimated bill in that situation."
Bowen said meter reads weren't captured correctly when transferring into their system, but they've corrected the problem.
"All customers impacted have or should be receiving their corrected bill within the next day or two in the mail," Bowen said. "That is the bill that they should pay."
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said he's working closely with Summit to learn more about the data processing issue and make sure Arkansans are charged the correct amount.
"I'm going to walk through those bills, and with my staff, and with Summit Utilities, and we're going to figure out how to explain those," Griffin said. "And then on video, on the camera, I'm going to explain to Arkansans, what we found."
At the end of the day, Griffin said Arkansans should only pay for the utilities they used.
"I obviously can't look at hundreds of thousands of bills, but we can take some of the egregious examples and make sure that what people were being billed accurately reflects the gas usage," Griffin said. "I want to see that with my own eyes."
Bowen added that the cost of natural gas and other utilities also has a lot to do with higher bills.
"If they have questions, please reach out to our customer service," Bowen said. "We'll answer any questions that they may have."
Bowen said lowering your thermostat by a few degrees and improving your insulation are the best ways to reduce your energy costs.
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