Rochester business owners hit with massive surprise RG&E bills. What happened?

For Vince Schiano, there have been no easy solutions when it comes to his energy bills.

As the co-owner of Schiano’s Pizzeria at 360 Park Ave., both he and his son Mario have found it difficult to get answers. His problems with Rochester Gas & Electric Corp. began in April 2022, after the utility took $10,000 out of their business account on a Friday night, he said.

Neither Schiano nor his son could get anyone at RG&E to respond to their calls at the time.

“They just took it out. I called Friday night, 4 p.m., no answer. I called the bank to stop payment, but the money was already gone," he said.

The utility put the money back in the restaurant’s account one week later, only to attempt to withdraw the same amount a second time, according to Schiano. After the initial incident, Schiano decided to have the bank stop all payments to the utility, opting instead to withdraw the necessary money owed each month and mail it in, he said.

“It’s so confusing,” Schiano said, adding, “they’re terrible to deal with.”

Schiano is not alone in his struggle to decipher whether he's getting accurate utility bills. Another Rochester-area restaurant owner, Chelsea Felton, fought for months to get an explanation for a $26,000 RG&E bill that arrived last year, and felt the utility never fully addressed her complaints about their billing practices.

With the rollout of a new customer information and billing system in September 2022, NYSEG and RG&E customer complaints have spiked 60% over the previous two years combined, totaling more than 4,700, according to the state's Department of Public Service (DPS).

Schiano and Felton reached out to the Democrat and Chronicle in response to the news outlet's statewide call for reader complaints about utility billing problems.

If you continue to have unresolved billing problems with NYSEG, RG&E or Central Hudson, contact us using this form.

The Public Service Commission, housed within the DPS, has also been investigating billing problems with utilities across New York, including NYSEG and RG&E, among others. The state administrative body allowed customers to submit complaints online, and held hearings and virtual forums in NYSEG/RG&E service areas in February where residents could further discuss their billing problems.

How did billing problems get so bad? A $345 utility bill became $68,000 as NYSEG, RG&E confront billing fiasco. What happened?

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Fighting for a resolution to billing woes

New York's complaint process turned out to be a dead-end for finding relief, according to Schiano.

He filed two separate complaints with the PSC about his troubles, he said, before receiving emails from the commission informing him that, “it’s been settled. Not by me, but by RG&E," he said.

PSC staff closely examine complaints once filed, and typically send those complaints to the utility with a directive to contact the customer and attempt to resolve the dispute, a PSC spokesperson said.

A PSC official eventually contacted Schiano in April to follow up on the complaints, but so far there has been no contact from RG&E that adequately addressed his issue, Schiano said.

RG&E said in a statement that both Schiano and Felton's cases have been resolved. After the Democrat and Chronicle approached the utility to discuss the restaurant owners' cases, both Felton and Schiano said RG&E reached out to discuss their grievances.

"RG&E worked with both businesses and resolved these issues," said a spokesperson for the utility, adding that, "we urge people to reach out if they have an issue. We can't share specific customer details, but having a safe customer experience is our top priority."

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An unexplained $26,000 bill

Felton co-owns six restaurants in Rochester and its suburbs, including Nocino, an Italian-American restaurant that opened last year in Victor.

In April 2022, six months after Nocino opened, she received a $26,000 utility bill.

“I called in disbelief,” Felton said. “We’ve been running restaurants for 10 years and have never seen anything like this.”

When she called to inquire, the utility told her the reading was based on an estimate of several months, because a technician couldn’t come out to read her meter during the pandemic. Typically, monthly bills for her other restaurants have come in between $3,000 and $4,000.

Months will go by without a bill and then one for the past three months arrives, making it difficult to figure out how much to put aside each month, Felton said.

"You just can’t operate a business that way. We don’t just have funds to pay this," she noted.

Additionally, after she signed her restaurants up for a community solar program, the utility sent her a bill instead of applying a credit to her account, she said.

Earlier this year, she had to assign one of her restaurant employees to remain on hold to try to speak to an RG&E representative to resolve the billing issues. Often, the employee remains on hold for more than an hour. They’ve taken to keeping a log of the calls with wait times.

One day, Felton herself remained on hold for nearly two hours.

“It’s pretty crazy how they’re allowed to do this,” Felton said. “There is no responsibility or remorse. The only explanation is 'We’re short staffed because of COVID.'”

According to Felton, officials with RG&E previously pointed out the water heater in the building was faulty, leading to higher energy bills to properly heat the water. But the water heater had been fixed shortly after the issue was first brought to her attention, Felton said, and it shouldn't have been a factor in the $26,000 bill.

"Since that conversation, we’ve replaced (the water heater,) and we've closed for lunch to reduce usage," Felton said. "But that doesn’t change the fact that they aren’t billing correctly or that it takes two months to get a response to a complaint."

RG&E eventually reached out last month to assist Felton with a solar credit for Bitter Honey, one of her restaurants, months after she applied for one.

"We’re in the hospitality business. If a customer complains, we take care of it right away. We don’t allow the guest to stay upset," she said.

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Why the billing increases?

In an interview with the Democrat and Chronicle in January, Patricia Nilsen, president and CEO of RG&E and NYSEG stated that part of the reason for high bills come from low-staffing and inaccurate meter readings, both net results from the COVID-19 pandemic.

And with the utility citing inflationary costs, the energy company is also looking to raise its electric and gas rates by 20 to 30%, along with attempts to better integrate renewable energy sources into billing.

Currently, RG&E and NYSEG have made good on their promises to increase their staffing levels through the hiring of 33 virtual customer service representatives, in addition to installing 26,000 electronic smart meters throughout the Rochester region by the end of July, with the goal to reduce estimated billing.

More: New president of RG&E and NYSEG opens up about billing issues, public outcry

Smart meters: RG&E to launch massive project in Rochester region

This article originally appeared on MPNnow: RG&E sends huge bills to business owners, sees spike in complaints