All is well in billing land... for now

June – September 16, 2007:

• bills were received and no issues were noticed

Aah... customer service!

June 18, 2007:

• Kevin Brown followed-up to see if everything was resolved
• Advised him that all is well so far and thanked him for his assistance
• Kevin advised that if anything else is to come up we should contact him

Seeing a light at the end of the tunnel...

May 9, 2007:

• Maria called and faxed over spreadsheet with calculations
• Walked through the spreadsheet and calculations of GST, etc. and found an error on one of the bills and it will be corrected in next billing cycle
• Maria also set up monthly payments for us and will monitor our bills over the next couple of months to ensure that everything will go smoothly

Almost there...

May 8, 2007:

• Kevin Brown contacted via email to follow-up on progress of inquiry
• Advised him that it is ongoing
• Kevin will follow-up again at a later date

Much clearer...

May 3, 2007:

• Maria faxed detailed breakdown of GST charges on account and we went through it together.
  
• GST is calculated on a per line item and prior to any adjustments such as gas rebates
  
• The $6.36 charge was after all rebates were calculated from the December 22/06 – January 18/07 bill; however, GST is calculated based on the charges prior to adjustments of gas rebates so the GST shows as $34.04
  
• Maria did notice that we were charged twice on our latest bill (Bill date of April 27/07) in GST ($1.35) and other charges ($22.46). We should be receiving the bill sometime this week or next week
  
• Will have those credited back to our account so we should see a credit of $23.81 on our next bill. As of the bill date of April 27/07, the balance is $851.03 which includes the credit of penalty charges of the last bill ($6.93) and another $50 credit. The credit of $23.81 will show up in the next bill.
  
• Since we have made a payment of $300 on May 1, 2007, our bill should be $527.22 (which takes the $23.81) into consideration
  
• Maria has also put a note on the account that the balance of $827.22 (without our $300 payment) on a 6 month repayment plan which works out to be $137.87/month. We will still be required to pay the current month’s charges in addition to the $137.87. If we want to continue to make $300 payments on top of our current bill, we would pay off the balance faster but if need be, the minimum payment to “catch up” is $138 + current month’s bill charges
  
• Maria will follow-up in about a week to see if we have any other questions after we review the spreadsheet of the breakdown
  

Keeping us informed... finally - communication

May 2, 2007:

• Maria emailed to advise that she is still working on the GST portion of the bills and would rather touchbase on May 3, 2007. This should provide her with more time to review the reports. Emailed her back to advise her that it was fine.

Promises, promises

May 1, 2007:

• Waited to get a call back from Maria @ 11:00 am but no call was received
• Sent email to Maria and cc’d Rob & Kevin @ 12:30 pm
• Maria called at 12:40 pm and informed that the penalty has been removed. There was a correction to the system for penalty charges but our bill was printed prior to that so we were charged. It has been removed and going forward we shouldn’t be receiving any penalty charges. Still working on the GST issue. Advised that the GST is calculated by line item but it only takes into consideration the debit amounts and not the credit amounts. Maria has a meeting in the afternoon to discuss further and will call back either in the afternoon or first thing on Wednesday, May 2, 2007 morning
• Advised Maria that we’ll be making a payment of $300 of the $575.66 bill today. Going forward we will be making $300 payments monthly until we are all caught up in the billing
• Maria also advised that there will probably be another $50 credit to the account for the next bill to thank us for our patience while they sort through the billing system. Also advised that she will be monitoring our account for the next couple of months
  

Our issues are finally being looked at...

April 27, 2007:

• On a conference call with Rob Mackin (Manager, Service Provider Contracts) and Maria Gonzaga (Supervisor, Customer Advocacy Team) and explained issues of GST billing error, late penalty fees applied, and our frustration of how we have to explain our story again every time we call in as well as the number of occurrences (3 in total)
• 
  Maria looked into the system and noted that although we haven’t received bills, we have been making payments so unsure why we’re being charged late penalty fees. Also advised that we shouldn’t be as it’s in the system that we weren’t being penalized for their billing problems. Maria acknowledged that we do have a credit balance on our account
• 
  Rob noted that perhaps the GST was a roll-up of the past few months so it doesn’t quite add up. Explained to him that this is an issue dating back to Dec 22/06 and Maria will also look into it
  
• Rob advised that they have been having many issues with the billing system and will hopefully have them all resolved soon. In the interim, Rob will be keeping track of our bills for the next 2 – 3 months to ensure that it is being done up correctly
• 
  Maria provided her direct phone number (403-769-6817) so that we can contact her for future issues. We have also been provided with Rob Mackin, Kevin Brown and now Maria Gonzaga’s email addresses
• 
  Maria advised that she will look into the GST issues along with the penalty fees and call back on Tuesday, May 1, 2007 @ 11:00 am to follow-up/touchbase
• 
  Advised Rob & Maria that there’s now another employee at work who hasn’t received his bill for 1 month now so they’ll also look into that

Incompetence still reins...

April 25, 2007:

• Still haven't bill via fax as promised by Ed's phone conversation on April 24 and the bill that was promised to be sent via fax by Mike was never received either (that's twice that a bill was promised & was never received in a span of 2 days)
• Called Enmax back using Ed's direct line and got a general voicemail box instead. Left message for Ed to contact us back on the cell. Currently waiting for a callback
• Ed advised that he has refaxed it for the 3rd time and we received faxed bill at 10:50 am
• Noticed that they have credited the account $50 as per phone conversation on April 5, 2007; however, there is a penalty for late payment charge of $6.93 although the account has been overpaid and there is a $136.77 CR on the account. There was suppose to be a “no penalty charge” notice placed on the account as promised many times prior
  
• Looked at bill in more detail and noticed that the tax on the Electricity is calculated at 6% but Natural Gas is charged at a different rate. Natural gas tax should be at 6% which would be $34.87 but we were charged $42.05 which is higher than 7%
  
• Kevin Brown called back to follow-up to see if we received our bill and we advised him that after 3 tries to get it faxed, we finally did receive it but with errors
  
• Advised Kevin of the penalty charge and the tax error. Also advised him that Ed provided us with a “direct” phone number but when we call it, it appears to be a general mailbox rather than his “direct” voicemail
  
• Kevin will escalate it to Rob Mackin and will have Rob Mackin contact us directly to go through the bill in detail
  
• Rob Mackin contacted us via email to find a convenient time for him to contact us to discuss the bill issues. Will let him know on April 26, 2007 after detailed review of bill
  
• Upon returning home, the original Enmax bill for the cycle from January 23 – April 10, 2007 arrived in the mail with a form letter from Andrea Oldroyd (Manager, Back Office Billing Operations) and then a copy of the Enmax bill for the same cycle period with a letter from Ed Isidro dated April 20, 2007
  
• Looking back on our bills we noted the following tax errors:
  

1. Cycle from January 23 – April 10, 2007:

• Electricity tax is correct
  
• Natural gas tax is incorrect: Enmax charged $42.05 but 6% is $34.87 and 7% is $40.68
  

2. Cycle from January 18 – January 23, 2007:

• Electricity tax is correct
  
• Natural gas tax is incorrect: Enmax charged $11.54 but 6% is $7.74 and 7% is $9.03
  

3. Cycle December 22, 2006 – January 18, 2007:

• Electricity tax is correct
  
• Natural gas tax is incorrect: Enmax charged $34.04 but 6% is $0.38 and 7% is $0.45. Note that the total amount of natural gas at this time was $6.36 but tax on it was $34.04
  

4. Cycle from September 29 – December 22, 2006:

• Electricity tax is correct
  
• Natural gas tax is incorrect: Enmax charged $41.28 but 6% is $38.46 and 7% is $44.87
  
  

Escalation does work!

April 24, 2007:

• Ed Isidro from Enmax called back to see if we’ve received our bill and we advised him that we haven’t received the bill that was printed on April 10. He will refax it to 441-7141. (Aside: It appears that Mike was trying to fax our home phone number while I was on the phone with Ed). Ed also advised that he had sent out a bill breakdown over the weekend to show us the breakdown for electricity for time period January 12 – March 14, 2007 and gas for time period January 4 – March 7, 2007. Ed also confirmed the amount is $575.66 which is due on May 3, 2007; however, we have a no penalty and no disconnection notice on our account and we can make payment arrangements if required.
• Ed also advised that he had received the letter from us detailing the events of our issues from our sign on date of August 2005. It was forwarded to him through Kevin Brown who had escalated it Rob Mackin and then to Jody Krerickshank. We confirmed that our address is correct and Ed noted that it was incorrect at one point.
• After explaining our frustration about waiting on the phone for a customer rep and then being transferred before having to wait for days before we get one issue addressed, Ed provided us with a direct phone number (403-219-2077) where we can reach him going forward.
• Acknowledged that Enmax is having billing issues and they are working to resolve it. Ed also advised that he can’t guarantee it won’t happen again but now we can call him directly

April 23/07 & haven't received reprint of bill from April 10/07

April 23, 2007:

• Still have not received the bill that was supposedly been printed on April 10, 2007 and mailed out. It has been 13 days since the bill was “printed” as indicated by Ed
  
• Contacted Enmax and talked to Mike on April 23, 2007 at 8:43 pm. Mike verified that the bill was sent on April 10 to the correct address but cannot explain why we haven’t received the bill. Mike input a request to have bill faxed to 441-7141. Mike informed there are no other solutions to track our bill and offered E-billing which we specified that we do not wish to be on e-billing as we don’t even receive our monthly bill prints consistently now. What difference would it make online? Mike also verified that there is a “no penalty” setting on our account; therefore, we can take as long to pay as we wish without penalty charges
• Also sent Kevin Brown @ Enmax an email asking for a status update on our inquiry of April 5/07 as we haven't had a reply

Reprint of 3 month's worth of bills was printed April 10/07

April 19, 2007:

• We didn’t receive any calls until April 19, 2007 at 2:03 pm which Ed (on behalf of Blair) left a voicemail indicating that the bill was printed on April 10, 2007 – it has been 9 days after the bill print that we received this voicemail. The amount is $575.66 and is due on May 3, 2007

April 5/07 & No bill since January 2007

April 5, 2007:

• Sent Kevin Brown (the VP of Information Technology) at Enmax an email with detailed list of events asking him for his assistance in directing it to the right people to have our issues resolved
• No supervisor contacted us so we contacted Enmax again on April 5, 2007 at 5:30 pm and talked to Jordan and asked to speak with a manager. According to Jordan, there is a credit balance of $136.77 as of April 5, 2007. Got disconnected before we were able to find out when our bill is to arrive
  
• Called back and talked to Adey. Unable to transfer to Jordan and unable to provide us with the next bill’s estimated time of arrival. Transfer to manager and on hold for 30 minutes. Was assured that we would get a call back before 9:00 pm
  
• Called back at 7:00 pm and transferred to manager, Blair who provided an ETA of a couple of weeks and he will apply a $50 credit to our next bill. Blair will look into getting Billing to provide us a quick-bill and leave message on cell phone by Friday, April 6, 2007 with either the amount or approximate amount. Blair will also put a note on the account for no late payment charges and no disconnect
  
• We informed him that we would be on vacation effective April 6 – 21, 2007

No bills since January 23, 2007

April 2007:

• Called Enmax on April 4, 2007 (talked to Tabitka) to ask them where our bill is from the period of January 23 – current is and was advised yet again that they are having system issues
  
• We advised that we will be going out of the country for a month and would like to know what we should do as we do not want our electricity and gas shut off as a result of nonpayment. Tabitka told us to make a “small” payment as it would cover us until we get back which we said our last billed showed $809.53 – would she think that’s a “small” bill? No response.
  
• She informed us that we haven’t made any payments on our account since January in which we quoted her all the dates and amounts we have made payments. Tabitka then advised us that they didn’t receive the payments which we told her she should look further into our account which she then informed us that she can now see the payments
  
• Asked what the balance is and she provided us with a balance of $579.88 which we advised her that was the amount from a February bill for the period of December 22, 2006 – January 18, 2007 – one of the 3 bills we received within a 1.5 month span
  
• Tabitka then advised us that the balance is around $300 (which apparently she can now see). We asked her to get a supervisor to contact us back and we are now awaiting to hear back from a supervisor by April 5, 2007 before 2:00 pm

Back to payment arrangements yet again!!

March 2007:

• Made payment of $400.00 on March 22, 2007

Another bill totally 3 bills withing a 1.5 month span!

February 2007:

• Made payment of $300.00 on February 15, 2007
  
• Received another bill for the period of January 18 – January 23, 2007 in the amount of $809.53 (which now includes the $579.88 from the bill we just received a week and a half ago)
  
• Called Enmax to advise them that we have now received 3 bills within a 1.5 month span and was told to just continue making payments

First no bill for 3 months, now 2 bills within a 2 week period!

January 2007:

• Received a bill for the period of September 29 – December 22, 2006 for $446.30 (minus the $400 we paid on November 29, 2006)
  
• Bill was 3 months late
  
• Again we called to make payment arrangements and we paid $246.30 on January 22, 2007
  
• Within a week of receiving the September – December bill, we received another bill for the period of December 22, 2006 – January 18, 2007 in the amount of $579.88 (which included the amount of $446.30)
  
• Called to advise Enmax of this issue and was told to just continue with the payment arrangements

December 2006 - 2 billing cycles missed now

December 2006:

• We still didn’t receive a bill from Enmax for the October – December period (now it is 2 billing cycles we have missed)
  
• Called and was advised yet again that Enmax didn’t receive the meter readings from Epcor in which we advised them that it was done on a monthly basis
  
• Was then advised that they couldn’t print our bill as they are now having printing issues (first it was meter readings not received, now it’s printing issues??) Asked them when we should be receiving a bill, we were advised that they would be able to send us out one within a few days once the system is working again
  
• We asked to have a breakdown of our readings and to have them sent to us. Enmax will do so
  
• We asked for an estimate of bill and again was advised that they couldn’t provide us with one but we should just make a payment anyways
  
• We were then asked if we wanted to change over to Easymax instead of our current plan. We asked them if that would mean we would actually receive a bill or will we be having the same issues
  
• Enmax then advised us that the Easymax doesn’t have a contract whereas we do but didn’t address our issue of not receiving our bills. Instead, we are being solicited for another product
  We asked to speak with the billing department and was advised that they do not have any phones

November - billing issues again

November 2006:

• Didn’t receive a bill from Enmax so we called and was advised that Enmax didn’t get a meter reading yet from Epcor
  
• Again, we were told it was “no big deal” at which point we advised that it took us 7 months to get caught up from the previous year’s bills because of Enmax’s lack of service
  
• Went to ask Epcor when meter readings are done and was told our last reading was in October and it is done on a monthly basis
  
• We called Enmax back and advise them of this information and now we are told yes, they have received the reading but the bill hasn’t been printed yet as they are again having issues with the system
  
• Asked them if they could provide us with an estimate of how much the bill is and they are unable to do so but was advised that perhaps we should put $50 on it or something. Not knowing how much our bills were last year as we didn’t get our first bill until January, we feared that it would happen again where we wouldn’t be receiving our bill and when we do, it would take us another 7 months to complete paying it off; thus, creating another vicious cycle. We ended up talking to Bruce who provided us an estimate of $383.07.
  
• We made a payment of $400.00 on November 29, 2006 so it wouldn’t be such a “big” bill in December

Finally receiving bills on timely schedule!

August – October 2006:
Received bills for period of:

• June 22 – July 24, 2006 for $151.26 (paid in full on August 14, 2006)
  
• July 24 – August 23, 2006 for $93.21 (paid in full on September 14, 2006)
  
• August 23 – September 29, 2006 for $173.01 (paid in full on October 24, 2006)