We received our bill from GP and read the amount due. After the shock wore off, we figured there must have been a mistake. My husband called the customer service (850-969-3111) to report the error. The rep told my husband that there was no error, that the bill was correct and that the spike in our bill was due to cold weather. What?! Our monthly electric bill averages somewhere in the neighborhood of $170, give or take 10 bucks. Our bill for December 2009 was over $450! There is no way that it was cold enough to justify that kind of inflation to our bill. My family lives in Ohio, where it is significantly colder on a daily basis, and none of them have electric bills anywhere close to $400, even though most of them live in houses larger than our townhouse is, and there are more people living in them. An energy bill to warm a townhouse for 1 month for 2 people should not be what ours was.
I think they are trying to hide a poorly publicized rate increase. Not only that, but it is ridiculous that it would cost this much to power a home for two people.
I am not the only one who is ticked off about my exorbitant electric bill. I mentioned it during a lunch break at work, and evidently, plenty of people have seen their Gulf Power bills double, triple--or worse--in December.
My husband called Gulf Power again the other day to speak to a supervisor, and apparently, Gulf Power does not have supervisors who are available to speak with customers, or at least that is what the woman who answered explained to my husband when he requested to speak with a supervisor. She said that she is qualified to handle any conversation that he would wish to have with an actual supervisor. So he told her he had an issue with his service and when he provided our address, she remarked, "Oh, yes, we are getting a lot of calls from your neighbors about their high bills as well." I would like to know what prompted her to tell us about the alleged complaints from our neighbors. My husband said he was calling about "a problem with our service," and never indicated that it was bill-related. Is anyone else getting these types of canned remarks from service representatives at Gulf Power? Why are they telling me that my neighbors have high electric bills? Are they blabbing about my bill to my neighbors if/when they call? I thought this was unprofessional either way.
Is anyone else feeling like they are being taken advantage of by Gulf Power in the Pensacola, FL area? If so, what should the citizens of Pensacola do about it? Maybe you received a spike in the amount of your electric bill, but you can explain why you think it is fair.
The amount Gulf Power charged for 1kWh was 0.05931 in Dec 2009.
The amount Gulf Power charged for 1kWh was 0.05085 in Nov 2009.
The amount Gulf Power charged for 1kWh was 0.05085 in Oct 2009.
There was a rate increase of 9% that went into effect Jan 2009, and a second increase of 11.3% that went into effect in Sept 2009. These increases are over what Gulf Power charged in 2008.
However, I cannot find anything to explain this rate hike for December '09. Gulf Power's website has an article titled "New environmental equipment means slight increase in electricity bills," and goes on to explain that customers will see a "1.5% increase on their electric bill in Jan 2010, as compared to Jan 2009." (go here to read the full .pdf article: http://www.gulfpower.com/news/update/DEC%2009%20Power%20Update.pdf)
Despite this new "environmental equipment," I don't understand why the rate increase for Dec '09 was way more than 1.5% of Nov '09, esoecially when there was another 11.3% increase that would have been in effect in Nov that wasn't present in January. I can't find anything online that explains another rate increase in December 09, even though it is clearly itemized on my bill.
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