Consumers charges wrong man $5,000 bill

BELDING, Mich. (WOOD) - When Ron Howell received a $5,000 electric bill, he was surprised rather than upset. But when bureaucratic runaround continued as he tried to resolve the problem and he received a shutoff notice, he got frustrated.

"We got a bill showing we owed $4,769, I believe," Howell said.

It was a surprise for Howell and his girlfriend, who had been living in her Belding home only a few months when the bill arrived.

"So when I called Consumers [Energy] I was actually laughing when I talked to the guy," Howell recalled. "I says, 'You just made a mistake. I'm just calling to get this corrected.' And then that's when they told me that it was no mistake."

That, Howell said, was the start of a frustrating three months of trying to convince Consumers Energy that it was a mistake.

Howell said he and his girlfriend moved to Cheboygan in September 2010 to start a restaurant. When that failed, they chased jobs out West until spring 2012. In the meantime, they rented the house to somebody else. He said the renters are the ones who ran up the electric bill.

"What they explained to me was they could prove I was living there during the time the renter was," Howell said.

And, Consumers Energy said, that made him responsible for the debt.

But Target 8 investigators checked Howell's story. A newspaper article confirmed the opening of his Cheboygan restaurant in October 2012, and a neighbor in Belding confirmed that Howell and his girlfriend weren't there.

"There were some renters there," Rebecca Lovell said, adding that Howell and his girlfriend were "absolutely not" living in the house at the same time.

Howell said he faxed a paper trail to Consumers Energy showing he was living in Cheboygan, Washington and Colorado during the time the bill was run up.

"I got car insurance, utility bill from Colorado, different FedEx bills, employee pay stubs. Also, I leased an apartment out in Colorado. I got the lease agreement to that," Howell showed Target 8.

But it didn't do any good. Howell said Consumers Energy lost his paper work and he had to fax it again. He said the Consumers Energy employee handing his case went on vacation, then got sick.

"I got a shutoff notice: Pay it or else," Howell said.

Consumers Energy delayed turning off the power, Howell said, but the company told him it could prove he had a phone and cable in his name at that address. He said the house belongs to his girlfriend and he never had utilities in his name until they moved back to Michigan in 2012.

"Quite frankly, it's frustrating enough. If it was $80 or $100, for the nightmare that you go through with this, you would just pay it, to be honest with you. But obviously at this scale, I will not just pay it," said Howell.

By January, the bill had grown to more than $5,100 and Howell contacted Target 8 investigators, who emailed Consumers Energy spokesman Roger Morgenstern.

"I contacted our customer service department and I said, 'This is a concern. Can we please get on it?'" Morgenstern told Target 8.

Somebody new was already working on Howell's complaint. He faxed in more paperwork. Now Consumers Energy has decided Howell does have a legitimate claim.

"We're putting in a request to remove that debt from his account," said Morgenstern.

But Target 8 wondered how somebody could run up a bill for nearly $5,000 without electricity being shut off.  Target 8 called a number Howell provided for the renters, but the person who answered the phone said we had a wrong number.

Consumers Energy says the answer could be as simple as running up a big balance on a payment plan.

"It could be a matter of people moving to a different address and the debt comes with them. Sometimes people try to game the system and they change names," said Morgenstern.

Morgenstern said Consumers Energy will look into Howell's claim about the frustrating process.

"We're really focused on first-time problem resolution," said Morgenstern. "Getting things resolved the first time and not having it go on and on and on."

Howell said Tuesday he is off the hook for the $5,000 bill and that he's glad the mess is over.