You won't believe how high this PUC bill is

A local woman got a major financial shock on Monday when she opened her PUC bill.

Amount due: $116,325.42

Due date: June 26.

“I was in complete shock. I was shaking. When you get a bill like that you don’t expect it,” said Lisa Miller.

The bank-account-busting balance was based almost entirely on an ‘actual’ meter reading that suggested Miller had let 99,981 cubic metres of water slosh down the drain over the last two months.

“That’s approximately 40 Olympic-sized swimming pools. When I did all the conversions, that was my estimate,” said Miller.

PUC spokesperson Giordan Zin said PUC has flagged what is clearly a mistake. He said it is in the process of being corrected.

“I don’t think any residential customer could ever use 99,000 cubic metres of water,” said Zin. 

He said it should have been flagged by PUC, and the utility is looking into why it wasn’t.

“We’ve done a bit of a review process to ensure that doesn’t happen again, but it should have been flagged on our end and for that we take responsibility.”

For Miller, the situation was both alarming and puzzling.

There was no way she could have used anywhere near that amount of water.

Even if she and her family had been living there.

Which they hadn't.

The water supply to the house had been shut off for months and neither Miller nor anyone else had been living at the Shannon Road home as she and her husband had been waiting to hand it over to its new owners at the end of May.

The enormous bill was to have been the Millers’ final payment to PUC.

Miller, who now lives in Echo Bay, said she called Monday to alert PUC customer service and was told by a representative that her information was being taken down and that it was being looked into.

Miller said she waited until Wednesday afternoon "sick to her stomach," over the massive bill.

While the situation has now been resolved, Miller said she is still concerned.

She said she was told by PUC today that four other customers also received unusually high bills.

"Bills like that should never be leaving the building," said Miller, adding she was relieved she hadn’t been on pre-authorized payments.

Zin said that as of this afternoon PUC has identified four accounts with similar billing errors and representatives have been in contact with those customers as those errors are corrected.

Zin said there is little risk of pre-authorized payment errors like Miller's going through as PUC customers receive their bills before the money is withdrawn from their accounts.

“There are practices and procedures in place to make sure that doesn’t happen,” he said.

He said Miller’s case is extremely rare, but if pre-authorized customers are concerned he advises to check your bills monthly.

(PHOTO: Lisa Miller's PUC bill for $116,325 is pictured. Michael Purvis/SooToday)