Southern California Edison [SCE] – Page 8

I live at the address above. It belongs to my dad. He does not live there. He rents out rooms. one of the former renters that moved in june or july 2006 was paying the electrioc bill as part of her rent. The electric bill was put into her name and she paid the bill for 2 years(july2006-july2008) until she moved out suddenly. Shortly after, the edison co wants to check the meter and they ask for Brooke Smith(.the one responsible for the electric bill), My xhusband who was liveing here at that time, told them she moved a month ago. The investigator said we should change the billing to my husbands name since brooke no longer lived here. Ater checking the meter he informed us that it had been tampered with and he was going to take it and would bring a new one back in two weeks. So he disconnected our electric service and retuned in two weeks with a new one and said it would cost us 250 dollars for the new meter and to pay the remaining balance on the x tenent Brooke Smith which was 165.00. So my husband paid it and I have the receipts to prove it. So they connect our service and change the billing to fred ross with a new account. We pay the bill the first month and a week later we get a bill from southern cal. edison/revenue department saying we owe approx 5000.00 dollars for unauthorized use during the billing period of july 2006 thru july 2008. We explained to them I was not aware that someone had tampered with the meter and was not aware the bill was only approx. 50.00 per month instead of its usual 160.00-180.00/pm. We were not aware of what was going on with the billing or the tampered meter. The edison co/revenue dept. said fred ross is now responsible to pay that balance because everyone in the house did benefit from it.
We have been living off a generator and candlelight ever since around jan 2009. going on two years. Not only is it expensive 2 gallons of gas a day/30 days a month, well you can figure tt out! And the noise! Our neighbors are not too happy either! And not to mention all the fumes from the generator and breathing the soot from the candles at night time, With my health problems is not good for my lungs, for anyones lungs. Not only an exspense and health issue but a fire/safety hazard also.
During this time we have had a couple of renters try to hook up the electric service with an account in their name and so colif edison/revenue dept. says we cant have any electric service here until fred ross pays the balance of 5000.00 which isnt even his debt to begin with.
I made. a complaint to the public utilities and explained to them about our service and they said they would get back with me after contacting the edison co. When they did contact me by mail they said the so.calif.edison/revenue dept did an investigation and said the same peolple were still living here and we all benefited from it, therefore responsible to pay the 5, 000 dollars. And they are within their limits charging us 5000 dollars
I find this so unfair and impossible to ever have our service restored. I am living off a government program called GR - general relief with the department of public social services. DPSS. and barely making it. Believe me, if I had five thousand dollars I would just pay it because it is such an inconvienance living like this. I wish there was some other alternative but unfortunately southern california is the only electric service.
I feel we have suffered enough and isnt there any way to come up with some kind of a comprimise or agreement of some sort that could benefit everyone. I dont mind paying something on the past bill but I dont feel responsible for the full amount. And I honestly did not know there was a problem with the meter. I wish they would have let us know when the problem with the meter first started. instead of 2 years later with unauthorized use for two years/ equalling five thousand dollars, making it impossible to pay that amount.
Can you please look into this for us and get back with us as soon as possible. I just dont feel we are responsible for someone else bill. But we need electric service. Those were just a few of the problems i mentioned above when forced to live with a generator. I just want to return to a normal lifestyle. There are so many other issues to deal with. It would be a big relief to settle this issue. I would appreciate it so much. thank you very much.

kim ross

fred ross