NSTAR Utility Rates

[laklare.livejournal.com]

From looking at NSTAR's recent press releases, I assumed that electric rates would be going down starting Jan 1st. However, just the opposite has happened.

I live in Somerville (Davis Sq. area) and today witnessed on my bill that the transmission rate doubled, the transition rate went up, but most importantly, the basic svc fixed charged went from $0.07694/KWH to $0.1266/KWH. That's a hefty increase and amounted to nearly $40 on my electric bill.

Has anyone else observed this abrupt change in their electric bills? How can this be reconciled with the supposed "$20 million rate cut for NSTAR Electric customers" effective January 1st? Also, how can I actually get to a real human being on NSTAR's phone system? I've tried several times and each time I get "heavy call volumes, call back later". The automated call back option isn't even coming up. Perhaps they are being overwhelmed by people like me who are wondering what's up with their electric bill?

Comments

[uberjay.livejournal.com]

Also, watch out if you use their electronic bill paying system. I got the following via my electronic mail today:

Dear OVERCHARGED NSTAR CUSTOMER,

Due to a recent technical error, your January NSTAR e-Bill was not
delivered to your online bill payment service. We have now corrected
the issue that caused this delay, and your e-Bill was delivered on
February 1, 2006. Please schedule a payment for this e-Bill as soon as
possible if you have not already done so. If you use the automatic
payment feature of your online bill payment service, please verify
that your automatic payment was processed successfully, and schedule a
one-time payment online if it was not.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. If you have
any questions or concerns regarding this issue, please contact our
customer care department at 800-592-2000. Thank you for your patience
and understanding.

NSTAR Online Billing Team

---

The bill I got in February was identical to my previous bill, down to the due date which still read "1/16/2006".

I really want to get my bill to see if the programmable thermostat made a noticeable difference.

[laklare.livejournal.com]

I've been using their ebill system instead of that mycheckfree hack they used to use. The ebill thing is pretty good (shows your usage history and is easy to navigate) and I didn't get any kind of double-charge. However, I did notice an email come in with duplicate charges on mycheckfree. I ignored it, but I never got that duplicate charge notice that you're talking about.

[signsoflife.livejournal.com]

I had the automatic debit from my checking account, and I got the same error notice reported above. I don't know that this relates to the increase in charge per kw/hr, though.

[arcanology.livejournal.com]

I got a duplicate ebill that I had already paid, so don't just pay it if you get another.