South Jersey Gas Explains, Apologizes for Service and Billing Problems

COLD SPRING – A Cold Spring resident (who declined to be named) reported to the Herald that she received a letter from South Jersey Gas noting, “We could not find your meter at your house. Please read your gas meter and call in the number reading to us.”
When the resident attempted to do so, she was on hold for 30 minutes, gave up, tried again multiple times, and finally was able to leave a message for a call back “within 24 hours.”
That call back never came, nor other promised call backs, this time promising to return the call within 72 hours. Finally, with one more attempt to reach the utility by phone, the resident received the message that no callback appointments were available.
At that point, the resident decided to stop her efforts to reach the company and wait for her bill to arrive. Coincidentally, soon after her multiple attempts to follow utility instructions to send them her own reading, she saw a meter reader on her street.
The meter reader was from an independent company, which does meter reading for SJG. He told her he could “find her meter, no problem” and “They can’t retrieve the data we send them and don’t ever bother to call.”
When the resident’s bill finally came, she was stunned to see that the amount owed was $510 when her usual monthly bill is around $30. The resident again attempted to reach South Jersey Gas with the same result, i.e. she never was able to connect with anyone and decided to send them a check for $50, anticipating that the amount would cover her usual monthly payment and perhaps a bit more owed as part of her monthly “budget” allocating costs for winter heating.
Anecdotally, the Herald has heard of another instance in Diamond Beach where the homeowner was assessed a $6,000 monthly bill, clearly a wrong amount, but which took months of his time and effort to straighten out.
The company acknowledges customer frustration and inconvenience by explaining that the company has experienced two concurrent but separate issues it has been working to resolve related to customer billing.
“This first is based on a system technicality that rendered estimated bills to some of our customers over the past several months, even if their meter had been read,” explained Daniel Lockwood, manager, public relations, South Jersey Gas.
“Unfortunately, these customers were receiving low estimated bills that reflected less than normal usage during this time of year. As a result, charges on their current bill can, in some cases, be higher than expected because they represent actual usage.
“In addition, with February being about 33 percent colder than average, their gas consumption could have been even higher in turn. That issue affects approximately 3 percent, or 12,000 of our customers. We are making a payment arrangement plan available to those customers and have reached out directly to them by letter with instructions on how to follow up with us.”
Lockwood continued his explanation with background related to the second problem, “The other issue stems from the March 5 winter storm and meters that were not read as scheduled on Thursday and Friday of that week. It is typical on inclement weather days such as those for customers to receive estimated bills. Unfortunately, a data transfer issue between South Jersey Gas and our meter-reading vendor resulted in some of our customers receiving inaccurate, artificially high estimated bills. While many of these elevated readings were caught and stopped prior to being issued, up to 2,500 customers were issued bills that contained these artificially elevated readings.
“If a customer has recently been issued an elevated, estimated bill, they have the option of providing us with their actual meter reading. Customers can do so in several ways. When calling our customer care line (888) 766-9900, follow the voice prompts to enter a reading through our phone system. They can also enter a reading through our website by visiting: http://southjerseygas.com/for-my-home/submit-my-meter-reading-south-jersey-gas-online.php .”
One additional caveat Lockwood pointed out is that as a result of these billing issues, the utility’s call center is experiencing heavy call volumes. So SJG is encouraging customers to call early in the day between 7 and 8 a.m. or later in the evening between 6 and 7 p.m. when wait times might be better.
Lockwood expressed South Jersey Gas’ apologies to all of its customers for these inconveniences and appreciation of their patience as the company works to improve its service.
To contact Camille Sailer, email csailer@cmcherald.com.