MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Tens of thousands of MLGW customers are confused over how to pay all the bills they keep getting.
Some of the bills are for more than a thousand dollars, and MLGW said they need to start paying some of that now.
MLGW has released information about delayed and incorrect billing, but customers are being told they need to pay a portion of their latest bill by mid-September to avoid services being cut off. This is leaving Boxtown neighbors very frustrated.
“It’s a mess,” Easter Knox, a resident of Boxtown, said.
“They're charging people too much money,” Pam, another Boxtown resident, said.
One resident showed ABC24 a bill for $1,468. That resident said she had been putting money toward her bill each month, but MLGW told her it was the wrong amount and that she’d need to put money onto her account by September 13 or have her power cut off.
She’s not the only one owing MLGW a large amount of money.
“We got multiple bills,” Knox said. “One of them was 500-something dollars and one of them was a thousand, and it’s a struggle.”
MLGW made it clear that customers only need to pay off the final bill they receive, likely the highest amount, but for many people, that’s not feasible.
Knox is a lifelong Memphian and one of many older neighbors in Boxtown surviving on a fixed income. In addition to that, the timeliness of correcting issues is also a problem they spoke up about.
“They take their time about coming to this neighborhood anyway,” Pam said. “I think they could do better than what they’re doing.”
Pam and Easter are neighbors, just a few steps away from each other. A necessary short distance when they’re dealing with the same issues.
“When the storm comes, our electricity goes off tremendously, and it stayed off for a while,” Knox said. “And I know the MLGW crew, they be doing the best that they can to try to get it reinstated back, but you know, sometimes, it’s just hard. It’s just really hard.”
Not only are Boxtown residents dealing with this, but so are customers all over the city, about 40,000 of them. But MLGW is unsure if the broken meters need to be fixed or replaced as they are having a vendor investigate the issues.
MLGW encourages residents to reach out to them and request a payment plan if needed.