ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Many RG&E and NYSEG customers who have been dealing with billing issues will be able to express their frustrations at a public forum at Rochester City Hall Tuesday, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the City Hall Chambers.

This following the New York State Department of Public Service investigation looking into unfair billing practices from the company.

News 8 spoke with Steve Wexler, an RG&E customer who filed a complaint with DPS. Wexler says RG&E was charging an extra $59 to his regular bill.

The process to get this fixed by RG&E, he said, was no small effort. He says they confused his home with the house next door, and that to him shows a lack of competence.

“So it’s a very simple issue,” Wexler said. “It wasn’t a huge dollar amount, but they debited my account extra. What’s funny is when I moved into this house, which was in October, and I signed up for service, they told me originally I had two electric meters. I said ‘oh, okay I didn’t know,’ I was the new homeowner. So a couple of days later when I got the keys, there’s only one, but the house next door has two electric meters. So it sort of shows how horrible their systems are that they can’t even differentiate one house next door to the other house next door to figure out what’s what.”

RG&E said in part in a statement last week:

“While NYSEG and RG&E have not been immune from the effects of COVID on our utility, such as a severe staffing shortage, we understand the impacts some of our customers have faced with their bills. In fact, we have already made significant progress by hiring 120 new customer service representatives, with more to come, which has resulted in reducing customer issues and streamlining our billing processes. But make no mistake, along with providing safe, reliable service to more than 1,290,000 customers and responding to and restoring service following historic storms, addressing billing issues continues to be a top priority, and we are committed to ensuring customer bills are sent out timely and accurately.  We will fully cooperate with the Department’s investigation.” – Shelby Cohen, Avangrid Senior Manager of Corporate Communications for NY