HOUSTON — A KHOU 11 viewer says he was wrongly charged by CenterPoint Energy after he called to report a downed tree that had fallen on a power line across the street from his home.
Esequiel Saenz says on his next bill, he was charged $109 for the calls he made, even though the tree wasn't even on his property.
CenterPoint told KHOU 11 that they are resolving the issue, but Esequiel says he's frustrated this happened when he was just trying to do the right thing.
“Half of [the] tree, the whole thing fell, and it hit all the lines, it was dangling," he said. "I was covering half of the street limbs, you know.”
So, he did what he thought he was supposed to do.
“I call CenterPoint, let them know that there was a tree dangling on the lines," Esequiel said. "At that time, you know, you don't want to get close to the line.”
But even though the tree was removed within the next few weeks he says the aftermath of that storm was really his next bill.
“There's a $109 charge on my bill," Esequiel said.
The charge was labeled a service call.
“It's not on my property, I kept telling them this," he said. “I'm doing a good thing. And now they're charging me for it.”
“It just showed up on my bill. You know, and I had to call them and see what was going on.”
KHOU 11 reached out to CenterPoint to find out why Esequiel was charged. Initially, they gave us the following statement:
“If an agent creates a trouble report for the same incident more than one time or if the equipment being inquired about is not owned by CenterPoint Energy, the agent should inform the caller that CenterPoint Energy may charge a fee of $109.
"This customer also placed four trouble report calls, which as noted earlier may result in a $109 fee if the customer reports the same situation more than once. It was determined that the tree was not on CenterPoint Energy’s equipment or wires.
"Since the tree was not on the customer's property, they can place a dispute request with CenterPoint Energy customer service regarding the charge."
Esequiel says CenterPoint never told him that. He's disabled and on a fixed income, so every penny counts.
“It did affect me, you know, maybe I might eat less this month," he said.
After that initial statement, we reached out to CenterPoint again. They said the charge was made in error and that they've addressed it with the customer and dismissed the charge.
"The customer should not be charged on the first occurrence of notification, if the issue is caused by CenterPoint Energy related equipment, or if the issue is not on the customer's property. There are a number of potential exceptions based on the situation," CenterPoint told KHOU 11.