By its own measures, Xcel Energy's customer service is suffering.

In 2000, more than 13,000 customers filed complaints about their bills with Minneapolis-based Xcel, according to quarterly reports the company filed with state regulators.

The number of unhappy customers jumped 17 percent in 2001, to more than 15,000. And through the first six months of this year, more than 6,000 Xcel customers had complained about missing bills, incorrect bills and missed meter readings.

Those complaints are costing Xcel money. In 2000, Xcel paid customers $565,828 in the form of credits to their monthly bills. That total almost doubled in 2001, to $1.1 million, and through the first six months of this year Xcel had credited customer accounts more than $300,000.

But Xcel's sheer size, and the fact that it is responsible for collecting and reporting its own customer complaints, present problems for regulators trying to monitor service.

For example, Xcel, which has an estimated 1.5 million meters in Minnesota, could simply skip reading 150,000 in a summer month, and nearly 300,000 during the winter, and still meet state-mandated guidelines.

Xcel's reports say it typically reads all but 20,000 meters in a given month. But a growing number of customers have complained about how infrequently their meters are read.

In 1999, 1,975 Xcel customers received credits because their bills had been estimated for more than two consecutive months. Last year, Xcel paid $10 credits to more than 6,000 customers. Already, more than 4,000 customers have been paid credits through the first half of this year.

Chuck Burtyk is among the disgruntled customers. He said he and his New Brighton neighbors have lately taken to comparing their monthly electric bills.

Burtyk, who has lived at the Aspen Glen apartment complex since 1994, said his monthly electric bill more than doubled in September, to $166. He was told that the previous three bills, which had averaged about $60, were based on estimated electricity usage.

"I told them that I'm on a fixed income, that I didn't want an estimated reading," Burtyk said, and that the meters at Aspen Glen are outside the building and easy to read.

A neighbor, who has lived at Aspen Glen for six years but asked that she not be identified, saw her monthly bill more than triple, to almost $185. She, too, was told previous months' bills had been estimated.

An Xcel spokesman acknowledged that the automated meters at Aspen Glen were defective and recently had been replaced. "We are currently receiving readings on all the replacement meters," he said, and customer bills have been corrected.

Star Tribune

-- Anonymous, October 26, 2002