ROBSTOWN, Texas — Frustrated Robstown residents are seeing unusually high electric bills. KRIS 6 News reached out to city officials to get answers about what’s causing the billing issues.
"The most I've paid this summer is $560," a Robstown neighbor said. The resident asked not to be named due to privacy concerns.
Many residents have taken to social media to share their experiences with unexpectedly high electric bills. One Facebook comment read: "I had a $700 bill one time and they told me, 'A new guy read your meter and read it wrong last month.'"
Another resident shared their bills from recent months with Neighborhood News reporter Stephanie Molina and said they've never had a bill so high, even during the summer months.
These concerns were brought to the Robstown Utility System, where Roland Ramos, the Superintendent of Utilities, acknowledged that they are aware of the issue. He said they're addressing problems individually since meters are read manually, which can lead to human error.
"The meters was under-read in that case, the following month… the consumption will catch up — that means the electricity was used. The second discrepancy was overread, and when it is overread, that can be a one-time adjustment, and that is an easier fix cause the electricity has not been consumed at that time," Ramos said.
KRIS 6 News confirmed that the meters are checked with binoculars when workers are not able to access homes.
"We don't have access… so we're having to [use binoculars] instead of getting a picture validation, we're having to go with what you can see, and that could be the error," billing clerk Ricky Guzman said.
According to the city, residential homes use three types of meters: digital meters, clock meters, and cyclometers. Guzman said the clock meters are the ones most prone to error.
He explained that the utility system has switched to using cell phones for meter readings, which requires photos for anything that gets flagged or needs verification.
“Some people are coming middle of the month, towards the end of the month, when now its hard to determine how bad it was misread previously because now its two months gone by. We bill a month behind.” Guzman said.
Residents are urged to monitor their bills closely. If you notice an unusual change, contact the utility system immediately so they can investigate and address the issue quickly.
“We can offer a deferment, which is a payment plan basically and we can also offer to adjust the bill but adjusting the bill this month, the following month it will carry on because the electricity was actually used. So when we do that it basically divides it in two payments.” Ramos said.
If you believe your bill was affected by a meter misreading, you can contact Robstown Utility System for assistance at utilitiessupport@robstownutilities.com or (361) 387-3554, Option 2.
If you want to know how to keep your electric bill low, click here.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
