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December Electric Bill


Floradude

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I think CFE is all screwed up right now. They converted me to monthly last month and several friends I know - and we are not solar. I have two meters and when I check the bills one is marked paid for Nov. and the other is marked paid for Oct. Both were paid in Nov and I have the receipts. I think they are converting a lot of meters non solar to monthly and they can't handle the work load. PS I did not receive Decembers bill yet and I should have received it by this time. Merry Christmas from CFE!

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I just checked my bill on-line after reading all these reports. I got something different. Even though I have received and paid all my bills (every two months), the December one is from August 10 to December 10 and is lower than usual. Maybe they were estimating August and October.

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I think CFE is all screwed up right now.

Agreed! Even more screwed than usual! I did received my bill last week (in RIberas), but it was way higher than it should have been. The reason?

Last bill (Aug./Sept.) they estimated it and estimated low so my bill was low. I sensed at that time that I was probably in trouble this next bill. When I got this bill it was even worse than I imagined. They charged me on this bill for the kwh that I consumed over that past 4 months all on this bill, which was over 600 kwh and put me in the high DAC rate. They then just deducted the 200 pesos or so that I paid last bill from this new high total. My total consumption for each 2 month period was well under the DAC rate, but they combine 4 months together to put me into the high rate!

I could go down and complain to the poor girls in the office, but I'm sure the would have no power to do anything. They are also handing out the bills way later than they used to, so instead of having 2 - 3 weeks to pay, protest, or whatever, you have maybe 1 before you will get cut off.

A year ago they converted me to a "smart card" without my permission. That took me 3 months to get fixed. Now I'm getting a 4 month billing cycle. I'll be happy to get converted to a monthly cycle. I think???

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This has all the markings of a computer program conversion gone very wrong.

They're trying to change billing to monthly for everyone forcing neighborhoods into different cycles. Data has to be entered differently and the billing calculations to be changed too. Having been in the middle of or the cause of such computer program problems in a prior life, the best thing to do is to take photos of your meters so you can compare the reading against a bill when and if they come and then just sit back and wait.

It will get sorted out eventually but if bad data is entered into the system you'll need some sort of proof to make a case.

One of my bi-monthly meters had a zero bill delivered and posted online in October so this has been spiraling out of control for a few months now.

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This has all the markings of a computer program conversion gone very wrong.

They're trying to change billing to monthly for everyone forcing neighborhoods into different cycles. Data has to be entered differently and the billing calculations to be changed too. Having been in the middle of or the cause of such computer program problems in a prior life, the best thing to do is to take photos of your meters so you can compare the reading against a bill when and if they come and then just sit back and wait.

It will get sorted out eventually but if bad data is entered into the system you'll need some sort of proof to make a case.

One of my bi-monthly meters had a zero bill delivered and posted online in October so this has been spiraling out of control for a few months no

Wonderful! Another clusterfook courtesy of CFE. Which btw, stands for "Can't Furnish Electricity."

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Agreed! Even more screwed than usual! I did received my bill last week (in RIberas), but it was way higher than it should have been. The reason?

Last bill (Aug./Sept.) they estimated it and estimated low so my bill was low. I sensed at that time that I was probably in trouble this next bill. When I got this bill it was even worse than I imagined. They charged me on this bill for the kwh that I consumed over that past 4 months all on this bill, which was over 600 kwh and put me in the high DAC rate. They then just deducted the 200 pesos or so that I paid last bill from this new high total. My total consumption for each 2 month period was well under the DAC rate, but they combine 4 months together to put me into the high rate!

I could go down and complain to the poor girls in the office, but I'm sure the would have no power to do anything. They are also handing out the bills way later than they used to, so instead of having 2 - 3 weeks to pay, protest, or whatever, you have maybe 1 before you will get cut off.

A year ago they converted me to a "smart card" without my permission. That took me 3 months to get fixed. Now I'm getting a 4 month billing cycle. I'll be happy to get converted to a monthly cycle. I think???

I always read my meter, and write down the reading around the time when they are due to read it. If the bill does not jive with the actual meter reading, which has happened twice over 8 years, I go to the CFE office and straighten it out.

When I first built my house, my first bill, after being connected for 2 months, was zero consumption and only the connection fee.. I knew that if they put it all on one bill some time in the future I would be in the high rate. I phoned the office, explained that I had been using the electric for 2 months, but the bill was zero. She said "don't pay that bill!" and asked if I knew how to read my meter, to which I said yes- she said to bring her the reading and she would enter it, which I did, paid for the usage and the original connection fee, and all was well.

A couple years later, I received a bill for 2000 pesos, when my normal usage was 200-250. I read my meter, took the reading into CFE and the woman said that obviously they hadn't read my meter and had 'estimated", but that they were supposed to estimate based on past usage (duh). She adjusted my bill- from 2000 to 195.

Sorry you got dinged, but like many things in this country, you have to advocate for yourself. Inefficiency is the name of the game, unfortuately. If you go ahead and pay a bill that you know can't be right, or don't get a bill when you know you should, and don't deal with it at the time, complaining about the fallout is pointless (like you said, the girls in the office have no power to change it after the fact), apart from alerting others to pay attention.

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They read our solar meter today which is 2 weeks later than normal.

They told a friend (who also has solar) that they are switching their billing procedures.

Since solar users have lower bills they are switching them to 2 month bills and the non solar users to monthly billing as they have higher bills.

It makes sense as it would increase their cash flow.

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I also live in upper Ajijic and have not received my CFE bill. The latest on the website is for the period October 9 to November 9, so I should have received the one as of December 10 sometime this past week.

I looked online and also saw that our December bill has not yet been generated, when normally our close date is around the 6th. We are solar so maybe we are going to bi-monthly as suggested above. Or maybe there is just a glitch in their billing, or they haven't read the meter yet. I will keep checking online to see when the bill finally generates, but I'm assuming (a dangerous practice, I know!) that they won't cut our power for an unpaid bill that hasn't been generated yet.

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All I want is a bill or the ability to pay ahead at the bloody machine in Chapala or how about a machine in Ajijic? If you don't get the bill you can't pay at OXXO cause you don't have the stub cause they took it when you paid last month. I can deal with Telmex or Telecable but CFE points you at a machine and you don't want to wait for the very nice human as she/he is pretty busy and a wait for sure.

I have never spent so much time trying to pay an electric bill. Maybe the infamous pre pay ahead card is less torture. Monthly billing bah humbug laugh out loud.

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The bill for my analog meter was posted online at CFE today. No paper yet. I paid it using Bancomer bill pay to save the possible $7 peso charge to pay by credit card directly from the CFE site.

The bill for the solar meter hasn't made it on paper or online. This is in Las Salvias.

At our house in Rincon de Guayabitos the billing was switched to monthly but the period covered in November was 6 weeks. The paper bill showed up the day before the bill was due. The bill showed up in pdf form online about the same time but the page for the property reflected the October bill until this week.

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I am in Upper Ajijic and still have not received a paper bill for Nov 9 to Dec 9. I just checked the CFE website ti see if my bill has been posted. It still shows that the latest bill was for October 9 to November 9 (I have solar and am on a monthly billing cycle). I thought I would try to make a payment of what I estimate the December bill will be, using a credit card and got this message:

"This service has no outstanding bills or overdue"

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