Woman Gets $6,000 Refund After Paying Wrong Electric Bill for a Decade
A Queens woman spent years trying to lower her electric bill. She avoided using her air conditioner, cut back on electricity, and repeatedly questioned why her bills were so high. None of it seemed to help.
Nicole Niceforo had been paying Con Edison for electricity she believed she was using in her New York City apartment. What she didn’t know was that her account was tied to the apartment directly above hers.
The mix-up lasted roughly a decade. Niceforo had questioned her bills as early as September 2016, but it would take more than nine years before building management discovered what had gone wrong.
Con Edison has since acknowledged the mistake and refunded more than $6,000. However, the utility only reimbursed her for six years, leaving Niceforo fighting to recover money from nearly four additional years of incorrect billing.
Ten Years of Bills
“For ten years, I was afraid to use my air conditioning,” Niceforo told FOX 5 New York reporter Kelly Kennedy.
She wasn’t simply accepting the high charges without question. Emails obtained by FOX 5 show that Niceforo contacted Con Edison in September 2016 and asked for a technician to inspect her electric meter.
Rather than sending someone to investigate, the utility directed her to building management.
Niceforo continued trying to get answers. According to FOX 5, she also washed dishes by hand and limited her air conditioner use in an effort to reduce her electricity costs.
More than nine years after her original request, she pushed for another meter test. This time, building management discovered that her electricity account had been switched with the account belonging to her upstairs neighbor.
The discovery helped explain why years of trying to conserve electricity hadn’t solved the problem. Niceforo learned that the bills she had been paying were not based on her own apartment’s usage.
She described feeling both outraged and relieved when the error finally came to light.
Only Six Years?
Con Edison acknowledged the billing error in writing and issued Niceforo refund checks totaling more than $6,000.
That was a substantial repayment, but it didn’t cover the entire period she had been paying the wrong bills. The utility limited its adjustments to the previous six years.
Niceforo wanted to recover the money from the remaining years, along with interest. She took the dispute to the New York State Department of Public Service, hoping the agency would require Con Edison to pay more.
The department declined to order additional reimbursement, according to FOX 5. It cited Con Edison’s position that a six-year statute of limitations applied and noted that it had no record of Niceforo filing a formal complaint with the state agency in 2016.
The distinction matters because Niceforo’s emails show she had contacted the utility about her meter that year. Those records establish that she questioned the charges long before the billing error was discovered, even though the state agency had no corresponding formal complaint on file.
Con Edison maintained that billing adjustments were limited to six years.
In a statement provided to FOX 5, the company said it values its customers and works with them when they believe their electricity use isn’t being accurately reflected on their bills.
Check Your Meter
The story prompted other New Yorkers to question their own electric bills after FOX 5 shared its investigation on Facebook.
Several commenters described suspected or previously discovered billing mistakes. One woman claimed she had paid someone else’s electricity bill for five years because Con Edison used the wrong meter number. Another said her mother spent years writing to an electric company before a similar problem was corrected.
Those accounts have not been independently verified, but they point to a concern that can be difficult for apartment residents to identify: whether the electricity they’re paying for actually belongs to their unit.
The New York State Department of Public Service says customers who believe they’re being charged for electricity used by someone else should contact their utility. The agency also provides a complaint process for unresolved billing disputes.
New York has separate rules addressing shared meters, where a tenant’s meter supplies electricity to another area or apartment. Those rules do not necessarily apply to an account assigned to the wrong meter, as Niceforo’s case was described by FOX 5.
Customers who suspect a billing mistake can request an investigation and keep copies of bills, correspondence, and earlier complaints. Such records can be important if a disagreement continues for years.
For Niceforo, the dispute now centers on the money she paid before the six-year refund period. Despite the emails dating back to September 2016, Con Edison has maintained its reimbursement limit, and the state Department of Public Service has declined to require an additional payment.
