Loveland homeowner gets nearly $3K Xcel bill for 1 day of natural gas

LOVELAND, Colo. (KDVR) — Xcel Energy said it has resolved a bill for a homeowner in Loveland after he was charged nearly $3,000 for a single day of natural gas.

“They sent us three bills in one envelope, which has never happened to us before,” Scott Glick said. “My wife first saw them and she goes, ‘What the heck? $2,900 for gas!’”

Glick said he has lived in his Loveland home since March of 2022. His old Xcel bills show he uses about 70 therms of natural gas per month.

“The gas was a one-day amount of 3,622 therms, which is how they measure gas, for almost $3,000,” Glick said.

According to Glick, he was away on an out-of-state trip on the day his bill says he used the excess natural gas. He also said there is no leak on his property.

“The gas leak would have to be on my side of the meter to register that amount of usage. So you would smell the sulfur outside or if it was inside my crawlspace, when the furnace kicked on this house would not be here today,” he said.

Glick said he reached out to Xcel’s Customer Care team on May 2, the same day he received the bill in the mail, and was told the review would take up to 30 days. However, the bill is due May 10.

“I won’t pay it because I didn’t use it. Then it affects credit scores and then it just goes on and on and on, all from something I had nothing to do with,” he said.

He believes a glitch within Xcel’s billing system or the smart meters recently installed on the outside of his house are to blame.

A spokesperson for Xcel Energy told FOX31 the utility company is “not experiencing any wide-spread billing issues nor is this a typical issue associated with a smart meter, and so this appears to be a unique issue.”

According to the spokesperson, the issue has been resolved.

Still, Glick believes there may be more people impacted by Xcel’s errors.

“There’s lots of issues here and ever since Public Service Company became Xcel a couple years ago, and they moved all the services out of the state, it has not boded well for the consumers of Colorado,” Glick said.

He is urging other Xcel customers to read their bills and understand what they owe.

“What if you’ve got auto pay? What if you don’t check your bills? And you start bouncing checks because you’ve got an erroneous bill,” he said. “It’s buyer beware. You need to open your bills and understand what they’re charging you for.”

In a statement to FOX31, Xcel Energy said the company tries to give accurate bills on time.

“We strive to provide our customers with accurate and timely bills. When a customer receives a bill they believe is incorrect, we ask them to immediately reach out to our Customer Care team so that they can quickly look into the discrepancy and resolve any issues.”

Any customer with questions can contact Xcel Energy Customer Care at 800-895-4999.

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