ComplaintsforRush Shelby Energy

• Initial Complaint

  06/14/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Rush Shelby energy is charging me $55 a month for connecting charges and what ever the amount is for my electric charge each month.my electric charge is usually around $40 dollars a month.and $55 dollars every month for connecting charge.i do not think I should be paying $55 a month for nothing to show for it.i am giving that company $660.00 a year.i was talking to several people at Rush county court house about this charge and they replied they never **** such thing.and if you don't pay the connection fee you loose your electric so i was wondering if this is legal to do.thanks on advance

  Business response

  06/27/2023

  RushShelby Energy RSE) has always had a monthly connection fee.  This is to cover the cost to get electricity to the home.  There is two components to the residential bill, the energy portion and the cost of facilities (Connection Charge). Every two to three years RSE has a rate study done to see if our rates are in line with all our costs to operate our business and deliver electricity to our members. The cost to get electricity to our residential accounts currently is at $55 per meter. For years we have been charging far less then the actual costs and trying to make it up in the sales of energy.  One problem with that is for those that use very little energy or some who use zero energy they just want a meter on their outbuilding for when they need it, we were not collecting enough to cover the cost to get energy to their building. Therefore, everyone else using energy were supplementing that cost for them in there energy sales.  Another problem is when it was really hot or really cold RSE was collecting more than they needed and when it was really mild out RSE wasn't collecting enough so it was very hard to cover those facility charges exactly right. It had been recommended for several years but the third party company we had study our rates to charge every meter exactly what it cost to have electricity deliver to there home or building regardless of what their energy use was. That was the fair way to distribute that cost. In 2022 they decided that that was the correct way to spread the costs so that all were being charged fairly for the facility charges. The energy portion of the bill was lowered and the connection charged raised to the amount the study showed we needed to collect per meter effective April 1, 2023. The board didn't take this decision lightly and met in special meetings along with regularly scheduled meetings many times before they decided to go forward with this decision. This bill affects them since they are members just as it does everyone else on the line. Connection fees which may be called different things at different companies are charged in almost every bill we pay for utilities and other items such as gas, water, sewer, phone, cable to name a few. This is not a new charge that RSE has made up for our members.  I know this isn't the answer you were looking for and we know that those on fixed incomes have a harder time with this then others. Unfortunately the costs of doing business in the form of supplies, materials, taxes, fuel, vehicles and all other overheads have increased tremendously in the last few years and we have to increase our costs to be able to continue to deliver energy to our members.  

  Customer response

  06/27/2023

  Better Business Bureau:

  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this response/resolution is satisfactory to me. 
  
  
  

  Regards,

  *********************

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩