SCE shut off my power with no warning (no email, no text, no notice on the door except to put the notice on my door that my power was already shut off). The issue arose when another tenant in the apartment complex submitted my address as the address to turn on the service for. Instead of checking their internal database (which would have concluded that there was already a tenant with a current service contract), they changed the ownership to her name and when she didn't pay the deposit, they shut off my energy. There was no indication of this in my monthly email statements (the statements didn't show my name, it just showed how much I owed so I didn't know that a transfer of ownership occurred) and no calls to ask if I had moved or why there was a transfer of ownership.

The worst is instead of admitting that they were wrong for shutting off my power and working diligently to restore it (due to their mistake), they inconsiderately stated that it would take another half day to full day to restore my power and that it wasn't their fault. They were just doing what a "public utility company" is required to do: provide power to those that request it. That may be true, but I asked "shouldn't you have a system in place to prevent situations like this, whether accidental via typo, etc or intentionally (i.e. a prank). All it would take is for the new account manager to check the system to see if there is a current account already set for that address. If there is, then the employee would call the person to verify the transfer of account before shutting down the current residents power. SCE refused to accept that sound advice and improve their business practice and said that this occurs rarely and until enough customers complain about it, it's too cumbersome to add that additional 5 minutes of work to their employees.

I moved into an apartment building in September of 2010. I live alone. Work 2 jobs so I'm rarely home. My first couple of bills were in the low $100 range and I didn't think much of it, I used to rent a room from a buddy in his house so I had no idea what electricity would cost (I was lucky, I know!). My bills progressively increased, as I continued to try and use less and less electricity in my home. My thermostat now lives at 72 degrees when it's on, which is only when I'm home at night (sleeping). I don't use the stove (don't cook), I prefer the dark so lights are only on for a minute when I need to find something, I don't use the dish washer (because I thought it was adding to the bill). The only thing that's constantly drawing power in my apt. is my refrigerator (energy efficient), and my internet modem, oh and my alarm clock. As of last month, my bill reached $240. I'll remind you, I'm a single person that's home 2 hours tops (while I'm awake), who uses nothing but my tv for maybe an hour a day (which is an energy saving tv plugged into an energy efficient plug). I noticed that my bill almost doubled when someone moved into the apartment next to me, yet SCE refuses to send someone to check my meter for any type of cross between the apartments. I've been calling SCE for 4 months now trying to clarify that I continue to use less power, as I move back into the stone age using fewer and fewer appliances, yet my bill continues to go up. I've given up using my thermostat/heat now, leaving it off as a test to see if my bill escalates even further this month. One customer service rep advised me to "wake up @ night to turn off my thermostat in order to save on power usage". You've got to be kidding me.

Just to reiterate, I'm a single person, home 2 hours a day while I'm awake, don't use the stove/dishwasher/lights, only use thermostat which is set at 72 at night while I'm sleeping, turn ALL lights off unless I'm looking for something, OH and use my computer for maybe a total of an hour a week (which is also on an energy efficient plug). Am I doing something wrong?