We are a military family and moved out of our condo and canceled service in June of 2008. We moved to Texas and placed our house on the market. The house did not sell until Oct. of 2008. It was sitting completely empty and unoccupied until it sold. Now Xcel is billing us $205.74 for services provided between June and Oct.

I called to ask what the bill was about, and was told that since we had owned the condo we are responsible for paying the energy usage. I replied that I should not be held accountable for the bill because I had specifically CANCELED the service! And it's not my fault that since Xcel did not turn the power off to the property it was still consuming energy.

Their response is that they never turn the power off, they just take your name off of the bill. And since I did not turn the breakers off I'm responsible for the consumption. I asked if they had something in writing stating that I'm responsible for turning off the breaker after canceling services to avoid getting charged. Their response was no.

When I asked for all the information needed to contest this bill I was told to 'look online'. I said no that is unacceptable and asked that all the papers necessary to contest this bill be mailed to my current address. So I can document all communication.

I was speaking to Specialist Carmen employee # 6263.

I had also asked to speak with someone of higher authority who can help me with this issue. I was told by Carmen that they would have to call me back, so I gave her my number and had it reconfirmed twice. This all happened today so I'm still waiting for a response. I was told that they usually get back to me in the same day.

I just paid my bill and was surprised at the cost. It was over 140$! Let me explain why this bothers me. All of November, I not once turned my heater on (and yes my small 700sq ft apartment got down to 50f). It wasn't on low, I mean it was off. O-F-F. I have 2 computers in there that aren't used very much and site on idle or standby (consuming very little electricity, and one of them is 80 certified if you know what that means).

Me and my girlfriend share this small apartment, and both work long shifts (I work 12 hour shifts, she has 10 hour shifts) so we don't spend a lot of time home.

I was expecting, maybe 40 bucks at the most. But over 140! And to make matters worse, they've done this every, single, month. I used to live in a place that was 3x larger. Had between 3-12 people in it at any given moment, with 4-12 computers running (playing games), 2 tvs on, the stove, up to two microwaves, the AC on full... and never saw a bill over 70$ (In alexandria). I fail to see that the mark up of moving to the cities could hardly justify a 200-300% markup for the same power grid...

I've called them about the problem before. They basically said they don't make mistakes. They even refused to show me were my meter is, why are they hiding? If I had an option, I would leave Xcel energy in a heartbeat. The fact they have a monopoly on the thing makes it all the worse.