Barbershop owner 'Calls Keely', gets $21,000 back from Duke Energy

No one likes a high electric bill but imagine finding out that you were actually getting the wrong bill for years. That’s what happened to one Durham County business owner who unknowingly paid his neighbor’s bill for more than a decade.

Christopher Williams has spent his career making other people look and feel good. He owns several barbershops including Gentleman’s Choice Barber Shop in Morrisville. One thing that Williams never liked the look of was the energy bill for his Morrisville location at Alexander Village Shopping Center. He showed Five On Your Side his bills which were often in the $200 and $300 range, but for a long time he justified it.

“My other locations are in Raleigh and Wake County,” Williams said. “When I moved out here, ‘I just said ‘Well, maybe it’s the Durham county area.’ I never had a business out here, even my water bill is a little bigger.”

Williams’s shop has been open since 2009, but it wasn’t until the pandemic, that he realized something was truly wrong with his bill. Williams closed for a few months during lockdown, but still received huge bills from Duke Energy.

“I got a bill close to 400 dollars, “he said.

While Williams’s shop was shut down, the ABC store next door was still operating, and Williams suspected he was somehow paying for the ABC stores bill. He called Duke Energy and said eventually they sent a technician out who confirmed to his suspicion.

“The technicians said ‘Yeah, the lines are crossed,’” Willaims said.

Williams had been paying the ABC store’s bill and they had been paying his, but the problem still wasn’t being fixed. Williams said he called Duke Energy several times to get them to fix the billing error.

“They told me one thing and another, nothing ever happened. Then I finally contacted you,” Williams said of reaching out to Five On Your Side.

After Williams called Keely, she reached out to Duke Energy. They admitted the meters were installed wrong and refunded Williams $7857.51. Which was about three years’ worth of what he overpaid. Williams felt that was unfair since the incorrect billing had been going on for much longer. So Keely pushed a bit harder and Duke Energy agreed to refund Williams the money he had overpaid since 2013, and issued him a $13,184.77 check. Bringing his total reimbursement to $21,042.28.

Williams said he was grateful for the reimbursement, but believes he is owed more money since his business has been open since 2009, and the reimbursement only went to 2013.

Duke Energy maintains that the error started in 2013.

“It looks like we exchanged his meter in 2013, which is when we believe the billing error actually began. So, we are working to refund his overage back to that point in 2013 as best as we can,” said Jeff Brooks, a Duke Energy spokesperson.

Brooks tells Five On Your Side that a situation like this is rare but people can track their kilowatt usage to make sure their bills accurately reflect what they’re using. A 2,000 square foot home uses about 12-hundred kilowatts a month, according to Duke Energy.

If you feel like there is an error in your billing you should first contact your utility, if it persists you can reach out to the North Carolina Utilities Commission, and file a complaint.