CFE?

Anyone have any good, effective advice on what to do and say when you think CFE is screwing you on your electric bill?

mudgirl wrote:Screwing you how?

As always, it is a long story, but bottom line: After being gone for six months, my bill increased by 15% for each of the three billing periods. According to my neighbors / good friends, nobody was ever here for longer than two hours a week (my gardener) and he was never inside. The maid was never in the house for longer than three hours twice a month. She had to get the key from my neighbors and return it to them, so they know when and for how long she was here.

The house was completely rewired a year ago with grounded connections installed. A year ago, the old analog meter was replaced by one of the new digital meters.

My neighbors next door have a bigger house ( 4 more rooms), a freezer in addition to a large refrigerator freezer, a microwave which also have, there are two of them as opposed to myself only, and they are home all the time year around. Neither of us have a pool. Their bill is consistently 1/2 of mine.

I have had my house checked by a qualified electrician who found absolutely nothing wrong on the property. There is obviously something wrong somewhere else. I have talked to many who have fought this problem with CFE and lost. I want to know how to win it. If that is possible . . .

One might wonder why your neighbor's bill is so much lower than your bill. When you are away, it is possible that mice may play..........

Pogo wrote:

mudgirl wrote:Screwing you how?

As always, it is a long story, but bottom line: After being gone for six months, my bill increased by 15% for each of the three billing periods. According to my neighbors / good friends, nobody was ever here for longer than two hours a week (my gardener) and he was never inside. The maid was never in the house for longer than three hours twice a month. She had to get the key from my neighbors and return it to them, so they know when and for how long she was here.

The house was completely rewired a year ago with grounded connections installed. A year ago, the old analog meter was replaced by one of the new digital meters.

My neighbors next door have a bigger house ( 4 more rooms), a freezer in addition to a large refrigerator freezer, a microwave which also have, there are two of them as opposed to myself only, and they are home all the time year around. Neither of us have a pool. Their bill is consistently 1/2 of mine.

I have had my house checked by a qualified electrician who found absolutely nothing wrong on the property. There is obviously something wrong somewhere else. I have talked to many who have fought this problem with CFE and lost. I want to know how to win it. If that is possible . . .

How did your pre-rewiring and analog metered bills, compare to the bills you received after the changeover?

Do you have any automatic lights on your property, dusk to dawn? Yesterday was the shortest day of the year; 6 months ago, was the longest day of the year. How about an automated sprinkler system---6 months ago we were in height of rainy season; dry as a bone since Oct. Even if not automatic, if you have a lot of hand-watering, your water/pressure pump is running a lot more.

There is definetely corruption within the CFE organization. Unusual for residential customers though. I was asked what bi monthly bill he (a CFE linesman) thought was fair. He said that was too low, we agreed, and that was the rate. The digital meters were supposed to solve this because of ethernet connection, meter reading no longer required. He was able to change the meter reading, including security tag, the office would give him a heads up if they were checking meters in that area. He could change them back within five minutes.

CHILLIN wrote:There is definetely corruption within the CFE organization. Unusual for residential customers though. I was asked what bi monthly bill he (a CFE linesman) thought was fair. He said that was too low, we agreed, and that was the rate. The digital meters were supposed to solve this because of ethernet connection, meter reading no longer required. He was able to change the meter reading, including security tag, the office would give him a heads up if they were checking meters in that area. He could change them back within five minutes.

But here, they still READ the digital meters in Ajijic. Part of the Mexican full employment act

At our last US home, the digital meters eliminated meter reading, and I guess a lot of jobs.

I HIGHLY doubt a lineman there or here would have access to the computer system controlling ethernet connections.

You simply cannot win. This is not a platitude and I am not being facetious. I have a good friend who knows the business, knows many people at CFE and spends hours dealing with them every week as part of his job. At one point, he offered up his services for a fee to help oeple trying to deal with the CFE, and eventually he just gave up. It was too much work for too little reward. And he has had more success with them than anyone I've ever heard of. But it amounts to no more than a hill of beans.

I would be willing to bet that it is some kind of leakage malfunction, private theft, or meter problem, rather than a deliberate fraud by the CFE.

mudgirl wrote:

I am lucky to have an old analog meter. Everyone with a digital meter seems to have much higher bills than I do. For one thing, those digital meters are constantly flashing their numbers. That's gotta use electricity, no?

No not anything to speak about and go look at your analog meter when you are using electricity and you will see a big horizonal wheel turning. That takes more juice than the display on a digital meter going on and off.

slainte39 wrote:I would be willing to bet that it is some kind of leakage malfunction, private theft, or meter problem, rather than a deliberate fraud by the CFE.

Snowbird friends departed their Bisbee home and their electric bill doubled the month after they left. Culprit was an older fridge that was running non-stop due to some malfunction.

Previous tenant in house I am now renting had bi-monthly bills of 700pesos or more.  The 20 yr old refrigerator was removed.  My 2 yr old LG 'energy star' refrigerator put in. CFE now < 270pesos. I had a digital meter @new condo for 2 months - bills higher, no reason.  Now back to analog - same low CFE I've paid for 5 years.. except that 2 months.

Mudgirl had a good suggestion with the breakers. Also, if you are away AND there is no food in the refrigerator or freezer, shut off all the breakers until you get back. IF you do have food in the refrigerator/freezer, just leave that breaker on only.

There is also the solar option which some have used to reduce their bills. This does not address the digital meter issue which seems I have really high bills too.

RoyD

Somehow my last sentence was chopped off. what I wrote was:

This does not address the digital meter issue which seems, from what I have read, to be a problem for everyone. I have a digital meter here in FL and I have really high bills too.

RoyD

Analog meters can read too low or too high.  Digital meters are more accurate.  As far as what CFE can do with them is not much. They can read your meter with a handheld machine and they can turn off your electricity automatically if you don't pay your bill. Thats about it. (This may change in future)

Fancy digital meters used in many areas can turn off your heat pump if electricity becomes short. They also can be read from the street or in some areas they can be read thru the electrical lines.

If you don't trust your meter (digital or analog) you can purchase devices to monitor how much electricity you are using and compare.  These devices are used to bill people who rent condos if they use too much AC or whatever. I had solar arrays on one house and had nice gauges to measure use and never found a difference between the digital meters and my meters.

I have had five digital meters and four analog meters and I have found no difference between them. Lots of incorrect information is around on digital meters and I am waiting for the latest rumor that Bill Gates can listen into your house if you have a digital meter (humor).

Yes, that Bill Gates guy is an extremely busy guy, doing all the stuff that he does behind our backs! Never sleeps.

My cfe usage was creeping up monthly- from 400 kwh to 750 bi-monthly over a 5 year span. I suspected the meter connection were corroding so I busted the glass on the meter with a rock and called the cfe to repair. The replaced the meter and the next bill was for 410 kwh - and they have been around that for the last 2 years since replacing the meter

Where there's a will there's a way.....

The old analog meters have a serious fault. If the back mounting plate gets corroded, by some idiot who tries to clean the galvanized steel with muriatic acid. The top wire connection on the left gets loose of its corroded socket. The meter will stop turning, but still release full power, at the minimum CFE payment per month. Likewise, the CFE linemen can buy a set of gear ratios different than the original. The linemen see the work orders, and can see when inspections are to occur. For digital meters, they just report and change the readings. They not have ethernet connections, and the whole system is impossibly corrupt, for residential use anyways. Luckily for CFE, the residential market is a small slice of their profit pie.