Edmonton man's billing battle with Direct Energy continues

An Edmonton man who closed his account with Direct Energy after he got 16 gas bills in one day, thought his ordeal with the company was finally over.

But Sean Harrington says the erroneous bills keep showing up in the mailbox at his small Mill Woods townhouse.

Even though his account with the company was closed last month, Harrington has received three bills this month; for$1,646, for $1,703 and for $2,124.

"It's ridiculous," Harrington said during a Friday morning interview on Edmonton AM.

Harrington began to receive confusing and contradictory statements fromthe company after it accidentally added a $1,200 credit to his account last June.He called to get things straightened out. Because of the inconvenience, he said, the company promised to waive his bills for the remainder of the summer.

But he then received six bills from Direct Energy on Oct. 28 and another 16 bills on Jan. 26, ranging from a credit of $1,127 to a bill for $2,246.08.

• Direct Energy customer gets 16 bills in one day

After talking about his ordeal with CBC News last month, Harrington received an apology from Direct Energy. He said hewas told his account would be reduced to zero. Frustrated with the billing battle, Harrington closed his account and transferred to ATCO.

But outstanding bills from Direct Energy kept coming.

"Even though they are reassuring me that everything is OK,and that I don't owe them anything," he said. "I'm just hoping this doesn't hurt my credit score.

"I don't think the different departments of the company talk to each other, otherwise this would have been over a long time ago."

In a statement to CBC News, Direct Energy's communications department said the last set of bills was sent to Harrington due to "agent error" before his account could be set to zero. The company said Harrington should receive no further bills.

"They actually contacted me yesterday.Their PR department phoned and reassured me that my account was at zero," said Harrington.

"I'll believe when I see it. When the bills stop coming, I'll believe it."

With files from Nola Keeler