Wisconsin Senior Medicare Patrol

Nearly 7,400 faulty electric meters caused financial headaches for Wisconsinites last year, a new Gannett Wisconsin Media analysis shows.

According to a story at HTRNews.com, analysts used information from the Public Service Commission, and found:

In all, the state utilities charged customers more than they refunded from mistakes and problems. For every dollar utilities refunded, they charged customers $1.65. The utilities refunded a total of $2.9 million to 1,679 customers last year. But at the same time, utilities charged $4.8 million to 5,724 customers.

The most common reason utilities refunded customers money: a faulty or incorrect meter. Utilities issued 981 refunds for this reason, about 57 percent of all refunds.

The most common reason customers were issued charges: fraud or theft of service. Utilities issued 3,042 charges for this reason, representing about 53 percent of all charges. But most (98 percent) of these theft and fraud cases were reported by just one utility: We Energies. Wisconsin Public Service, Northern States Power and Superior Power and Light all reported no cases of theft or frauds.