OGDEN, Utah -- An Ogden woman says Questar made a mistake on her bill but claims she is the one paying for it.
Logan Sattelmair said the last few months her gas bill had been around $40, so she was shocked to find out April's bill was more than $300.
Questar said the amount is actually correct, and they had accidentally been undercharging her all winter. Now, Sattelmair is expected to make up for it.
For the next six months, Questar is forcing her to pay an extra $53 on top of her regular gas bill.
"I pretty much live paycheck to paycheck trying to live in my house and pay bills, and a 53 dollar bill on top of another bill, that's crazy for me," Sattelmair said.
Sattelmair is a new home owner. She was under the impression that when you receive a bill, you pay the amount, and everything is good to go. However, for months Questar was undercharging her and they just realized it recently.
"I said, 'So how is that my fault?' and she goes, 'We're not blaming you, it's not your fault, but you still used the gas and you have to pay it,'" Sattelmair said. "I feel like it was their misreading, their mistake, why do I have to pay for it?"
Instead of sympathy and understanding, she said she received a notice on the door to pay up or Questar is shutting off the gas.
"If we don't bill customers for what they use, then the rest of us customers have to pick up that bill," said Darren Shepherd of Questar.
Questar has one million customers. They say only about 700 to 1,000 per month will come across this type of issue. Every once in a while the batteries die inside the gas meter, so even though the meter keeps running, the data is not relayed into the Questar computers.
"And so we will estimate what we believed the customer used, and sometimes our estimates work and sometimes they don't," Shepherd said.
As for Sattelmair, she recently got another surprise in the mail, an anonymous letter along with $320 in cash.
"Dear Logan, please use this money to pay off your Questar gas bill," read Sattelmair. "I felt like my stress was overwhelmed, I didn't know how I was going to do it, so for someone to think about me like that when money is tight for everyone, to give me that kind of help was a lot."
Questar said if they don't have an official gas meter reading for your house then they will write estimate on the bill. That means the amount could change in the future. If residents have any concerns, they are urged to contact Questar.
Questar said they usually try to correct these issues within one or two months.
