Jeneatte Epperson needs an oxygen pump to help her breath, her husband had a debilitating a stroke and she?s hoping to move.
But a $6,861.71 past due Baltimore Gas & Electric bill ? some of which she has paid ? troubles her the most.
“When they come by the house to turn us off, I give them cash,” Epperson said. “Last time they came by we gave them a thousand dollars but it didn?t show up on my bill.”
Epperson, 64, who suffers from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, a long-term lung illness usually caused by smoking, said she wants answers.
“I?ve called the company a bunch of times but can never get this settled,” she said.
Epperson, who is a lifelong Baltimore resident, is retired, and has been living with her husband, Preston, in an east Baltimore row home for three years.
Preston, 74, had a debilitating stroke five years ago and requires constant care. She said her bill is usually a “couple hundred dollars a month,” and that she paid a BGE employee several times.
“Somebody comes by and says that we?re going to be cut off if we don?t pay,” she said.
“So we give them cash. It?s easier because we don?t get around like we used to.”
Epperson said that the bill is particularly distressing because of her dependency on oxygen, which requires electricity, and her husband?s health.
“We both live on fixed incomes,” she said. “I don?t know what?s going to happen.”
Epperson, who lives in a row house, used 668 kWh hours last month resulting in $474.87 bill under budget billing, which allows customers to spread out energy payments overtime.
Based on meter readings listed on her bill the current balance is more than a year overdue.
The most recent bill shows that her meter has been read every month. Epperson said that she received receipts for her payments, but cannot find them.
A BGE spokesperson, responding to inquiries by The Examiner, said they would investigate the matter.
