A Pleasant Encounter with Customer Service
Jan. 7th, 2026 04:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjToday I gritted my teeth for cold-calling a utility customer service line, expecting massive chat-bot runaround and frustration. You see, I recently received the first PG&E bill that has my "solar billing" and, having reviewed my billing for the year and taking note of the point when my system came online, I had some confusion about exactly what I was being charged for.
Of course, untangling solar power billing comes with complications, since the amount of power used and the amount of power generated fluctuate by the seasons. And the monthly statement I get from the solar monitoring company (which is different from my solar energy provider) goes by calendar month, while my PG&E billing period starts mid-month.
But it only took me one repetition of "give me a human being" (at normal tone of voice) and about a minute on hold to talk to a knowledgeable human being. She was patient when I wanted to explain the detailed chronology of my solar installation (which turned out to be directly relevant to some of my questions). I got answers to all the questions that PG&E were relevant for and the answers were satisfactory.
One of the mystifying aspects was that, during August and September, and to a lesser extent, October, the solar report says I was putting more energy into the grid than I was consuming. And yet PG&E was charging me for energy -- less than my previous consumption, but not a negative amount. Turns out this is because my solar system shouldn't have been connected "live" to the grid at all until the final approval in November. (You may recall me posting about all the delays in getting the final inspection done.) So I shouldn't have been getting any advantage at all. I'm guessing that I was being billed for consumption during the part of the day when I wasn't generating, but that during the hours when my panels were keeping up with consumption, the PG&E meter registered it as "no consumption."
I really hope that PG&E was, in fact, monitoring calls for quality, because I gave the representative a long thank you, explaining in detail how satisfied I was with the experience.
Of course, untangling solar power billing comes with complications, since the amount of power used and the amount of power generated fluctuate by the seasons. And the monthly statement I get from the solar monitoring company (which is different from my solar energy provider) goes by calendar month, while my PG&E billing period starts mid-month.
But it only took me one repetition of "give me a human being" (at normal tone of voice) and about a minute on hold to talk to a knowledgeable human being. She was patient when I wanted to explain the detailed chronology of my solar installation (which turned out to be directly relevant to some of my questions). I got answers to all the questions that PG&E were relevant for and the answers were satisfactory.
One of the mystifying aspects was that, during August and September, and to a lesser extent, October, the solar report says I was putting more energy into the grid than I was consuming. And yet PG&E was charging me for energy -- less than my previous consumption, but not a negative amount. Turns out this is because my solar system shouldn't have been connected "live" to the grid at all until the final approval in November. (You may recall me posting about all the delays in getting the final inspection done.) So I shouldn't have been getting any advantage at all. I'm guessing that I was being billed for consumption during the part of the day when I wasn't generating, but that during the hours when my panels were keeping up with consumption, the PG&E meter registered it as "no consumption."
I really hope that PG&E was, in fact, monitoring calls for quality, because I gave the representative a long thank you, explaining in detail how satisfied I was with the experience.
