Rancho Palos Verdes residents shocked by power bills despite weeks-long outage

LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Calif. - Residents without power in Rancho Palos Verdes for the last couple of weeks say they’re now shocked to be receiving power bills.

"My normal bill this time of year is about $100, and this is $160," said Sheri Hastings.

Hastings lives in the Portuguese Bend area of RPV. Roughly two weeks ago Southern California Edison shutoff power to her home, and more than 100 others, because of severe land movement.

However, Hastings and several other residents in the area tell FOX 11 they’re now receiving electric bills, despite the recent weeks without power.

"We just paid it," said Hastings. "If we get another one, we’ll sue them."

Another resident without power posted to a RPV Facebook page a picture of a $350 power bill. According to the post, this is $85 higher than normal and when they took the issue to So Cal Edisonthe company allegedly said, "they estimated the bill using historical use."

"One of my neighbors got a bill and couldn’t figure out why," said Hastings.

A spokesperson from Southern California Edison did a Zoom interview with FOX 11 Wednesday evening and admits the bills are a mistake.

"These customers in the Portuguese Bend area should not have received bills," said Kathleen Dunleavy, a SCE spokesperson. "It was an unacceptable mistake. We will make it right with these customers. We realize this community has been through a lot and we’re sorry."

Residents who believe they were billed by mistake can contact 1-800-250-7339 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday – Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

"Southern California Edison should just get the hell out of here," said Hastings. "We don’t them anymore. We’re all getting solar. They just lost whatever contact they had; they’ve lost our trust. We don’t want them here."