Whitehorse woman overcharged $400 on ATCO power bill

A Whitehorse woman says Yukoners should be checking their power bills after she received a monthlybill that was almost seven times higher than it should have been.

Mary Whitley's electric bills are usually around $75 per month, but this month it was $490.

When she called ATCO Electric Yukon about it, shewas told the mistake had already been fixed and the money returned to her bank account.

But Whitley still has concerns.

"As customers, we're paying for these screw-ups to be corrected, because it costs administrative time and clerical time and hopefully some manager's looking into what happened."

ATCO Electric Yukon is assuring customers its billing system automatically picks up errors.

"Our automated system reviews all billing cycles and automatically flags any irregularities or non-typical consumption readings recorded at any location for follow up action," says spokesperson Stephanie Cunha.

Cunha doesn't know what happened in Whitley's case but says it appears to have been an isolated human-error incident. She says the issue with Whitley's bill was fixed within a matter of days.

Whitley remains skeptical because she says the same problem happened to other people she knows who live in different neighbourhoods.