There were no high winds or thunderstorms blowing through Dallas on Monday. And Jocelyn Smith had just paid her Duke Energy bill by phone.
So when her son texted that afternoon to ask why the power in their house was off, she couldn’t figure why.
“I just paid the bill Thursday,” she said.
Smith wasn’t the only Duke Energy customer to experience trouble, the company said Tuesday. A processing error in its billing system affected more than 100 customers, said spokeswoman Kristina Hill.
The problem resulted in some of those households mistakenly having their power cut off, she said.
“It was in very small, isolated areas,” Hill said Tuesday. “The processing error was identified and service was restored to those customers.”
Smith realized she had lost power about 1:30 p.m. Monday. After she spent much of the afternoon on the telephone pleading her case, her power was restored just after 7 p.m., she said.
“They said it was a glitch in the system,” she said.
She thought it might have had to do with her payment not being processed due to the Good Friday holiday. Hill said that had nothing to do with the issue.
Smith had a confirmation number from having paid the bill days before. Eventually, that helped her prove to a Duke Energy customer service worker she was telling the truth.
But it was still frustrating. She was unable to prepare food while her electricity was off and had to cancel plans because she was on the phone trying to solve the problem.
“I’ve never encountered that trouble with (Duke) and I’ve had them for years,” she said.
Duke Energy serves about 8 million residential customers across the country. Hill said the company is sorry for the inconvenience some of them experienced Monday.
You can reach Michael Barrett at 704-869-1826 or twitter.com/GazetteMike.