Help us report on utility billing issues in the Gulf States
A trickle of water comes out of the faucet of Mary Gaines a resident of the Golden Keys Senior Living apartments in her kitchen in Jackson, Mississippi, Sept. 1, 2022.
Utility bill nightmares in the Gulf States are as shocking as they are commonplace. Bills that go missing for months. Gigantic bills for subpar service. And bills that are just plain wrong.
Some of this has become accepted as a matter of life in our corner of the Gulf South — Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. We believe it’s important to highlight why these persistent problems are serious, and how they impact the people who live here.
You can help us show that these bills aren’t one-off problems either for individuals or for cities, but instead systemic regional issues. Tell us about your own billing nightmare.
We can’t fix your bill, but together we can explore solutions and help hold utilities, and the people who are supposed to regulate them, accountable.
We will read every message, and while we won’t be able to respond to all of them, your experience will help us understand what’s going wrong. With your permission, we may dig into your experience in one of our monthly stories.
Do you work for a utility or a regulator? We want to hear from you, too.
Recent Utility Bill of the Month features
- 4 takeaways from a year of investigating nightmare utility bills
- A New Orleans garden paid hundreds of dollars in fees for a sewer that doesn’t exist
- Some Jackson residents still face water billing issues despite new systems in place
- 4 factors besides cold weather that explain expensive winter power bills
- Jackson estimated his water bill and overcharged him by thousands. He fought back and won
- This New Orleans restaurant made it through the pandemic. Can it survive water billing issues?
- She owed $7K due to a water leak. Her utility saw the signs but didn’t tell her
- The Gulf South’s record heat brought another pain for residents — higher power bills
- She looked for help after her power bill doubled. But aid for utilities often falls short
- An Alabama family’s water bill tripled after moving just outside of city limits. Here’s why
- She thought one call would fix her power bill. A year later, she’s still not satisfied
- A water leak led to a $20K bill for an Alabama couple. A smart meter could have saved them
