‘How do I feed my baby?’: Calgary mother double-billed by energy supplier

Meagan Grabst knew she was a month behind on her Direct Energy bill. She received notice on Thursday warning that her service would be cancelled ‘without immediate payment.’

But as a mother of two hungry teenagers and a now five-month-old baby, money is tight for Grabst.

“We make a decent income and when we were planning for our baby we were like… we’re going to be OK,” said Grabst. “But the cost of things has just skyrocketed.”

Fortunately, she knew a child benefit payment was set to arrive in her account Friday morning.

“I got up with my husband at 6 a.m. and first thing I did is I paid my EasyMax bill.”

She then moved onto her next order of business: a trip to the grocery story for some essential supplies. She was down to the last two diapers and was completely out of formula.

“I got to the till and I got declined. That’s the most embarrassing thing ever. Especially when it’s necessities,” said Grabst.

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“So I left the till, walked away in tears, got to my car, checked my bank account balance. The $281 bill that I had paid  was taken out of my account — twice.”

She called Direct Energy and said an agent told her it was a known issue and that she wasn’t the only one impacted. Grabst said she was given no timeline for resolution.

“So I asked the agent and the manager actually, ‘How do I feed my baby then? How do I put diapers on my baby?” They went back to, ‘We understand your situation. It’s been escalated.’”

Direct Energy released a statement to Global News on Friday.

“Some Direct Energy customers making payments using VISA debit cards had their payment processed twice starting on Tuesday, October 15. Direct Energy did not authorize these duplicate payments, and we are working diligently with our payment processing bank to determine a root cause,” the statement read.

“Our systems show we have received only one payment from affected customers, so we are actively working with financial institutions to have the duplicate funds returned.

“We apologize for any confusion this may have caused and recognize this could put some customers in a difficult situation. We will ensure all impacted customers are made whole. If any customer is facing financial hardship due to this issue, we are encouraging them to contact us directly for assistance.”

Following Global News’ inquiry, Direct Energy hand-delivered a Visa gift card to Grabst to bridge the void until the refund is complete.

2:16 Calgary homeowner battles Direct Energy over ‘billing bungle’

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