Dear PoPville – Did you know that you can cancel any other Pepco customer’s account?

Dear PoPville,

I had an incredibly frustrating experience today with PEPCO that I thought other residents should be aware of. I received a call from a collection agency this morning on behalf of PEPCO. This was particularly odd, since my PEPCO billing is set to auto-pay and I haven’t made any changes in almost two years. After calling PEPCO directly, I discovered that someone else called and requested a final bill on my account (i.e., closed and deactivated my account!) back in September. I own my home and I’m not selling it. Apparently, ANYONE can call – without proof of residence or ownership – and say they’re moving into your address (which cancels your account). PEPCO does not call, email, or otherwise contact you when this happens (except for apparently sending a paper bill, which I never received, and wouldn’t have paid attention to anyway since I’m enrolled in auto-pay). Best of all, if you are on auto-pay PEPCO doesn’t even automatically charge the final amount (so you end up with an overdue account)!.

I managed to get my “old” account sorted out and a new account number setup, pay the past due amount, and submit the request to have my credit report fixed – but now I have a collections request on my credit report and I’m in the processing of refinancing my house. Needles to say, I am livid.

I had no idea this was possible and it seems like a huge flaw in PEPCO’s system. I am infuriated and I thought PoPville should be aware.