VICTOR, N.Y. – RG&E customers who live in an apartment complex in Victor say they haven’t gotten a utility bill in months and they’re being told it’s tied to the installation of their new smart meters.

Shelia Crouse has lived in her apartment for more than a decade. She’s never had any issues with RG&E until recently. “We were billed in June, paid that bill in the beginning of July and every month since then, I go to pay my bill and it says I have a zero balance,” she explains.

It’s not just her: Crouse’s neighbor didn’t get a bill, and neither did at least a half-dozen others in her complex.

“Every single time I called RG&E and talked to someone, I got a different story, a different excuse as to why we aren’t being billed,” Crouse says. The most recent explanation: “They said, “Oh, well, we turned off our billing when we put the smart meters in,” and I’m like, but you didn’t let us know … and you didn’t turn it back on yet?” she asked.

Crouse and her neighbors are worried that by the time RG&E gets around to reconciling the bills, they’re going to owe huge balances. “My concern is that my bill is going to be astronomical and I’m single, all by myself here, I have bills, other bills to pay … that’s a lot of money to try to figure out, okay, well, what am I supposed to pay, should I put money away … I didn’t know what they were going to bill me,” says Crouse.

News10NBC has taken other complaints from people who haven’t been billed in months and in most of those instances, the customers live in apartment complexes and their meters have recently been updated to smart meters.

A spokeswoman for RG&E says there are no widespread issues. In a statement she explains, “RG&E and NYSEG have installed more than 850,000 smart meters across NY. RG&E issues more than 400,000 bills monthly; smart meters are helping the company successfully generate hundreds of thousands of accurate bills based on actual meter readings for our customers each month. In some rare cases (less than 1 percent per month) a customer bill may be adjusted or delayed for various reasons. If customers are finding they’re not receiving a bill, we encourage them to call customer service so our representatives can address the issue. The Company will continue to examine our systems to ensure the transition to smart meter technology is as smooth as possible for our customers.”

Crouse says she shouldn’t be the one begging to pay her bill. “They told me, it’s the customer’s responsibility to reach out. No, it’s not … that’s not good business practice, it’s not good business practice,” she says, “and I bet when I get the bill for the last four months, they’re going to expect every cent of it in two weeks or they’ll come after me.”

After News10NBC Investigative Reporter Jennifer Lewke called RG&E to inquire about the issues, the accounts were updated and the bills were processed.

A.I. assisted with the formatting of this story. Click here to see how WHEC News 10 uses A.I.