Con Ed Asks Queens Man To Pay Nearly $38 Million On His Electric Bill

Ha ha you crazy Con Ed.

The fun thing about the faceless companies that allow you to do things like heat and light your apartment, at least in my experience, is you never what kinda zany charges they might conjure up for your monthly utilities bill. Maybe you have lived in your apartment for 16 months before National Grid alerts you to the fact that no one has paid the cooking gas tab in, gosh, years probably? And somehow that becomes your responsibility. Arguably, that kind of oversight could be blamed on a negligent management company, but when Con Edison helpfully suggests that you pay $38 million on your latest electric statement, well, what on earth could be going on there?

"So, apparently, when their system decides you 'owe' an amount, it autopopulates" that number on your statement, Con Ed customer Tommy Straub explained to Gothamist. On Monday, Straub noticed that, for some reason, Con Ed had decided he should pay an astronomical $37,974,398 (plus $3.75 fee, never forget) on his February utilities statement. That would be a lot for his 600-square-foot Astoria apartment, so Straub posted a screenshot to Twitter in an attempt to unpack the situation.

"I owed $74 or so," he continued, "but the system 'thinks' I owe $37 million." An unredacted statement he subsequently tweeted shows his balance due at just over $77, but the automatically generated number—which Straub says he could not edit—would have prompted him to lavishly overpay.

Haaaaa ha ha ha but where would Con Ed's system have gotten this idea, anyway?? Straub believes this little hiccup stems from a "computer mismatch": At some point during the billing process, Straub suspects his account number must have been skewed, prompting Con Ed to spit out a figure the size of Manhattan. He almost clicked pay, he said, before he noticed the discrepancy.

"My boyfriend was dying laughing," Straub said. "I didn't find it that funny."

When Straub initially brought the matter to Con Ed's attention, via Twitter, their customer service department did not seem to immediately clock the error, either.

Nonetheless, Straub added, the company has since adjusted the statement to a more reasonable $77 and change. Which, yes, one would hope.

A Con Ed spokesperson, meanwhile, told Gothamist that the company had not yet confirmed that Straub's payment field automatically filled in that $38 mill. "We're looking into all of it," the spokesperson said, without noting whether or not mishaps like this happen often. Straub, however, harbors "no malice" toward Con Ed, and told us that they have been "very gracious" in fixing the problem. "They were very grateful to know that [the statement] did have such an error so they could double check," Straub said. "Gotta say, I feel much better." And honestly, because I have become very invested in all of this, same.