A man from the Belgian municipality of Herseaux (Hainaut, Wallonia) received the shock of his life last month when he found in his mail an electricity bill for a staggering total of €1,279,611.43.
“I had to re-read three times to be sure that I wasn't hallucinating," the stunned Walloon told RTL. Despite bills becoming exorbitant as Europe was gripped by the energy crisis and inflation, this bill was more than the man had anticipated.
He quickly called his energy supplier, Engie, to demand to know how the energy bill had been calculated. To his dismay, he was told by the advisor that there was nothing she could do for him. The man was asked to be patient while her superiors reviewed the case.
The phone operator also told the man that he had just one week to appeal the bill before it would be automatically debited from his account. The Engie customer was left in an agitated state waiting to find out whether he would be financially ruined by his energy provider.
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Finally, Engie put their customer out of his turmoil, informing him that the error was the result of a computer glitch.
The company’s software had miscalculated the bill due to the presence of solar panels on the man’s property. Engie said that it did not have the proper documents confirming their installation. The energy company gave assurances that the bill is far from the real price and that the man will not be charged the original amount.
