Owner of St. Catharines, Ont., café fought Enbridge over $56K gas bill error — and won

It took 10 years of hard work for Ritesh Kumar to save enough money to buy a place in St. Catharines, Ont., that would become his own small coffee shop with a few apartments to rent upstairs.

But before the first coffee could be served, Enbridge Gas Inc. sent him a $56,589 bill for services between July 2021 and December 2023 — just after Kumar purchased the property and before he opened it in July 2024.

“I totally panicked,” said Kumar.

During those years, Kumar said, no one from Enbridge called to inspect the property or notify him about his gas consumption. Meanwhile, he was working to get city approval and renovating.

Kumar said he has since spent more than two years fighting Enbridge, while running Christopher’s Cafe and becoming a father.

His first complaint with Enbridge was filed on Jan. 9, 2024.

Later, he received an email from the company’s customer service team saying his account was incorrectly billed due to inaccurate meter readings, which Enbridge confirmed to CBC.

Others also faced billing problems

Kumar is just one of many customers who had problems with Enbridge bills in the past five years.

In 2023, a couple in Ajax, Ont., was billed more than $1,600 due to infrequent meter readings and inaccurate estimates by the company.

The Ontario Energy Board, the province’s energy regulator, reviewed the complaints and fined Enbridge $250,000 in 2022 for failing to meet certain standards, including meter reading.

Kumar got a new meter in October 2024, but the $56,589 charge was still showing up on his monthly gas bill. Then, he contacted the office of Enbridge’s ombudsman.

‘There was no furnace,’ Kumar says

Jessie Foster, a senior analyst in Enbridge’s Ombuds Office, responded to Kumar and said they obtained readings from July 2021, when he first bought the property.

“Readings that have been provided to us confirm the consumption billed is valid,” the email said.

The ombudsman’s office noted they even turned services off in October 2022 and July 2023 “as consumption was being used but not being paid for.”

Kumar said he was baffled by the response.

“How can they have a gas bill? First of all, there was no furnace here.”

Built in 1938, the old building used hot-water radiators for heating, Kumar said. In early 2023, he hired Enercare to install five new energy-efficient furnaces for each apartment unit and the café during renovations.

His current gas meter measures the gas consumption at his coffee shop and at the four apartments upstairs, all currently occupied.

Kumar’s monthly gas bill can cost from $100 to $700 in the winter, according to his gas use reports, which he showed to CBC through his Enbridge online account.

In some months, he even overpaid his gas bill to build credit with the company.

“I’m a small business owner. I have a baby,” said Kumar, “I don’t know what to do next.”

Then, on Feb. 3, Enbridge responded by email to questions from the CBC with a surprise for Kumar.

“After connecting directly with the customer and completing a detailed review of the account, we can confirm that the previously reported charge was not correct,” Enbridge spokesperson Chloe Mills said in an email.

She said “our investigation determined that the high balance was the result of inaccurate meter readings.” 

Enbridge cut Kumar’s bill down from $56,589 to “an outstanding balance of approximately $6,200.”

The company said it has “spoken directly with the customer, who has confirmed that the issue has been resolved to his satisfaction.”

Kumar, however, is not a satisfied customer, yet.

“I am still questioning the $6,000 gas bill and do not agree with this amount, particularly given that the building was vacant during the period in question.”