Company Error: Texas Woman Gets $1.3 Million Electric Bill

(ABILENE, Texas) -- Imagine opening a utility bill and seeing that you owe over $1 million for your month's usage -- well that's what happened to one resident of Abilene, Texas.

In June, Kristin Harriger opened up her electric bill to find she owed $1,381,783.92, according to the Abilene Reporter News.

"I opened it. I read it. Then just went, 'Oh, my gosh. That’s a lot of money,'" Harriger told the paper.

Her last bill, she says, had been for about $100. She immediately contacted her provider, Potentia Energy, and was told that the bill was an error -- either human or computer. She was told she could ignore it, and that she would not have to pay it or the $66,000 late fee. The utility, she says, apologized profusely.

Potentia says it found upon inspection that the bill had been flagged by internal auditors and had been marked held. It was mistakenly sent out by a third-party vendor.

Harriger told the paper she’s only glad it was she who opened the bill, and not her father, "who has a heart condition."

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