AURORA — Jittilak Chaivann relies on her bank to automatically pay the bills for her Aurora restaurant. But the $1.28 million bill that came this month from Xcel Energy swamped her account and threw her into a panic.
Chaivann and her mother, Surin Thawon, own Thai Flavor at 1014 S. Peoria St. She paid little attention to the bill when it first arrived because she knew US Bank would take care of it.
She glanced at it and mistook the total for the approximate amount of the eatery’s normal monthly bill — about $1,280, she said Sunday. “I just looked real quick. With auto pay, I never have a problem.”
But when she called the bank to see if the rent check on the storefront had cleared, she heard some distressing news.
The bank had cleared the check but with a bill that large — tax alone was $96,250.90 — her account had slipped deeply into the red. “They say, ‘Hey, you are negative $1 million.’ I asked how can that happen, they said, ‘Xcel Energy charged you $1 million.’ ”
Xcel spokesman Joe Fuentes said Sunday he couldn’t talk about customer accounts.
“We hope that the customer is satisfied with the service we give,” he added.
After Chaivann called Xcel late Thursday, she said, the company took care of the problem quickly.
Xcel figured out how much the restaurant really owed, wiped out the bill and has promised to pay any overdraft charges, Chaivann said.
The company told her that no one else has complained of a similar problem, and Xcel is investigating to determine why it happened, she said.
Thai Flavor has been in business for seven years, and this is the first time Chaivann had a problem with Xcel or her automatic bill pay.
She will examine her bills more closely in the future, she said.
“I don’t look much. You have to watch your bill very carefully.”
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
