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When I opened my hydro bill last week, I nearly spilled my coffee: it showed a balance almost four times higher than usual. Convinced there was a mistake, I called the utility's customer service line and, after a twenty-minute wait, spoke with a representative who pulled up my account. It turned out the smart meter at my address had briefly lost its connection two months earlier, so the company had estimated my usage instead of reading the actual meter. When the connection was restored, the system tried to correct the estimate in one lump sum rather than spreading it across future bills, which caused the sudden spike. The representative apologized for the confusion and offered to divide the extra amount over three billing cycles instead of charging it all at once. She also flagged my account so that any future connection issues would trigger a manual review before a bill goes out. I appreciated that she explained the technical cause rather than just repeating that the amount was correct. For anyone facing an unusually high bill, it's worth calling before paying, since estimation errors like mine are apparently more common than most customers realize.