NYSEG Lawsuit: Complaint, Billing Issues, and Smart Meter Spikes

The NYSEG class action lawsuit is a 2025 case filed in Chemung County Supreme Court (Index No. 2025-1152) alleging that New York State Electric and Gas Corporation overbilled customers in the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions through inaccurate meter readings, unexplained charges, and a customer service operation that refused to investigate. As of mid-2026 no class has been certified, and the filing party is still gathering bills, statements, and communication histories from affected customers for possible inclusion.¹

Who Filed the Case and Who It Covers

The plaintiff of record is Lonnie Fluegel, chief executive of a company called MaxYourTech. The case listing identifies Fluegel himself as the plaintiff, and no law firm has been publicly identified as representing the proposed class.¹

The proposed class is NYSEG customers in the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions of New York who say they were overbilled because of inaccurate meter readings, were given no meaningful explanation for sharply higher charges, and were turned away when they asked customer service to look into the problem.¹

What the Complaint Alleges

The complaint accuses NYSEG of predatory billing practices and what it calls a “complete lack of accountability.” It seeks three things: monetary damages for affected customers, injunctive relief that would change how the utility bills and responds to disputes, and certification of the case as a class action so that a single judgment can cover everyone in the defined group.¹

Current Status and How Customers Are Being Included

The case has been filed but not certified. Until a court certifies a class, there is no formal “membership” to join; the case moves forward on behalf of the named plaintiff while the court decides whether the group he defines meets the legal tests for class treatment.

In the meantime, the filing party is collecting documentation from NYSEG customers who believe they were affected: copies of bills showing unexplained spikes, records of estimated versus actual meter readings, and logs of calls or messages to NYSEG’s customer service. That material is being gathered for potential inclusion in the action.¹ Providing your records at this stage does not make you a party to the lawsuit; it puts your account on a list of potentially affected customers.

The Billing Problems Behind the Lawsuit

The suit did not appear out of nowhere. In 2022 alone, the New York State Department of Public Service logged more than 4,700 customer complaints against NYSEG, most of them about erroneously high bills. That was a 60% jump over the previous two years combined. A Department of Public Service consumer advocate attributed the surge to NYSEG’s failure to keep enough staff on hand to read meters or answer phones, which produced delayed, inflated, and incorrect bills.²

Smart Meter Spikes

Complaints intensified as NYSEG installed smart meters. Multiple customers in Alden reported bill jumps right after installation. One customer’s bill rose to $433 from a typical summer figure of about $170. NYSEG acknowledged an installation “error” that overcharged her by 1,000 kilowatt-hours, but even after the correction her daily usage still ran 10 to 15 kilowatt-hours higher than before. Other residents in the area reported increases over $100 following the switch.³

NYSEG has maintained there is no connection between smart meters and billing spikes and attributes the fluctuations to seasonal usage, natural gas costs, and the gap between estimated and actual readings. The company has installed more than 50,000 smart meters in Western New York and is aiming for full deployment across its 170,000-customer regional base. Customers who refuse a smart meter face a $13.47 monthly opt-out fee.³

What Documentation to Preserve

Whether the class is eventually certified or not, the categories of evidence the filing party is collecting are also the categories that matter for a Public Service Commission complaint or an individual billing dispute:

Monthly bills from before and after any sharp increase, especially any that followed a smart meter installation.
Any bill labeled “estimated” and the next actual reading that followed it.
Notes, emails, or call records from contacts with NYSEG customer service, including dates, representative names, and what you were told.
The installation date of your smart meter, if one has been installed.

Other Actions That Are Not the Lawsuit

Several parallel proceedings involve NYSEG but are separate from the class action, and money or relief coming out of them will not depend on whether you are part of the suit.

The Public Service Commission has imposed escalating penalties on NYSEG for missed customer service and reliability targets: $8.72 million in 2023, $11.4 million plus another $3.5 million for electric reliability failures in 2024, and roughly $11.2 million in 2025 (doubled because the company failed the same metric two years running), plus another $3.5 million for missing its outage-frequency target for the seventh consecutive year.⁴⁵⁶⁷ These penalties are negative revenue adjustments credited back to customers rather than damages paid to any lawsuit plaintiff.

A May 2025 independent audit by NorthStar Consulting Group produced 128 recommendations for operational changes at NYSEG and its sister utility Rochester Gas and Electric, and the Commission ordered the companies to implement all of them.⁸

U.S. Representative Josh Riley opened a congressional investigation in April 2025 and later intervened as a formal party in NYSEG’s rate cases (Nos. 25-E-0375 and 25-G-0378), which lets him access evidence and cross-examine witnesses under oath.⁹ The Ithaca Common Council unanimously passed a resolution on June 3, 2026, asking Attorney General Letitia James to investigate the financial relationship between NYSEG, RG&E, and their parent companies.¹⁰

The rate case itself is separate too. NYSEG filed a request in June 2025 for a 35% electric and 39.4% gas delivery increase, and on May 14, 2026, the Public Service Commission approved only a temporary 3.7% electric and 0.5% gas increase effective June 1, 2026, while the review continues.¹¹ A final decision is expected later in 2026.

One refund has already been secured, though not through this lawsuit: NYSEG, RG&E, and other New York utilities negotiated a settlement under which NextEra Energy Transmission New York agreed to refund more than $13 million plus interest to ratepayers statewide, applied to the transmission charge line on customers’ bills.¹²

NYSEG denies that its billing practices are improper and has attributed service failures to post-pandemic staffing problems and to the gap between estimated and actual meter readings.⁵ The class action, the rate case, the audit implementation, and the request for an attorney general investigation all remain pending as of mid-2026.

1
MaxYourTech. NYSEG Class Action
2
CNY Central. How Reliable Is It? I-Team Looks at Customer Complaints as NYSEG Rolls Out Smart Meters
3
WKBW. NYSEG Customers Complain of Higher-Than-Usual Energy Bills
4
Spectrum News. Public Service Commission Fines RG&E, NYSEG for Customer Service Issues
5
Rochester First. RG&E and NYSEG Lose a Combined $18.5M in Public Service Commission Penalties
6
NY Department of Public Service. PSC Levied $28.9 Million Financial Penalties Against 5 Utilities Failing to Meet Customer Satisfaction Standards
7
NY Department of Public Service. PSC Receives Update on Utility Electric Reliability and Gas Safety Standards
8
NY Department of Public Service. PSC Releases Audit of NYSEG and RG&E
9
Office of Rep. Josh Riley. Riley Intervenes on Behalf of Ratepayers in NYSEG Rate Case
10
Ithaca.com. Common Council Requests State Investigation Into NYSEG Practices
11
NY Department of Public Service. Commission Grants Only a Fraction of NYSEG and RG&E Rate Request on Temporary Basis
12
NY Department of Public Service. PSC and Other Parties Secure $13 Million Ratepayer Refund From Transmission Developer