MIDDLEVILLE, Mich. — Mitten Pizza in Middleville announced Monday that they are closing after they received a surprise electric bill totaling nearly $20,000.
The pizza shop said the corrected bill was given to them after their electric company discovered a mistake and are charging them for usage going back 12 months.
"This is not a bill that Mitten Pizza LLC can afford to pay, so it is with great sadness that we are announcing that we WILL close the doors on November 1st and cease operations completely if we are unable to negotiate this bill down to a number that isn’t laughable," the shop said in a post on Facebook.
Mitten Pizza said they are trying to find a solution to the bill, but under the current circumstances, if nothing changes, they will be closing down.
"We will continue to exhaust all avenues and ideas to get over this hump," Mitten Pizza said, and they apologized to their customers. The post has received an outpouring of support from customers, being shared nearly 1,000 times and garnering hundreds of comments.
The company also urged people not to "bash" or "threaten" the electric company.
Great Lakes Energy said they have reached out to Mitten Pizza about this situation. They said, "Billing adjustments can be the result of things such as finding equipment failures in the field, meter tampering/theft or incorrect data being submitted and later corrected. Billing corrections aren’t charging for anything extra but rather billing for service used."
The electric company said they will work with customers to establish payment arrangements.
A GoFundMe was started Monday to raise money for the shop.
RELATED VIDEO:
Other stories on 13 ON YOUR SIDE:
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.