“ Not one email about missed payment despite having electronic billing. Even got an email saying thanks for your payment. Then 10 days later they shut my power off after sending one letter. Didn't read it because I have autopay and I read the emails. Pretty ridiculous to send me thank you for payment emails and then cut off my power. I will never use this company again. ”
“ The only feasible way to connect to Direct Energy customer service is via phone - the online chat option is a joke as the wait time is very long. The customer service is outsourced and poorly trained (thank you for creating US jobs. NOT). Also, you can ONLY contact them during the week so if there is an emergency you're kind of screwed. I am planning on giving this company one last chance before I cancel, even though my mind is sort of already made up. ”
“ Call for service, there is no option for service! Can't locate a service number on the website either! They dont open till 7:30... what about the 24/7 service they advertise! My local company may be a little more, but they answered right away! ”
“ I changed residences back in May. I scheduled a connection to my new residence. They connected to another residence instead of the one I told them. I got charged for their mistake. Been billed separately multiple times. Being inconvenienced and billed multiple times has caused me to want to consider looking for another service provider when the contract is up. I was a happy customer until this happened. ”
“ We have struggled with this company. With the latest snafu, we underpaid a bill by $12 due to a misunderstanding on our part. Shame on us for the mistake. However what was aggravating is that the company cancelled our service without so much as a phone call. With the rates they are charging us now that we are month to month this level of service doesn't fly. We are shopping for plans now and see rates that are ~40% less than what we are paying with them today. ”
“ I moved one block over and switching electricity has left me and my kids in the dark. I have a 41.00 dollar balance but I've been given the run around lied to and told that the floor supervisers don't have supervisers don't have supervisers. They are holding on to my 41.00 dollars and have cut off my lights because supposedly my balance is too low. Well if they would give me my balance from before my move that is being tied up with "unfortunately I cannot help you'd" I would have a higher balance. This company has blatantly robbed me! Who can help me with this. I have called direct energy and center point and Texas electric commission. And here I am with no power although this company has my unspent money. ”
“ 3 months ago I signed up for the power to go plan and things were great until recently. DFW area experienced a lot of power outages and my family was without power for 2 days in 20 degree weather. Well once we received power, we were billed for those days by power to go. I called and CSR placed a dispute for those days and dropped my rate down 1.8 cents for the next 6 months so I went on and funded the account again and 2 days later, power is off. Now I'm pissed!! Call again CSR tells me it usually takes 3-5 days for those disputes to be finalized so I guess it the mean freaking while you just continue to overcharge me huh!! Again I had no choice but to find the account because my kiddos get home before me and they were home without power. Mind you, account shows that I find this account faithfully every week. Now one day later, I added up the previous days kWh used to find out I was overcharged $6 once again CSR does a freaking dispute. Aldo tells me it's taking longer because since the power outage a lot of customers are calling and that department does not have enough staff to handle the call volume and disputes. Okay well hire more dang people. Can't take this crap anymore, will be going back to traditional electric plan and it will not be with DE!!!! ”
“ After years of using Reliant Energy I was coaxed into applying for a Price Advantage 12 Plan for 12 months at a fixed rate of 9.8c a Kwh, only to find upon reading my first bill that the rate was 12.1c kWh. After repeated enquiries and calls to their useless customer help line I am still no better off. I have email confirmation from Direct Energy of the rate they advertized and contracted, however their "investigation" shows no such rate. Seems odd to me that their rate is still advertized as I originally saw it, I wonder if anyone else has been scammed by these con artists. ”
“ Give me a break ... I've had two billing issues now, two months in a row. The first one involved Direct Energy crediting me three times for the amount of my bill - twice on the due date, once the day after the due date - and then reversing the first two payments, leaving me with the payment they credited one day late. I double-checked with my bank, and they only paid one time, so this whole "one day late" was completely Direct Energy's fault, and to top it off, they had the audacity to charge me a late fee. I called and was told they would forward my request for that late fee to be removed, which it subsequently was. This month, I called and made my payment over the phone, several hours before the cut-off for it to be credited that same day (the due date) ... and guess what, but they didn't credit my payment until the next day ... another late fee! When I called, I was told by their billing dept that I needed to pay earlier in the day (that would mean earlier than Direct Energy's phone system says it needs to be paid by???) to be credited that same day. When I explained that I called in plenty of time, she proceeded to explain time zones and that it can be difficult when people live in different time zones ... since I live in Texas and therefore in the CT, and the cut-off time was listed specifically for the CT zone, that didn't wash. It was at this point that I was scolded by this woman for always making my payment one minute before the deadline every month (can't control when they put through a payment from my bank's WebBillPay ... and it is still before the deadline, right?), and she stated she could not understand why I would call "every month" to find out if there was a late payment. That ticked me off, because I have only called twice, both for billing errors on Direct Energy's side! She then stated that she had never seen the kind of errors I was bringing to her attention ... as if this was all somehow my fault, or maybe it's just me being annoying because I don't want to pay a late fee for payments that aren't late??? The call ended when I told her that there is obviously a glitch in their system, that I was the unhappy recipient of their glitch, and that instead of telling the customer to "pay earlier in the day" that it might be better to instead look at why these billing issues occurred in the first place. There was silence, followed by this person telling me that she had made a note of my comments in my file ... I'll bet! And guess what? Since my contact expires shortly, I have made a note of her comments as well and will not be renewing my contract with Direct Energy, because nothing is achieved by blaming the customer for billing and accounting errors, other than to piss off the customer! ”
“ Over the course of my years with Direct Energy, my bill rose from around a couple hundred dollars to over five hundred dollars? And this was way more than just fluctuating gas prices and weather changes. One month I tried to use as little electricity as possible and still got a HUGE bill. Direct Energy claimed that something must be wrong with my home's insulation. They claimed my meter was functioning perfectly. After I switched providers, my bills have shrunk back down to a normal size. These guys are not to be trusted. ”
“ Tried for 3 months to switch they kept saying somethings wrong then to late has to sign up again. ”
“ Several months ago I 'switched' my power supplier to your company- so far the switch has not happened. What is the point of putting me to the inconvenience of switching power providers when you do not follow through? The latest bill a few weeks ago STILL HAS not made the switch! ”
“ I have not received anything as of yet from Direct Energy since I signed up with them. ”
“ Gave me a good initial rate and then bumped it up to double what my utility provider was offering as their standard. Zero notification as to increase in rate, very deceptive ”
“ Direct Energy couldn't even submit an order to Oncor correctly! Submitted an order to switch at the end of May, received an email saying that we'd have the switch done in seven days. Seven days later we get an email "welcoming" us to the DE family.Fast forward to the next month, we keep waiting and checking their site to receive a bill and only saw that they "needed weeks worth of data" to show us our usage. Turns out they never even submitted the order to Oncor! Had to click a few different links to realize that our account was still pending! We reach out and all they do is deflect, deflect, deflect. They had the audacity to tell us first that Oncor hadn't "processed" our order, reached out to Oncor and it turns out they never received an order from DE. Once we informed them of that they changed their story to "the orders were pending" on their end, for a month!? Talked to customer service only to be told that it was our fault because the website said our account was pending and because they gave us a call once (ten days AFTER our service was scheduled to start!) and left no voicemail. They also said they put in three orders on the day our service was to start. Strange that they would put in three orders, not reach out to us THAT day, and then never tough the account again! Again, we had to search their website to see that our account was pending, why isn't that front and center! Took them ages to finally accept some blame and admit they should have done better. We overpaid with our previous retailer because we got switched to a month-to-month plan and they wouldn't give us a credit to match the difference. They then stated that they could get our power on by the next business day without even understanding why their orders didn't go through in the first place! How can you promise that when you couldn't do it a month ago??We don't want to deal with customer service that can't own their mistakes and won't do their best to rectify them in the moment. ”
“ I spent over an hour trying just to get a new plan with a customer rep. Absolutely nothing was resolved in that time. So I sent an email to the Office of the President of Direct Energy. I got a response back within a day. However, it was addressed to my email but responded to someone I've never heard of! Direct energy has really bad customer service from the bottom all the way to the top. ”
“ They continuously disconnect service regardless of payment! They disconnected me TWICE in ONE MONTH, HOW IS THIS LEGAL OR POSSIBLE?! I've paid over $500 in two months and have been disconnected 3 times! I'M IN THE DARK AS I LEAVE THIS REVIEW!! Customer service is TRASH unless you speak Spanish!! If not they are going to read a script and not offer any assistance!! I've had to go all the way up to corporate about this issue! I have a disabled parent in my home and they do not care at all! I'm switching companies TODAY and direct energy and they entire spanish speaking customer service crew can kiss my entire ass! ”
“ I was told one thing by one representative. Then when i call back noone know idead what I am talking about. When I ask to speak to a supervisor Jen(in panama) she tells us that if we would pay our bills on time that we would not need an extension. We just lost a loved one and she did not care. Then after the affect apologizes come and they still don't care. Karma is a B. ”
“ I was new in the area so they required a $400 deposit to open an account, which was ok. The deposit would be "refunded when your bills are paid on time for 12 consecutive months".Fast forward 10 months and all my bills had been paid in time. The 11th bill was more than double from any bill I had received from them, including the hot summer months when the A/C is on full speed. Mind you, the 11th bill was for November when the bills are usually a lot lower. 10 days before the bill was due I emailed them asking what the bill was about. It took them 5 days to reply, and I tried to call them several times during those 5 days. They apologized and blamed it on internal billing issues. I asked them to give me the correct amount so I could pay the bill in time. They never replied to my email so I kept calling them but since they never picked up the phone after 25-45 minute on hold, I gave up. One day before the bill was due, I just paid the full amount, even though it was wrong. I didnt want to mess up my 12 months of paying on time. But of course, they received the payment 1 day late. I then paid the 12th bill on time and contacted them for the deposit, but since I was one(!) day late on the 11th bill, I did not qualify for a deposit refund and had to make 12 new payments on time. I was pretty pissed but, for some reason, I decided to stay with them. Fast forward again and I had 12 payments on time and contacted them again for the deposit refund. And guess what, the deposit would be refunded towards the account balance and used as a credit towards future invoices.Excuse me?! Towards future invoices? What exactly does that mean? I asked them if they could just use those $400 for the next invoices until the deposit account was "empty". No, it "didnt work that way". I asked them for an explanation but never received one. So, you can imagine if they require a $400 deposit from, lets say maybe 5000 customers or whatever - that would give them $2 million which they could just keep and, on top of that, get interest from. So their customers is actually giving them a free loan and THEY get the interest. If thats not a scam, I dont know what is. A deposit is YOUR money and its supposed to be paid back in full, as long as you dont violate your contract in any way. Yes, I was one(!) day late the first time, after THEY made a mistake on the bill. It would not surprise me if they did that deliberately.I cancelled the contract and moved to another provider. I asked for my deposit (again), and they sent me a check of $150. I asked them where the rest of the money was. Of course, that was kept as termination fee. Worst company I have ever dealt with. And dont expect to get any answers or explanations from them. If they do answer, its just jibberish and they always leave you stranded if you ask them the "tough" questions.I would rather live in the dark than to give these folks my money. ”
“ Month after month we have seen bills not show up until 3-5 days before the due date. If you pay the bill as soon as it is received, you are still likely to receive a charge for being past due as they do not credit the payment to your site until several days after you make the payment (even if you make the payment on their web site or using their phone service. We have received cut-off notice emails three days after a phoned in or online payment was made! I am convinced that they are holding off on mailing invoices and then holding on time payments to post after the due date in order to charge their past due fee to as many clients as possible. This is a fraudulent business practice and should be investigated.As for me, fortunately I have a choice in who my electric provider is and it will no longer be Direct Energy! ”
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