Complaint Review: Direct Energy US - South

This is in timeline format as I have so many complaints this is the only way to keep them organized. Yes, it is long, but I'm hoping this may help someone if they are having similar problems.

August 2007:
Service began at Apartment #1.
I signed up for direct debit from my checking account. This took a while to start, so I continued to mail in a check until I saw the message that said Automatic Debit. Do Not Pay. listed on my bill in the return stub area. This continued relatively ok until May of 2008, complaints at this point.

May-June 2008:
This was the first bill that I have in my possession that indicates something went wrong. I was not aware that they had stopped the direct debit from my account, as it still indicated on the bill the above quote to not pay. I did not, and because I was attending classes at the local university that summer, I did not discover that I somehow had missed that payment until they called me and stated that my service would be shut off if I did not pay my bill in a timely manner. I immediately got online and paid the bill and late fees because I am very conscious of my credit and do not tolerate being late on any payments. The due date on the bill reads 7-7-08, but payment is not shown until 7-15-08.

During this time period after I found out that Direct Energy was not debiting my account even though the bill stubs stated they would, I knew what to watch for and caught the above happening again, twice. I was able to pay them on time however because I knew what to watch for. I decided at this point to send in a check as payment so that I could be sure that I was not late on my bills. When I started doing this I called and requested that the direct debit cycle be canceled

August 2008:
I moved apartments across town, and decided to keep Direct Energy because I was already set up with them. I received two final bills during this time for Apartment #1, and I paid them both. One was received on the 24th for the amount of $90.10, another the 29th for $131.56. As I had moved and I knew I was going to receive a final bill, I paid both, not knowing that the larger amount included the previous balance.

September-October 2008:
I called Direct Energy about Apartment #1 account to check and make sure that it had been taken care of and closed out. They confirmed that it had indeed been taken care of and was completely closed, and that I had a $90.10 credit on the account as I had paid the full amount on the $131.56, not knowing it included the previous balance. They offered me the option of taking a check from them or having it credited to my new account at my current address Apartment #2. I chose a credit to my new account and put the incident out of my mind

September 10-October 09 2008:
This bill reflects the above credit to the new account at my new address. The amount of this bill was very cheap and I was very happy at that point that everything had been taken care of.

December 2008:
I received a call that left a message stating they had a business matter they knew I would need to discuss with them. I called the number back to find that it was from Torres Credit Services calling to collect the debt I owed on the account I had at my old address in the amount of $89.15. (I still do not know where this number came from, it does not appear on the account summary for Apartment #1 that was sent to me to prove that I was not delinquent on payments. )

I immediately called Direct Energy and demanded to know why they had turned me over to a collection agency when I had paid a bill twice and they actually gave me a credit. The person(s) that I spoke to were adamant that they had NOT turned me over to a collection agency, and that if they had, it was an internal billing service in another state. I requested a copy of all of my financial transactions with them from the Apartment #1 account.

I received a letter from Torres Credit Services and then called them and asked that they not bother me anymore as I had requested documentation that I had indeed closed that account. I also asked if they were affiliated with Direct Energy; e.g. were they the internal collections from another state. I was told firmly by the rep that they were NOT a part of Direct Energy and never had been. (They were also a lot nicer to me than anyone at DE.)

January 2009:
I finally received the documentation from Direct Energy, however, I did not get it until January 13th, which was 6 days before the day TCS had listed as their final due date. I had to fax the information to assure that it got there in time. After that big mess, I was finally able to rest easy for a little while, as I satisfied the collection company and had been reassured yet again that the Direct Energy account Apartment #1 was finally completely taken care of.

During all of this I requested several times to speak with a supervisor and to put a complaint flag on my file, however, I was never able to speak to someone other than the customer service people. This is unfortunately not the end of the story.
I had gotten married 8-28-08, and my name changed, this will be seen later.

February 2009:
The apartment next door to me received a new tenant before the 10th of February and somehow he was given the wrong paperwork and signed up for utilities with my apartment number, which is the one that I live in with my husband. I started getting final bills from the water and internet providers, and having taken care of that around February 12th, on a whim decided to call Direct Energy.

February 12th:
The customer service rep I was able to speak with informed me that, yes, someone had tried to sign up for electric services with my number, but because it was with a different provider, they did not bother to call or send a letter they were going to shut it off FEBRUARY 13th!!!! If I had not called, the electricity in my apartment would have been shut off the next day without any warning.

I asked the rep what I could do to keep my electricity on, and the only option was to immediately sign up with a new account. Enter account number 3. While registering for this new account I found out a few useful things:

-I had to pay disconnection fees
-I had to pay fees for breaking my contract early of $100 or more.
-I had to pay the reconnection fees to the new account.
-Because I had to start a new account, I would have to break my contract when I move, as my husband and I are moving to a different state in May when I graduate.
-I asked if I could change my name to my married name and was tersely informed that I could not unless I sent in a copy of the marriage license, my new Social Security card and my new driver's license showing my married name.
-I replied So my neighbor can shut off my power without you all calling me or letting me know until it is too late, but I can't change my name unless I send you three different proofs?
-I asked to speak with a supervisor, but was not able to as there were none available at the time. I requested a flag be put on my accounts.
-I was informed that a supervisor would call me back and send a letter indicating that they would pay the disconnection, reconnection and contract breaking fees. I have never received anything of the sort.

As soon as I received my bill, I sent off the balance the next day, February 20th.

February 23:
I received a call at 8:12 in the morning. I was not available at the time, so it went to voicemail. It stated that they had a business matter they needed to discuss with me. I became worried because the last time I had received a message like that they had turned me over to a collection agency. I called them back and they could find no reason for the call.

February 24:
I received a call at 7:45 am. A very rude lady stated that I was late in my payment of my final bill and that I had 5 days to get it in before I was turned over to a collection agency. I went to my online banking, and saw that the check had cleared two days before. I told her that, and she very rudely informed me that the billing department was in another state and they probably had not received the update, but that I had only 5 more days to get my payment in.

For two weeks, I had a call from Direct Energy nearly every other day. These calls after the 24th were mostly just oops; we don't know why we called you. Here are some dates:

March 3:
Called at 12:30, I was in class at the time and called them back when I was done. Again, they had no idea why they had called and left a message. I still had not received a bill.

I requested, (again.) that my accounts be flagged for complaints and that I speak to a supervisor. There were not any supervisors available, but the person was nice enough to flag my accounts again and promise to run account summaries of all transactions I had with Direct Energy on all three account numbers.

Three minutes after I hung up from that call, a supervisor finally called me. She declared to me that the disconnection, reconnection and contract charges would be taken care of by upper management and that I would not see them or have to worry about them. I also asked her if I could change to my married name, but she refused, stating that I would have to send in the proper documentation. She gave me the complaint ID (for which I was thankful) but that only pulls up the notes she made. She would not give me the conversation log number, saying that it would not give a log number until she hung up. I have gotten conversation numbers from several customer service reps through all of this mess, and none of them had stated that they had to hang up. All of them willingly gave me the log numbers.

March 3 to March 25, 2009:
All was quiet. No calls, no bills, nothing

March 24th 2009:
A bill for the new account, #3, was finally received, with a Reconnect at Meter Outside Regular Hours Non Holiday charge listed on my bill for the amount of $97.00.

March 25th 2009:
I called customer service and asked that I be given an email address or an address that I could send a copy of the letter I was filing for the Texas Public Utilities Commission as a last ditch effort before I reported them. The representative would not give me an address and would not pass me to a supervisor. I was kept on the phone for 45 minutes while she read to me amounts and payments that I had in front of me and already knew pertaining to Apartment #1.

For some reason, she decided that I would have to confirm that they had turned me over to a collection agency by contacting Equifax and getting an official credit report from them. I am a college student and do not have the extra money to pay for that; I have had to apply for food stamps to make ends meet! I had already checked on freecreditreport.com, and it seems that I have been able to keep from having my credit score hurt too badly.

After talking for an extended period of time to someone who wanted to go through all the problems one by one even though she could not take care of them, I demanded to talk to someone else. All I wanted was an address for a last chance. After being read everything I already knew, I was not willing to go through all five pages of problems as I have classes and a thesis to finish.

A supervisor finally came to the phone and I was able to get my name changed and the $97 reconnection fee taken off. At least that's what I was assured would happen. She also gave me the address of the office of the president of the company, so that I could send in a copy of the letter to give them one last chance. Again, I requested account summaries of all transactions. I think this lady may have actually done it; she gave me a complaint ID also. This was when I finally understood that they do not use conversation log numbers, but complaint ID numbers. I learned a lot from her, the best customer service I've had.

So that's it so far. I expect this could drag on for quite a while, as I have to move to another state when I am finished in May. I will concede that yes, some things have been resolved, but only after time, effort and money have been spent on this to the point that the Texas Public Utilities Commission actually asked me to send in all of this documentation, as they were quite interested in my case.

Chantel
East, Texas
U.S.A.