Complaint Review:
DTE Energy
DTE Energy Charged for payment plan plus current billing,Big changes in amount charged after getting on payment plan,Inproper payment posting Detroit, Michigan
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2000 2nd Ave.
Detroit, Michigan
United States of America
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1800-477-4747
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On several occasions I've contacted DTE Energy about my bills after getting on the budget wise payment plan, My reason for getting on the plan was because I couldn't afford to pay my gas and electric bills. My bills got larger after I got on the budget plan even though I was using the same amount of gas/electric that I was using before I got on this plan. My light bill as one example went from $25.00 per month to $142 per month. I'm being charged my current billing period and current plan payment amount example current billing amount $299.56 and my payment plan amount $201.00 to come up with a total owed of $500.56 the only thing that I would owe if not on the plan, would be the $299.56 but they have me owing both amounts due for the month. This is something that they do every month so it causes my bill to be larger than what it should be monthly. When I call no one can give me a answer to my questions how come I'm being charged for the payment plan as well as current charges? Also my bills reflect double distribution and power supply energy charges. My bills never seem to go down no matter how much I send to them. Also for over two years I was paying a gas bill for two residences and on one of the homes I had a very high credit which I was told that I shouldn't have been sending a payment but I wanted to make sure that when winter came back around my bills would be paid through the credits I had incurred.Since it didn't happen the way it should have I decided to take my name off one of my houses and my brother put it into his name. I was sent a final bill two months later saying I had a credit,but I started getting calls saying I owed money that the final statement said was paid through my credits. Again I called to ask what happened and again I didn't get a straight answer. I was told the credit was taken out and put on my current account. This account was closed on 01-11-10 and I didn't know about this transaction until 3-20-10 when I got a call saying I owed them the money and it had to be paid now or else. To this day I still haven't received a letter stating what happened.I have a serious illness that I'm told by my doctor not to get upset because that has bad repercussions on my health. This is upsetting me to no ends being called and threatened about paying the money or getting my service shut-off. I also have Raynauld's syndrome and I can't get cold. I need some help with this problem My job of owning a daycare service isn't doing well because of people losing their jobs so it's hard for me to come up with the amount of money they are getting from me. My medical bills are very high because of no insurance so they need to get my bills right.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Teresa I
Rochester Hills,Michigan,
United States of America
Same Problem as Milan's
#2Consumer Comment
Sun, July 10, 2011
I'm having the exact same problem with DTE as the writer from Milan. Two years ago, due to to temporary issues, I got approximately 100.00 behind in my electric bill from DTE. At that time my bill was less than 25.00 dollars a month. I lived in a 400 sq. ft. apartment with NO air conditioning. I agreed to pay 31.00 a month to bring my bill back into the black.
DTE immediately took me off of paper billing, without my consent, and just started sending me my bill via email, which I paid faithfully. However, I noticed that my bill was creeping up and up. First double, now more than triple the amount I was originally being billed. I can assure everyone that my lifestyle, nor my paycheck, has tripled in the past 24 months. My last bill was for almost 70.00. No air conditioning. No one home 5 days a week. And nothing being made clear in the bills sent via email. I was finally able to check the billing statement through the web (which I don't have regular access too) only to discover DTE claims I have a "balance" of over 200.00 on my account.
From my calculations, my original amount owing, the one I asked to be placed on the payment plan two years ago to repay, has been repaid at least twice. This new balance is complete fiction, and an outrageous rip-off in my view.
I moved into a nicer home on June 17th, and fully expected DTE to correct the billing problem from my old address. They have not. In fact, they went so far as to continue my "payment plan" billing at my new address, which I never asked for, nor care to continue. DTE is billing me another 70.00 at my new address, for less than three weeks of service.
Because DTE is a government sanctioned and protected monopoly, and because Michigan residence are forced to use and rely on this monopoly for the electric service they need to survive, clearly they feel safe treating customers as they choose, billing them for pure fictions, and then threatening them with shut off notices if they don't comply with these extortion tactics.
To put it mildly, I am outraged, and there ought to be a law forbidding DTE from ripping off their enslaved customers this way. I will be calling them within the next week, and if I have to pay the bogus balance from my old address, I will do so just to avoid their government protected extortion practice in the future.
I also want back on to paper billing. I don't own a printer, and don't always have full web service. How dare they simply assume I do? How dare they force me into their stupid "green" religion? What DTE needs is a good old fashioned dose of fear from a competent competitor.