Complaint Review: First Energy Corp

At renewal time in 2012, I was on an emergency trip in Texas tending to my sick mother who is now in a Alzheimer nursing home and in attendence by hospice around the clock. I got back to Dayton 2 months ago to discover that my account with FES should be up for renewal Nov 1st, 2013. Instead I find that they chose to make my renewal date Dec 31, 2013 and did this while I was in Texas. Since I didn't get mail forwarded down there I couldn't see what my rates were or know what they had done to my renewal date. I depended on my wife to call bill amount totals to me so I could pay all bills over the Internet.

Being a stressful time I didn't even realize the terms that allowed them to renew me automatically if i didn't respond to a warning letter. This needs to be fixed with PUCO. Companies like this should be required to turn your account back over to the utility provider when a customer doesn't respond. They not only stretched out my renewal an extra 2 months but raised my rate also to a ridiculous 2 points higher than the competitors available. They were just as high as the rates DP&L charged but I wouldn't have been locked into a $175 cancellation fee to get away from DP&L. This system PUCO has approved stinks and they ignore complaints from citizens like me who complain of the wrongdoing. I now have to wait an extra 2 months to get away from FES in order to avoid paying $175 cancellation fee.