Complaint Review: Champion Energy Services - Houston Texas

I must have failed to mention that the Director of Customer Service at Champion Energy that is responding to my complaint is also the person that I spoke to on the phone that laughed about what they were doing. When I asked this "Director" who they report to she informed me that SHE was the one that answers the complaints. This felt like a tactic to discourage me from taking the time to file a formal complaint. So, once again, Champion Energy shows how they treat people. Not only does she laugh at what thet have done to customers they then have the same person answering the complaints? This company obviously does not care about how it treats people or they would have someone in place to protect the clients. They just give the abuser another avenue to hurt people and to make them feel helpless. Believe me, when you see that your electric bill is over $950 in one month, you ave trusted a company to auto debit, the "Director of Customer Service" not only laughs about it then this same monster responds to your complaint with an advertisement about how they care. Shame on Champion Energy for employing such people. Shame on Champion Energy for not having someone else respond to the complaint. Shame on Champion Energy for laughing at what they did to not only my family but many others. Shame on Champion Energy for trying to convince anyone that the only rate available was 20.125 when during the same period I could have gone to 20 companies and had a great rate. Shame on Champion Energy for treating customers liike we don't have the ability to add two plus two. It may not catch up with you for a very long time but if enough people talk about how you increase your bottom line with profits stolen from hard working families it will eventually send enough to companies that really do care.

So, let me get this straight. You prefer for us to have auto draft from my bank account and then blame me for not opening paper bills and trusting my energy company. Then, after having a customer service manager behave so poorly the response given is nothing more than and advertisement directed at new customers. I did not see anything about someone calling our home? Could you not have a computer call our home? What about the other people your "customer service" manager laughed about that paid 70 cents? With the financial stress going on for American families right now the best you could do was publish an ad. You have proven once again how Champion Energy is all about themselves and not about the American family. Once again, shame on you and prayers for the poor people taken advantage of by your business model. I could have singed up with twenty different companies for half of what you are saying market rate was. So, I guess these other companies were going to sign my family up at a loss. I hope everyone sees your company for what it really is!

At Champion Energy, a customer facing an unexpectedly high bill is no laughing matter. We'd always prefer to have a happy customer on a secure fixed rate plan rather than a surprised or angry customer with an expired contract. That's why, in addition to the contract expiration date printed on every bill, we also send renewal reminders via e-mail at 45, 30 and 15 days prior to contract expiration, and printed reminders are inserted into customer bills both before and after contract expiration. If there is no email address on file customers receive a renewal notice via US Mail.
 
Because this customer's contract had expired, they were billed on what's called an "index" price, tied to wholesale market prices. The high price of electricity on their bill accurately reflects the cost to purchase the power on the Texas wholesale energy market at the time they used it. These prices are not typical. In fact, they correspond to a series of record breaking price spikes caused by Texas' August heat wave. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has published an independent report on the subject available here: http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=3010.  Consumers can also see a history of Champion's out-of-contract rate here, to validate that what Ms Horton experienced is out of the ordinary:  www.championenergyservices.com/monthtomonth 
 
We take this kind of thing very seriously and we definitely don't like the way it has affected some of our customers. That's why, starting back in August, we began making the internal changes necessary to help protect our customers from these type of price spikes in the future. Beginning with customer meter reads after October 1, 2011, Champion Energy customers whose contracts expire will roll onto a new Month to Month Variable Rate Plan. The new variable rates will allow us to help buffer our out-of-contract customers from the dramatic fluctuations of wholesale energy markets. While this won't effect Ms. Horton, it will help to insulate future customers from this type of occurance.
 

At Champion Energy, a customer facing an unexpectedly high bill is no laughing matter. We'd always prefer to have a happy customer on a secure fixed rate plan rather than a surprised or angry customer with an expired contract. That's why, in addition to the contract expiration date printed on every bill, we also send renewal reminders via e-mail at 45, 30 and 15 days prior to contract expiration, and printed reminders are inserted into customer bills both before and after contract expiration. If there is no email address on file customers receive a renewal notice via US Mail.
 
Because this customer's contract had expired, they were billed on what's called an "index" price, tied to wholesale market prices. The high price of electricity on their bill accurately reflects the cost to purchase the power on the Texas wholesale energy market at the time they used it. These prices are not typical. In fact, they correspond to a series of record breaking price spikes caused by Texas' August heat wave. The U.S. Energy Information Administration has published an independent report on the subject available here: http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=3010.  Consumers can also see a history of Champion's out-of-contract rate here, to validate that what Ms Horton experienced is out of the ordinary:  www.championenergyservices.com/monthtomonth 
 
We take this kind of thing very seriously and we definitely don't like the way it has affected some of our customers. That's why, starting back in August, we began making the internal changes necessary to help protect our customers from these type of price spikes in the future. Beginning with customer meter reads after October 1, 2011, Champion Energy customers whose contracts expire will roll onto a new Month to Month Variable Rate Plan. The new variable rates will allow us to help buffer our out-of-contract customers from the dramatic fluctuations of wholesale energy markets.