Complaint Review: FPL Florida Power & Light Company - Miami Florida

God forbid you lose your job, support multiple children on your own or get cancer with no insurance. Everyone is late once in a while, people don't deserve addtional fees and deposits. I can understand a deposit & a late fee if a person has a history of non payment or multiple past due bills piling up. There must be a line drawn on both sides.

I've said it once and I'll say it again.  FPL is within their rights entirely.  If you pay your bills on time for a certain amount of time, they will be required to return your deposit with interest.  You can think of it as a nice savings account.

If you have any issues, the best thing you can do is file a protest (NOT A COMPLAINT) with the Florida Public Service Commission.  They set the regulations for these companies.

As for the last person who commented, Ellen Plendl will not be able to help in this situation.  She works for the PSC, and their job is to set and enforce the laws, not to force power companies to be generous.

I know it is a shame, but if FPL granted exceptions for everyone then they would go bankrupt and none of us would have no power!

Russ, It's a known fact that FPL abuses customers. As for Livelovelaugh09 you are partly correct on your figures, and FPL is really that bad. Livelovelaugh09 wrote"And fpl is in full compliace with the state for everything they do." I take this FPL employee isn't keeping up with all FPL's court docket. I've been a customer for 36 years with FPL and I too got a demand for deposit for being late once. Majestic_lizard Call this person.. she will help Ellen Plendl Regulatory Specialist Florida Public Service Commission Division of Service, Safety, & Consumer Assistance 1-800-342-3552 (phone) 1-800-511-0809 (fax) [email protected] You can also contact Charlie Christ's office.

I am legally disabled. Due to the condition of the economy, on about three different occasions throughout the 2008-2009 year I was late paying my electric bill. However, on some occasions I actually overpaid. This month I finally had money to pay my entire bill and went about paying it and found that I had been charged several fines and a deposit, causing my $125 bill to be a $400+ bill. I was told I would have to pay a $57 fee to keep my power on. However, FPL would not actually let me pay that fee! Contradicting themselves, they wanted to full amount of nothing at all. Even worse, their employees were condescending and incompetent and did not understand the facts in my case nor their own policies. I do not appreciate being harassed over the phone by a 40 year old bureaucrat with a high school education who could not exercise critical reasoning skills to save her life. I am going to seek legal assistance today from a relative who legally deals with utility companies for a living. I have lived in Florida for over a decade and it is my opinion, based on my experiences, that FPL is a corrupt, exploitative monopoly. They will fine disabled and elderly persons ridiculous amounts. They will cut power without warning. They will accidentally misfile payments to the wrong address. All of those things have happened to me over the years. There needs to be increased government oversight of FPL to prevent this company from exploiting its clients. Anything short of that and this company will continue unethical practices, which include obscene fines.

U say that u have been with the company for 3 yrs so ur deposit is based on the last 12 months of YOUR service and it's an average of 2 months bills. The policy is if ur paid deposit is less than the average of 2 months bills and u pay late 2 or more times in a six month period you will be billed an add dep to increase ur deposit to the 2 month average. If you want ur hard earned money back all u have to do is is pay your bills on time for 12 months and it will be refunded to you. As a company fpl is really good. how many companies do u know that gives u intrest on your paid deposit? 6% intrest(which is credited to ur acctount every june) is more than the intrest most banks offer. ppl tend to forget that fpl needs financial assests provide wat they offer.....if every1 had ur attitude abt causually being a month late do u think u would have reliable power? And fpl is in full compliace with the state for everything they do.

Since you claimed you are "sometimes a month late on the bill," FP & L considers you a high risk. As they are a monopoly, they have a duty to keep the power on for you. You have a duty to PAY your BILL on TIME. SInce you've repeatedly failed to live up the your end of the deal, FP & L has no choice but to keep a deposit. So, though you don't want to hear it, my advice is to GET REAL and stop thinking a monopoly like FP & L cares about anything but its bottom line.