CenterPoint Energy
reviews and complaints

Every year, I contact CenterPoint energy via their website asking for a TOTAL amount I paid the previous year for tax purposes and it has never been an issue. However, this year, I have had no reply other than the automated on stating they have received the request and would get back me. From January 31st through February 7th I had to make three requests as no one got back to me. I finally was able to get someone of the phone, which was impossible before, only to be told they don't do that. YES you do give customers their total amount paid. The woman I spoke with was condescending and short. I do not appreciate this and expect a better quality of customer service. I am a long time customer in excellent standing and I deserve to be treated better than this!

I am trying to get an evaluation on my gas meter in order to install a 24 KW Generac. The first time I called I was on hold for 55 minutes. It was immediately clear that the person I was talking to did not have a clue what an evaluation was. She said she would have a technician email or call me back. I have not been contacted. I am trying to call again but have so far been on hold for 34 minutes. Centerpoint needs to upgrade their customer service department.

I have been calling CenterPoint Energy since December 23, 2021 to speak with someone about relocating an existing meter. It is located near a city road and is considered a danger. This company would be liable if it was struck by a vehicle. I have tried to reach this company to review some questions I have regarding this relocation. The existing meter had to be turned off due to leaks. Therefore, my family no longer has a way to heat or prep food for cooking.

After numerous calls, hour long wait times, speaking to various representatives. I receive the same storyline, "You will need to speak to another department...I am not sure why you are not getting a call back, but I can only put this in the notes and send it to upper management."

Like so many other customers, I have been waiting on a call from that department or manager for almost a month now. My family is without heating or a stove to cook. This company should be ashamed to allow people to go this long without heating to stay warm or heat for cooking. Upper Management needs to be held accountable for poor customer service. Why has the company not returned any of my messages that have been left weekly? I am currently on the phone and of course I am on hold. I just need someone to resolve this matter.

If something happens to my Mother because of the cooler temps arriving without any heat. I will be more than happy to get an attorney.

Workers came out to my home at 3410 Candleoak Drive, Spring, Texas 77388 just after Thanksgiving and left debris in my backyard and did an incomplete job. The inspector showed me what they were to do to cut the tress away from the electrical wires however it was not done. Please send someone to complete the work and clean up the debris as soon as possible

On Nov 14th the power went out in Auburn Lakes. After 10 hours one of repairmen in neighborhood came to my door and asked if my power had been restored. I said yes. He did not do ANYTHING, yet I was charged $109 for him to ring my doorbell. I called the company multiple times but they never answered. I was on hold over 2 hours when I was originally told 8 min. I finally had to hang up. Management needs to be replaced immediately.

I have been trying to reach someone regarding my paycheck. It is impossible to speak to someone. I worked for this company and earned the pay. I have emailed payroll services and no response. I was terminated on November 9th, however I worked November 8th and a short time on the 9th. I also had 8 hours of vacation pay. My check was for 0.37, that is impossible.

J Garland

I was at a restaurant today picking up lunch one of your employees parks his truck behind my car - i asked the employee to not block my car so i would be able to leave when my food is ready driver basically ignored me - gave me some lame excuse for doing it - there was plenty of parking places for him to park in he was just being lazy - area was Pasadena, Texas - Andy's Hawg Wild Barbecue was the restaurant

I have been trying to get in touch with someone for weeks to start service to rental house I moved into in Texarkana, TX 75503. Tried online but once i fill out and go to pay deposit it says I can not do online and directs me to call.
Number says call back later when not so busy. Tried everyday for a week to call and no answer. Waited for hours. Its getting very cold at night and I have no gas for heat.
No explanation as to what is going on anywhere I can find.

We need a meter upgrade and have been calling since October 18th. We got a different story every time we called to try to get an appointment however we were told it could take 7-10 business days to even get a call back to make an appointment. It's been longer than that now and we still have not received a call or an email. We have been trying to call again to speak to someone and it says that they are too busy to take our call now. How do you get gas service from this company?

Over the last 6 to 12 months I have had numerous commercial electric service interruptions at 9920 Cypresswood Dr. in Houston. Centerpoint came out multiple times only to tell me each time, from ground observation only, and from behind their vehicle's windshield mostly, that they could not find a problem on their end to repair.
This lead to me hiring an electrical engineer locally, who advised that they have been called out for similar problems at buildings around me, and that line surges were likely the cause. I spent many thousands of dollars on surge protectors for my very expensive HVAC roof top units to avoid a power surge related equipment failure as a result.
Recently, a roofer working on my building noticed a brief shower of sparks falling from Centerpoint's service transformer behind my building, and reported it to me. I called Centerpoint and the crew they sent out shortly thereafter actually took the time to go up in their bucket/boom and found the problem. One of the high voltage taps had severe corrosion that was probably the issue all along.
I think Centerpoint should make this right somehow. My HVAC units absorbed multiple events where they lost a phase of power due to the corroded connection. I had to have the surge protectors installed to protect the equipment after that. I have no doubt that my HVAC equipment service life has been shortened. Most importantly, Centerpoint was too lazy to go up and look closely the first or perhaps second time they were called out, dismissing my concerns. Very poor public relations appearance for Centerpoint to project.
Thanks,
Mark D. Barhorst, MD

They have not answered the phone for TWO WEEKS! I they play a recording stating high volume of calls and longer wait times and suggest to call back later. This has been two weeks now. I can't transfer service or do anything requiring a human. This is ridiculous!

I was on hold yesterday for 1:20 minutes and when I finally got hold of someone, I was told I had the wrong number and was told to call 800.990.1930. I have been on hold at this number for 30-minutes.

All I want is to have my gas meter changed so it will accommodate a Kohler whole house generator. I seems like no one answer a phone at Centerpoint? This is what gives your company a bad name in the community.

look i have called every day from 9/9/2021 and i get a different answer each time they have scheduled twice t come out and no one shows each time they sent the info to that department that does this and nothing what else can i do. i have a Generac installed and i seems that i cant get someone from center point to get this meter upgrade i need help with this to get the system up and running i have medical devise to run if the power goes out for any reason

I am complaining about the power outage in Houston Tx.
We have a Hotel in East Houston with 96 hotel rooms.
We lost power to our buster pump due to one of the transformers not working. It happened on Sep. 12th at midnight.
We reported the outage to CenterPoint the next morning on Sep 13th and now It is Sep. 15th 6 pm and no power.
We have almost 100 people still stay with us without full power or any water.
We have lost about $10, 000 and lost lots of loyal customers that we can not put value to.

Home Service Plus is the worst company/service I have dealt with. You call for a problem with a covered appliance and they schedule an appointment about a week in the future. Then they come out and determine that you need parts that will have to be ordered. The parts arrive in about a week and you have to schedule again for the installation about a week later. Then the day comes for the repair and you get a time period of 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Then at about 3:00 PM on the day of the appointment they call and say they can't make it that day, but will come in about a week. That is BS. If they can't come on the day they scheduled, you should go to the top of the list on the following day. It doesn't do any good to complain.

We lost entire kitchen during the February Freeze event. Last month we decided to go with gas when our kitchen is rebuilt. As of 8/25 we do not have a usable kitchen, no floors, countertops, appliances, etc. We inquired and were told we could be put on list for meter to be installed. We said yes.
We have paperless billing and auto-pay. Gas is not connected to house yet. No appliances have been installed yet we are being billed a monthly customer service fee of 20.72! They say it cannot be waived even though we do not have service yet!. They said when the meter was set, even though its not being used our billing has been started. We were never told of this or we would not have had it installed until our kitchen was rebuilt. The fees are things such as postage and billing? We are paperless! This is fraud. I know our recourse is through the Rail Road commission and Texas Attorney General office but wanted to try this route too.

I made a call to set up services on a rental house for my son. I spoke with a rep that gave me great service; however, when I got to the automated system, it said would you like to pay the full amount of $32.81. I said yes. It was suppose to be $37.50, but I didn't think much about it. Until our appointment was canceled for not making a full payment. I called today, the day of the scheduled appointment. We were told that I made the mistake--it was not a mistake on the reps part. So, I told the rep today that I didn't make a mistake, that I paid what it asked me to. I agreed to set it up again! This time the automated system asked if I wanted to pay the full amount of...$35. Where are they getting these totals? So, I changed it to $50 to be safe. My question is why is an automated system asking if I want to make a TOTAL or FULL payment of an amount that is less than required? So, now I have a new appointment and have paid $82.81 of a $75.00 deposit. This AUTOMATED system sucks. How about telling your representatives to tell customers, "Hey, the system might ask you for a random amount that actually will get your appointment canceled and you will have to say 'Change amount' and put in new amount because our automatic system is crap."

Now, we have to figure out how 3 full time college students who are also 3 full time college baseball players will be home in a window of 8am and 5pm which they will not be home in any of that window. We live 2 hours away and have jobs. So, CenterPoint Energy does have an after hours hook up, but at MY expense. What?

Your system's mistake should be at my expense? And the representative that I spoke with today acted like I was wasting her time.

WHO DO I SPEAK TO THAT KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE DOING AND WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT? SOMEONE WHO DOES MORE THAN DATA ENTRY? I NEED TO SPEAK WITH SOMEONE WHO CAN MAKE REAL DECISIONS!

This experience has been ridiculous.

While I appreciate the power restoration after severe lightning activity and heavy rain on Wednesday 8/18/2021, I am not appreciative of the repair crews leaving debris in my yard. I discovered the debris as I was mowing my lawn and lucky saw it before serious damage or personal injury occurred. I'm disappointed that better precautions and care weren't performed to ensure customer safety. Please see attached photo.

Thank you

HSP is a complete joke. Here is a list of events that's happened thus far:

7/27/21: I notice we no longer have hot water coming out of our spout. I assess the hot water heater and realize the pilot light is no longer working. I successfully light it back on but realize it doesn't stay on so I make a call to HSP. Next appointment is 7/29/21 with this call being listed as "priority" since it is a hot water issue. 48 hrs to wait is reasonable.

7/29/21: Service tech comes out, replaces the pilot light. Great. He leaves, we have hot water for a few hours and again, no longer works. I was able to light the pilot and we did have hot water for a few hours to sustain us until the next available appointment (which wasn't scheduled until 8/4/21, 6 days of waiting). I ask if we can be placed again as priority since this is a hot water issue and hey, gotta maintain basic hygiene.

The phone rep states they can push it up to their manager for approval to expedite our situation since a) this is the second call for the same issue, b) it's a hot water situation, and c) I'm currently 35 weeks pregnant so it could be classified as a "medical exemption". We were told to wait 24-48 hrs for approval and call back daily for a status update.

7/30/21: My husband calls for a status update. The service rep on the phone informed him it was submitted for approval and waiting on a manager.

8/4/21: ..we wait 5 more days. Nothing happened until the original scheduled date of 8/4/21. Tech came out, "fixed the issue" and mentioned something about a valve needing to be replaced.

The same night, a few hours later, we discovered AGAIN no hot water and this time I can't get the pilot light to even light. I make a call to HSP immediately, next available is 8/7/21. We again asked for a medical exemption since I'm STILL 35 weeks pregnant.

8/5/21: I'm hospitalized into L&D for observation due to some complications with the pregnancy. But hey, I at least got my hot shower!

8/6/21: I'm discharged to home. When I got home I called HSP and the service rep stated a) the "medical exemption from 8/4 was still pending manager approval and may have NEVER BEEN SUBMITTED". Given our actually scheduled appointment was the next day (8/7/21), at this point there was really no point to expediting the service call since a) it was late afternoon and b)our appointment was the very next day. She did state she would comment on our appointment that we should be priority since hey, basic hygiene.

8/7/21: We called a couple of times to verify our appointment status and the last service rep we spoke to said our tech was at a "range repair call" and would come to our home immediately after. I was extremely confused as to why a range call was higher priority than a hot water heater?

The tech showed up, stated it was a valve issue and would order the part ASAP. Great, but it's a Saturday so when will it show up? And what kind of rigamarole will we deal with to get a tech to come out to repair it? He also stated something I found interesting: hot water heater calls are absolute priority and we should either be a) same day call or b) next day call. This was our suspicion all along and yet our conversations with the service reps reflected otherwise.

Here are my issues: A) I am 36 weeks pregnant and have been able to shower maybe 4 times over 9 days by basically grinning and bearing those super cold showers. B) I have a toddler that I would like to bathe in warm water at some point. C) why is it every time we call the service line we get different answers? D) Why isn't a hot water issue prioritized accordingly? I.e. today, why were all the other calls on the schedule (like a range fix) for today more important than a livability situation? E) I'd like to bring home my newborn, will I have hot water at that point? I'm scheduled for an induction in five days at this point, I have ZERO trust with HSP and have zero faith they'll actually resolve this issue for us.

In just the last 3 weeks, our power has been out 3 times, once for 6 hours, another time for just an hour and another time for 13 hours! This is reliable service? The weather jut has not been that bad. How can I rely on Centerpoint when I really need them? I teach college from home and need power I can rely on for my classes. I have had to stay at hotels and eat out, since it is so hot and the power has been out for so long. If there had been a hurricane or some other major weather event, I could see the reason behind an outage.
This year, I power seems to go out two to three times a month. When I contact Centerpoint, no one seems to know anything except "equipment problem".