CenterPoint Energy review: Very poor customer care service! 18

Dear People, would you please let me know what does the city inspector check upon his visit? Thank you so much

I am completely disgusted with Center Point Energy! Aren't monopolies supposed to be ILLEGAL in the US!? I would pay double to any other company in the world to not have to deal with these people! We are on our 3rd day without electricity in July (in Houston), with no sign of them even trying to get out here until Monday which is 2 days from now! We have been promised 6 different times over the last 2 1/2 days that they would be out within a 4 hour window, and alas, here we are still with no power. Being almost 8 months pregnant is of no concern to them whatsoever. I have never held so much contempt for a company before.

I live in who ppl would call the hood lol. But me I try to do the right thing. I was transferring to a larger apt and I called to have all my utilities transferred and I ran into a problem with center point. They informed me that there had not been gas on in the apt in over a year. And that I needed to get the apt inspected by the city. I called a plumber to make sure everything was good and the plumber says the gas is on. Call Center point and inform them of that. There is not need for an inspection. So I call center point back everyday for a week to try to get someone out to come check in out because I was moving the following Monday and all my utilities had been transferred. Finally Friday a customer service rep says to me. Wait the gas is really on? There's not suppose to be a meter there. I'm like what the hell? I been telling you guys all week. She proceeds to tell me the meter was removed for fraudulent use and she was going to call me back. This is on Friday. I received NO PHONE CALL not only that Centerpoint was closed over the weekend so I could not speak to anyone until the day of my move. By this time I'm pissed but not rude. So Center point comes out and says the damn meter was stolen. Like who does stuff like that.Counterpoint removes the stolen meter THAT DAY! Now...because the meter was stolen even though the gas has been on I still need a permit and the apt inspected. I call the plumbing company back they have a permit and send it to the city to used someone out to inspect that following morning. Now we are into Tuesday centerpoint received the inspection results but don't come to turn on my gas until Thursday. Its cold as hell and I can't feed my family. Centerpoint needs to get their stuff together. This was ridculious . I had to endure all of the extra be simply because some fool wanted to steal a gas meter. Their customer service sucks. Had the first customers service rep did their job correctly the first time I call a WEEK before my move I would have had my gas on when my family moved.

I've been a customer for 40+ years, and I am disabled. CenterPoint cut our gas off on Mar 23. I had my receipt for payment of the full balalce due of $514.96 the day before. The service man could have come to my door, and I would have shown him my receipt and he would have left my gas on. Instead he chose to break through my back gate, sneak in and cut the gas off behind our backs (three of us were home that day). Today, April 16, I decided I'd had enough of heating pans of hot water to use for bathing and such, and decided to have my gas turned back on. By chance, I came across a letter from CenterPoint dated Mar. 26. It stated: You previously received an incorrect invoice from CenterPoint Energy. The meter reading used to measure you consumption of natural gas was not accurate...Again, please note that the adjusted balance after all corrections is $0.00.
I call and tell the rep I want my service restored. She said: Your meter has been removed. What? It was removed April 14, when the tech came to read the meter and it showed 93 CF of usage since the gas was turned off. WHAT? Listen, you, in March you wrote me about your inaccurate readings, and today you're accusing me of stealing nearly $100 worth of gas! When I would normally use less than half that amount in a Houston spring IF I FREAKING HAD ANY GAS SERVICE AT ALL! Liars. CenterPoint sucks.

Center points energy is a bad company full of bad people. I just missed one payment, they stop my service forcign me to pay dicconnection fee, restoration fee and additional deposit. I had $100 dollars deposit with them already. but they still need additional deposit .

I believe their office will be exploded and on fire . these people will get punished by God . If there is any one finding solution to fight with these engergy companies, please post it, I will be glad to join

How is it possible or legal that there isn't any other company to provide natural gas in the city of Houston? Centerpoint turned my gas off when by mistake I underpaid my $915 bill by $50. I own a restaurant and was told that the only way that I could have it turned back on is by paing the difference and a $61 reconnect fee oh yeah and a $4, 000 deposit! WTF?! This is total maddness. These creeps need to be put out of business.

Centerpoint Energy Hires Idiots For Supervisors!

When calling Centerpoint Energy and asking to speak to a supervisor, pray you don't get connected to either a Ruben Aguirre or his buddy Eric Briseno (dumb and dumber). It took me a 2.5 hour conversation with these fine individuals to convince them I had no gas whatsoever. After countless times of being placed on hold, the [censored] named Eric finally figured out my gas had been disconnected by mistake! He promised me again and again he would send a tech out immediately! Well guess what [censored] Eric? The tech didnt show up till midnight! Great job Dumb and Dumber! Both of you must have been hired by the same idiots!

Everyone,

NEVER CALL CENTERPOINT WHEN YOU SMELL GAS! CALL YOUR PLUMBER! CENTERPOINT WILL COME OUT IN A TIMELY AND FRIENDLY MANOR TO TAKE YOUR METER, ONLY TO GUARANTEE THAT THERE WILL BE NO PROBLEM GETTING YOUR METER BACK.. WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! LIARS! LIARS! LIARS! BEWARE! BEWARE! BEWARE! I hope you are reading this and its not too late!

We smelled gas Saturday night, called Centerpoint they came out at 9.45pm and said yep we smell gas and took our meter... Thanks. I called a plumber Sunday, set up a service call for Monday morning, they fixed the problem pulled the permit, the Bellaire, inspector came out at 1.30pm called in the OK to Centerpoint at 2.42pm (they sent me the email response from Centerpoint - time marked) Centerpoint did not get it into their system until 3.55pm -- I was calling every 30 minutes. (you have to call to tell them you want your gas back on - amazing). Unlike others on this list they actually told me no problem the meter WILL be back tonight! Great so we wait, wait, wait and wait till 9pm when I call, yet again asking how late they would be? At that point I was informed that the guy had already stopped by my house, called both phone numbers, cell and house, no one answered the phone or door and the lights where OFF...AMAZING BECAUSE ALL THE LIGHTS WHERE ON, INCLUDING ABOUT A MILLION CHRISTMAS LIGHTS, THE PHONE DID NOT RING. These guys are liars, they have NO regard for you or your kids. I would like to see Standish or McClanahan without heat, stove/oven, hot water, clothes dryer etc.. their nannies/maids would not know what to do!

We have to have competition for Centerpoint, (DEREGULATE) its the only way to improve the terrible service provided by this company.

BCS

I would agree with all the complaints posted, my own personal issue with them is, after years of services, I had one payment that wasen't received two days after it was due, a nd our services was disconected! No late notice, nothing, just disconnected! When I called Centerpoint to pay the bill, that I had already paid through mail, I was told it was going to be a $60.00 Reconnect fee + $100.00 Depoist, all of this over a $22.54 bill! but wait there's more, after I paid almost $200.00 with my debt card, I was then told they couldn't send a tech out until the next day, even though I was on the phone with them at 12:05 p.m. and when they did send a tech out, the appt would be between 8:00 a.m - 8:00p.m .. and someone who is 18 years of age or older has to be there. I wanted to know why, their reason is because " the tech has to do a household check to make sure everything is working right" everything was working just fine before my services was cut off. I am very upset with this company, and to make things worse, I think they are the only gas providers in my area, so that means I am stuck with them!-

They mis-read my meter and mis-charged me over $1, 600 in March and turned off my heat It took me weeks to get the heat back on after paying the erroneous charge. they then acknowledged that the charge was in error but I STILL haven't gotten my money back and it's AUGUST!

This company's abuses are CRIMINAL and they need to be shut down!

This company is Trash, and I wish I could switch to another company and never have to deal with them again.

Be warned- Centerpoint WILL NOT wait if they show up at your house and you are not there. If they call ahead and you miss the call they wont answer a return call. You will have to call in and wait and waste more time with terrible customer service and try again tommorow. I have recently waited 5 days for my gas to be turned on (in the winter!) I think it is TERRIBLE that even during the winter when people are relying on them, they do not respond same day.

when arre they goin toput ligth in my apt

Our power went out last Saturday morning when Ike hit; when I went out to inspect the damage on Sunday afternoon, there were downed, live power lines in my front yard. I had heard on the radio to report any downed power lines that seemed to be an emergency and I did, here it is a week later and no one from Centerpoint energy has even come out to take a look. I called them three times this week and explained to them that at one point the lines were sparking and that there were dried leaves and trees all around it and still nothing. I finally grabbed a rope, handsaw and a wooden pole and cleared the branches, leaves and parts of trees my self and removed the power lines my self. I got tired of calling Centerpoint so I called Reliant Energy directly and explained to them my situation and all they had to say was that I had a bill due on the 18th of this month, I told them that the weren’t getting one cent from me until my power was restored

It would seem to me that if all Centerpoint had to do was come out and reconnect someone's service that they would take care of these service calls first. Why have someone sit at home from 8am to 5pm for them to show up at 4:45 and be finished at 4:46?

OK -- my wife rushed home. And no one came. They told her a tech would have left a note on the door. She waited and waited. Finally she called back, and the cus serv rep said that he (the field rep) did go by. Wife wife asked what she could do -- they stated that it would cost $47.00 for the tech to come back out today.

Susan -- this is absolutely HORRIBLE…. This is a blatent disrespect for humanity…

Who can help?

Thank You,

Court Fountain
INSIDE SALES / ACCOUNT MANAGER
DELL | Corporate Business Group
court_fountain@dell.com
800.999.3355 X 72-43269
FAX 888*372*3355

_____________________________________________
From: Fountain, Court
Sent: Friday, May 16, 2008 11:05 AM
To: 'Mayor_Council_Info@ci.san-marcos.tx.us'
Cc: 'Fountain, Valerie'; 'val_fountain@yahoo.com'
Subject: Centerpoint Energy / crooks

Mayor Susan Clifford-Narvaiz,

I would like to draw visibility to Centerpoint Energy and their complete lack of consideration for the residents of San Marcos. On several ocassions we have had a very difficult time getting our service connected. Centerpoint makes it very hard to automate payments, and its clear that they WANT residents to miss payment so they can collect various re-connect charges.

We have very small children and have been left without heat in the winter, and as of yesterday - without warm warter. We presently have a child that is 1, and she fell ill yesterday. Upon my wife arriving home from work and without warning - the gas was off. This has only happened twice in 6 years, but when It does happen it takes an act of congress and extreme patience to get the gas turned back on.

Centerpoint will not set a time to re-connect and they expect you to be home between the hours of 8 and 5. My wife took the day off, but had to make 1 doctor's appoinment for our baby today. While at the doctor, she received the call. She explained to Centerpoint her delimma, but their only response was that if she didn’t get there in 30 minutes, that we would have to reschedule for next week -- to undergo the weekend without hot water and no gas to cook with.

Yesterday, as my wife tried to escilate her call to gain tractoin on a same day appointment, the customer service rep threatened to extend our appointment for reconnect by two days. This was a blatent threat. When you try to get through their service dpt, it's incredibly hard to get to people that will actually help you. They will even hang up on ocassion.

Centerpoint can do this because there is no other option for San Marcos Residents. I have tried to get responses from the Governing Bodies of Centerpoint, with no success. They can do anything they want to us, and leave your town without every day needs.

San Marcos should have some control over this. The San Marcos Government should be able to address these issues and get condsideration from Centerpoint. Your residents get absoltely nothing from them.

It would be nice to leverage a campaign to go back to electric, and retrofit one neighborhood after another - shutting this crooked company down in our area.

Does the City have any leverage to help get our voices heard?

Sincerely,

Court Fountain
Resident
512.787.3974

I couldn't even begin to tell you the problem I've had getting Centerpoint out to reconnect gas service. After over 8 calls and over 3 hours of talking, promises from supervisors unfulfilled, who will also not let me speak to a call center managerabout all the problems I'm having with their lying and inability to take care of their customers, we still have not been reconnected. If they fulfill thier "new" scheduled date of Monday, we will have been without heat and hot showers for 5 days even though my account is current. I would agree that all they are is a monopoly bully in great need of competition in our area. Customer service basically is no longer about customers.

Centerpoint is a big bully! I would write to the big executives who run this joke of a company!

MCCLANAHAN DAVID M & REBECCA
3721 TANGLEY RD
HOUSTON TX [protected]

MCGOLDRICK JOSEPH B & JUDY
3811 LOCH GLEN CT
HOUSTON TX [protected]

STANDISH THOMAS R & JOYCE
3224 ROBINHOOD ST
HOUSTON TX [protected]

ROZZELL SCOTT E
8 N WEST OAK DR
HOUSTON TX [protected]